Homer

Homer (Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος) is best known as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He was believed by the ancient Greeks to have been the first and greatest of the epic poets. Author of the first known literature of Europe, he is central to the Western canon.

Iliad (c. 750 BC)


οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί᾽ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε᾽ ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ᾽ ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι. murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds.
 * Book I
 * Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος
 * Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
 * I. 1–5 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Διὸς δ’ ἐτελείετο βουλή.
 * The will of Zeus was accomplished.
 * I. 5 (tr. Richmond Lattimore).


 * Ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν.
 * King of Men.
 * I. 7; of Agamemnon. Iliad, passim.


 * Παρὰ θῖνα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης.
 * Along the shore of the loud-roaring sea.
 * I. 34.


 * Καὶ γάρ τ' ὄναρ ἐκ Διός ἐστιν.
 * Dreams come from Zeus.
 * I. 63.


 * Ἔπεα πτερόεντα.
 * Winged words.
 * I. 201; Iliad and Odyssey, passim.


 * Ὅς κε θεοῖς ἐπιπείθηται μάλα τ' ἔκλυον αὐτοῦ.
 * If any man obeys the gods, they listen to him also.
 * I. 218 (tr. Richmond Lattimore).


 * Οἰνοβαρές, κυνὸς ὄμματ' ἔχων, κραδίην δ' ἐλάφοιο.
 * You wine sack, with a dog's eyes, with a deer's heart.
 * I. 225 (tr. Richmond Lattimore); Achilles to Agamemnon.


 * Τοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ γλώσσης μέλιτος γλυκίων ῥέεν αὐδή.
 * From whose lips the streams of words ran sweeter than honey.
 * I. 249 (tr. Richmond Lattimore); of Nestor.


 * Οὐδέ τι οἶδε νοῆσαι ἅμα πρόσσω καὶ ὀπίσσω.
 * He lacks the sense to see a day behind, a day ahead.
 * I. 343 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς.
 * Rosy-fingered Dawn.
 * I. 477 (tr. Samuel Butler).

ἀμβρόσιαι δ' ἄρα χαῖται ἐπεῤῥώσαντο ἄνακτος κρατὸς ἀπ' ἀθανάτοιο· μέγαν δ' ἐλέλιξεν Ὄλυμπον. and the immortally anointed hair of the great god swept from his divine head, and all Olympos was shaken.
 * Ἦ καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ' ὀφρύσι νεῦσε Κρονίων·
 * He spoke, the son of Kronos, and nodded his head with the dark brows,
 * I. 528–530 (tr. Richmond Lattimore).

ὡς ἴδον Ἥφαιστον διὰ δώματα ποιπνύοντα. as they watched the god of fire breathing hard and bustling through the halls.
 * Ἄσβεστος δ' ἄρ' ἐνῶρτο γέλως μακάρεσσι θεοῖσιν
 * And uncontrollable laughter broke from the happy gods
 * I. 599–600 (tr. Robert Fagles); whence the expression "Homeric laughter".

εἷς βασιλεύς. one king.'''
 * Book II
 * Οὐκ ἀγαθὸν πολυκοιρανίη· εἷς κοίρανος ἔστω,
 * '''Lordship for many is no good thing. Let there be one ruler,
 * II. 204–205 (tr. R. Lattimore).


 * Μένεα πνείοντες.
 * Breathing fury.
 * II. 536 (tr. Robert Fagles).

οὔ τοι ἀπόβλητ' ἐστὶ θεῶν ἐρικυδέα δῶρα ὅσσά κεν αὐτοὶ δῶσιν, ἑκὼν δ' οὐκ ἄν τις ἕλοιτο. Never to be cast away are the gifts of the gods, magnificent, which they give of their own will, no man could have them for wanting them.
 * Book III
 * Μή μοι δῶρ' ἐρατὰ πρόφερε χρυσέης Ἀφροδίτης·
 * Yet do not bring up against me the sweet favours of golden Aphrodite.
 * III. 64–66 (tr. Richmond Lattimore).

οἷς δ' ὁ γέρων μετέῃσιν ἅμα πρόσσω καὶ ὀπίσσω λεύσσει, ὅπως ὄχ' ἄριστα μετ' ἀμφοτέροισι γένηται. but when an elder man is among them, he looks behind him and in front, so that all comes out far better for both sides.
 * Αἰεὶ δ' ὁπλοτέρων ἀνδρῶν φρένες ἠερέθονται·
 * Always it is, that the hearts in the younger men are frivolous,
 * III. 108–110 (tr. Richmond Lattimore).

