Quotes from work
The Odyssey (Cowper)

HomérOriginal title Ὀδύσσεια

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other Homeric epic. The Odyssey is fundamental to the modern Western canon; it is the second-oldest extant work of Western literature, while the Iliad is the oldest. Scholars believe the Odyssey was composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek coastal region of Anatolia.The poem mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus , king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed Odysseus has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, the Mnesteres or Proci, who compete for Penelope's hand in marriage.

“Nothing more shameless is than Appetite,
Who still, whatever anguish load our breast,
Makes us remember in our own despite
Both food and drink.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

VII. 216–218 (tr. P. S. Worsley).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“For a guest remembers all his days the hospitable man who showed him kindness.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XV. 54–55 (tr. G. H. Palmer).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Not iron, trust me,
the heart within my breast. I am all compassion.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

V. 190–191 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Iron has powers to draw a man to ruin.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XIX. 13 (tr. Robert Fagles); Odysseus to Telemachus.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Clearly doing good puts doing bad to shame.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XXII. 374 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“How ill, alas! do want and shame agree!”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XVII. 347 (tr. Alexander Pope).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Long nights the now declining year bestows;
A part we consecrate to soft repose,
A part in pleasing talk we entertain;
For too much rest itself becomes a pain.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XV. 392–394 (tr. Alexander Pope).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“The time for trusting women's gone forever!”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XI. 456 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Alexander Pope's translation:
: For since of womankind so few are just,
Think all are false, nor even the faithful trust.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“So nothing is as sweet as a man's own country,
his own parents, even though he's settled down
in some luxurious house, off in a foreign land
and far from those who bore him.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

IX. 34–36 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Welcome words on their lips, and murder in their hearts.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XVII. 66 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“My soul
Shall bear that also; for, by practice taught,
I have learned patience, having much endured.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

V. 222–223 (tr. William Cowper).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Now sure enough the vile man leads the vile!
As ever, god brings like and like together!”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XVII. 217–218 (tr. G. H. Palmer).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Sweet oblivion, sleep
dissolving all, the good and the bad, once it seals our eyes.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XX. 85–86 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Here let us feast, and to the feast be joined
Discourse, the sweeter banquet of the mind;
Review the series of our lives, and taste
The melancholy joy of evils passed:
For he who much has suffered, much will know,
And pleased remembrance builds delight on woe.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XV. 398–401 (tr. Alexander Pope).
E. V. Rieu's translation:
: Meanwhile let us two, here in the hut, over our food and wine, regale ourselves with the unhappy memories that each can recall. For a man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far can enjoy even his sufferings after a time.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Jove weighs affairs of earth in dubious scales,
And the good suffers, while the bad prevails.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

VI. 188 (tr. Alexander Pope).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“It's wrong, my friend, to send any stranger packing—
even one who arrives in worse shape than you.
Every stranger and beggar comes from Zeus
and whatever scrap they get from the likes of us,
they'll find it welcome.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XIV. 56–59 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“I hope nothing valuable may have been taken from the house in spite of you, but you know what women are—they always want to do the best they can for the man who marries them, and never give another thought to the children of their first husband, nor to their father either when he is dead and done with.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XV. 19–23 (tr. Samuel Butler).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“We two have secret signs,
known to us both but hidden from the world.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XXIII. 109–110 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

I. 32–34 (tr. Samuel Butler).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Who, on his own,
has ever really known who gave him life?”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

I. 216 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

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