Quotes from work
The Odyssey (Cowper)

Homér Original 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.

“Then Ulysses rejoiced at finding himself again in his own land, and kissed the bounteous soil.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XIII. 353–354 (tr. Samuel Butler).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“With many a weary step, and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone;
The huge round stone, resulting with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XI. 593–598 (tr. William Broome); of Sisyphus.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“I’d rather die at sea, with one deep gulp of death,
than die by inches on this desolate island here!”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XII. 351–352 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Shameless they give, who give what's not their own.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XVII. 451–452 (tr. Alexander Pope).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“All ways of dying are hateful to us poor mortals,
true, but to die of hunger, starve to death—
that's the worst of all.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XII. 342–343 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“The chief indignant grins a ghastly smile.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XX. 301–302 (tr. Alexander Pope).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“By god, I'd rather slave on earth for another man—
some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive—
than rule down here over all the breathless dead.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XI. 489–492 (tr. Robert Fagles); Achilles' ghost to Odysseus.
Alexander Pope's translation:
: Rather I'd choose laboriously to bear
A weight of woes, and breathe the vital air,
A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread,
Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead.
With many a weary step, and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone;
The huge round stone, resulting with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground. P. S. Worsley's translation:
: Rather would I, in the sun's warmth divine,
Serve a poor churl who drags his days in grief,
Than the whole lordship of the dead were mine.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)