τοιῇδ' ἀμφὶ γυναικὶ πολὺν χρόνον ἄλγεα πάσχειν· αἰνῶς ἀθανάτῃσι θεῇς εἰς ὦπα ἔοικεν. the men of Troy and Argives under arms have suffered years of agony all for her, for such a woman. Beauty, terrible beauty! A deathless goddess—so she strikes our eyes! if for long time they suffer hardship for a woman like this one. Terrible is the likeness of her face to immortal goddesses.
 * Οὐ νέμεσις Τρῶας καὶ ἐϋκνήμιδας Ἀχαιοὺς
 * Who on earth could blame them? Ah, no wonder
 * III. 156–158 (tr. Robert Fagles); of Helen.
 * Richmond Lattimore's translation:
 * Surely there is no blame on Trojans and strong-greaved Achaians

καὶ ἔπεα νιφάδεσσιν ἐοικότα χειμερίῃσιν, ἂν ἔπειτ' Ὀδυσῆΐ γ' ἐρίσσειε βροτὸς ἄλλος· οὐ τότε γ' ὧδ' Ὀδυσῆος ἀγασσάμεθ' εἶδος ἰδόντες. and the words came piling on like a driving winter blizzard — then no man alive could rival Odysseus! Odysseus... we no longer gazed in wonder at his looks.
 * Ἀλλ' ὅτε δὴ ὄπα τε μεγάλην ἐκ στήθεος εἵη
 * But when he let loose that great voice from his chest
 * III. 221–224 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Ἠέλιός θ', ὃς πάντ' ἐφορᾷς καὶ πάντ' ἐπακούεις.
 * Helios, Sun above us, you who see all, hear all things!
 * III. 277 (tr. Robert Fagles).

καὶ Πρίαμος καὶ λαὸς ἐϋμμελίω Πριάμοιο. Priam must die and all his people with him, Priam who hurls the strong ash spear!
 * Book IV
 * Ἔσσεται ἦμαρ ὅτ' ἄν ποτ' ὀλώλῃ Ἴλιος ἱρὴ
 * The day will come when sacred Troy must die,
 * IV. 164–165 (tr. Robert Fagles); spoken by Agamemnon.


 * Τῷ μὲν κλέος, ἄμμι δὲ πένθος.
 * Glory to him, but to us a sorrow.
 * IV. 197 (tr. R. Lattimore).


 * Ἀλλ' οὔ πως ἅμα πάντα θεοὶ δόσαν ἀνθρώποισιν.
 * But the gods give to mortals not everything at the same time.
 * IV. 320 (tr. R. Lattimore).

Ἀτρεΐδη ποῖόν σε ἔπος φύγεν ἕρκος ὀδόντων. "What is this word that broke through the fence of your teeth, Atreides?"
 * Τὸν δ' ἄρ' ὑπόδρα ἰδὼν προσέφη πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεύς·
 * Then looking at him darkly resourceful Odysseus spoke to him:
 * IV. 350–351 (tr. R. Lattimore).

οὐρανῷ ἐστήριξε κάρη καὶ ἐπὶ χθονὶ βαίνει. grows until she strides on the earth with her head striking heaven.
 * Ἥ τ' ὀλίγη μὲν πρῶτα κορύσσεται, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα
 * She who is only a little thing at the first, but thereafter
 * IV. 442–443 (tr. R. Lattimore).

οὐδέ τί μιν παῖδες ποτὶ γούνασι παππάζουσιν ἐκ πολέμοιο καὶ αἰνῆς δηϊοτῆτος.
 * Book V
 * Ὅττι μάλ' οὐ δηναιὸς ὃς ἀθανάτοισι μάχηται,
 * No man who fights with gods will live long or hear his children prattling about his knees when he returns from battle.
 * V. 407–409 (tr. Samuel Butler).

ἶσ' ἔθελε φρονέειν, ἐπεὶ οὔ ποτε φῦλον ὁμοῖον ἀθανάτων τε θεῶν χαμαὶ ἐρχομένων τ' ἀνθρώπων.
 * Μηδὲ θεοῖσιν
 * Think not to match yourself against gods, for men that walk the earth cannot hold their own with the immortals.
 * V. 440–442 (tr. Samuel Butler).

καππεσέτην, ἐλάτῃσιν ἐοικότες ὑψηλῇσι. down they crashed like lofty pine trees axed.
 * Τοίω τὼ χείρεσσιν ὑπ' Αἰνείαο δαμέντε
 * So here the twins were laid low at Aeneas' hands,
 * V. 559–560 (tr. Robert Fagles).

ὃς τόσον αὐδήσασχ' ὅσον ἄλλοι πεντήκοντα. Whose shout was as the shout of fifty men.
 * Στέντορι εἰσαμένη μεγαλήτορι χαλκεοφώνῳ,
 * In form of Stentor of the brazen voice,
 * V. 785–786 (tr. Lord Derby).

ἆσσον ἴθ' ὥς κεν θᾶσσον ὀλέθρου πείραθ' ἵκηαι. a mortal born for death—here, come closer, the sooner you will meet your day to die!
 * Book VI
 * Εἰ δέ τίς ἐσσι βροτῶν οἳ ἀρούρης καρπὸν ἔδουσιν,
 * But if you're a man who eats the crops of the earth,
 * VI. 142–143 (tr. Robert Fagles).



φύλλα τὰ μέν τ' ἄνεμος χαμάδις χέει, ἄλλα δέ θ' ὕλη τηλεθόωσα φύει, ἔαρος δ' ἐπιγίγνεται ὥρη· ὣς ἀνδρῶν γενεὴ ἣ μὲν φύει ἣ δ' ἀπολήγει. The wind scatters the leaves on the ground, but the live timber Burgeons with leaves again in the season of spring returning. So one generation of men will grow while another dies. Now green in youth, now withering on the ground: Another race the following spring supplies, They fall successive, and successive rise: So generations in their course decay; So flourish these, when those are past away.
 * Οἵη περ φύλλων γενεὴ τοίη δὲ καὶ ἀνδρῶν.
 * As is the generation of leaves, so is that of humanity.
 * VI. 146–149 (tr. R. Lattimore); Glaucus to Diomed.
 * Alexander Pope's translation:
 * Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,

and hold your head up high above the others.'''
 * Αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν καὶ ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι ἄλλων.
 * '''Now always be the best, my boy, the bravest,
 * VI. 208 (tr. Robert Fagles).

χεῖράς τ' ἀλλήλων λαβέτην καὶ πιστώσαντο· ἔνθ' αὖτε Γλαύκῳ Κρονίδης φρένας ἐξέλετο Ζεύς, ὃς πρὸς Τυδεΐδην Διομήδεα τεύχε' ἄμειβε χρύσεα χαλκείων, ἑκατόμβοι' ἐννεαβοίων. gripped each other's hands and exchanged the promise of friendship; but Zeus the son of Kronos stole away the wits of Glaukos who exchanged with Diomedes the son of Tydeus armour of gold for bronze, for nine oxen's worth the worth of a hundred.
 * Ὣς ἄρα φωνήσαντε καθ' ἵππων ἀΐξαντε
 * So they spoke, and both springing down from behind their horses
 * VI. 232–236 (tr. R. Lattimore).


 * Ἀνδρὶ δὲ κεκμηῶτι μένος μέγα οἶνος ἀέξει.
 * When a Man's exhausted, wine will build his strength.
 * VI. 261 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Νίκη δ᾽ ἐπαμείβεται ἄνδρας.
 * Victory passes back and forth between men.
 * VI. 339 (tr. R. Lattimore); Paris contemplates the fickleness of victory as he prepares to go into battle.

'He is better by far than his father.'
 * Καί ποτέ τις εἴποι πατρός γ' ὅδε πολλὸν ἀμείνων.
 * And some day let them say of him:
 * VI. 479 (tr. R. Lattimore).




 * Δακρυόεν γελάσασα.
 * Smiling through tears.
 * VI. 484 (tr. Lord Derby); of Andromache.

οὐ κακὸν οὐδὲ μὲν ἐσθλόν, ἐπὴν τὰ πρῶτα γένηται. neither brave man nor coward, I tell you— it's born with us the day that we are born.
 * Μοῖραν δ' οὔ τινά φημι πεφυγμένον ἔμμεναι ἀνδρῶν,
 * And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it,
 * VI. 488–489 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Book VII
 * Αἴδεσθεν μὲν ἀνήνασθαι, δεῖσαν δ' ὑποδέχθαι.
 * Ashamed to decline the challenge, yet fearing to accept it.
 * VII. 93 (tr. Samuel Butler).

ἥμενοι αὖθι ἕκαστοι ἀκήριοι ἀκλεὲς αὔτως.
 * Ἀλλ' ὑμεῖς μὲν πάντες ὕδωρ καὶ γαῖα γένοισθε
 * May you be turned every man of you into earth and water as you sit spiritless and inglorious in your places.
 * VII. 99–100 (tr. Samuel Butler).

καρπῷ βριθομένη νοτίῃσί τε εἰαρινῇσιν, ὣς ἑτέρωσ' ἤμυσε κάρη πήληκι βαρυνθέν. bends beneath the weight of its yield and the rains of springtime; so his head bent slack to one side beneath the helm's weight. Decline the head, and drooping kiss the plain, — So sinks the youth; his beauteous head, depressed Beneath his helmet, drops upon his breast.
 * Book VIII
 * Μήκων δ' ὡς ἑτέρωσε κάρη βάλεν, ἥ τ' ἐνὶ κήπῳ
 * He bent drooping his head to one side, as a garden poppy
 * VIII. 306–308 (tr. R. Lattimore); the death of Gorgythion.
 * Alexander Pope's translation:
 * As full-blown poppies, overcharged with rain,

ἕλκον νύκτα μέλαιναν ἐπὶ ζείδωρον ἄρουραν. drawing the dark night across the grain-giving earth.
 * Ἐν δ' ἔπεσ' Ὠκεανῷ λαμπρὸν φάος ἠελίοιο
 * Now down in the Ocean sank the fiery light of day,
 * VIII. 485–486 (tr. Robert Fagles).

φαίνετ' ἀριπρεπέα, ὅτε τ' ἔπλετο νήνεμος αἰθήρ· ἔκ τ' ἔφανεν πᾶσαι σκοπιαὶ καὶ πρώονες ἄκροι καὶ νάπαι· οὐρανόθεν δ' ἄρ' ὑπεῤῥάγη ἄσπετος αἰθήρ, πάντα δὲ εἴδεται ἄστρα, γέγηθε δέ τε φρένα ποιμήν. round the moon's brilliance blaze in all their glory when the air falls to a sudden, windless calm... all the lookout peaks stand out and the jutting cliffs and the steep ravines and down from the high heavens bursts the boundless, bright air and all the stars shine clear and the shepherd's heart exults. O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light, When not a breath disturbs the deep serene, And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene; Around her throne the vivid planets roll, And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole, O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed, And tip with silver every mountain's head; Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise, A flood of glory bursts from all the skies.
 * Ὡς δ' ὅτ' ἐν οὐρανῷ ἄστρα φαεινὴν ἀμφὶ σελήνην
 * As stars in the night sky glittering
 * VIII. 551–555 (tr. Robert Fagles).
 * Alexander Pope's translation:
 * As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,


 * Book IX

ὃς πολέμου ἔραται ἐπιδημίου ὀκρυόεντος. Unworthy property, unworthy light, Unfit for public rule, or private care, That wretch, that monster, that delights in war: Whose lust is murder, and whose horrid joy To tear his country, and his kind destroy!
 * Ἀφρήτωρ ἀθέμιστος ἀνέστιός ἐστιν ἐκεῖνος
 * Cursed is the man, and void of law and right,
 * IX. 63–64 (tr. Alexander Pope).

ὅς χ' ἕτερον μὲν κεύθῃ ἐνὶ φρεσίν, ἄλλο δὲ εἴπῃ. My heart detests him as the gates of hell.
 * Ἐχθρὸς γάρ μοι κεῖνος ὁμῶς Ἀΐδαο πύλῃσιν
 * Who dares think one thing, and another tell,
 * IX. 312–313 (tr. Alexander Pope).
 * A. H. Chase and W. G. Perry, Jr.'s translation:
 * Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is the man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.


 * Κάτθαν' ὁμῶς ὅ τ' ἀεργὸς ἀνὴρ ὅ τε πολλὰ ἐοργώς.
 * Alike the idlers and the active die.
 * IX. 320 (tr. Lord Derby).

οὔθ' ἑλετή, ἐπεὶ ἄρ κεν ἀμείψεται ἕρκος ὀδόντων. no raiders in force, no trading brings it back, once it slips through a man's clenched teeth.
 * Ἀνδρὸς δὲ ψυχὴ πάλιν ἐλθεῖν οὔτε λεϊστὴ
 * But a man's life breath cannot come back again—
 * IX. 408–409 (tr. Robert Fagles).

ὤλετο μέν μοι νόστος, ἀτὰρ κλέος ἄφθιτον ἔσται. my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies.'''
 * εἰ μέν κ᾽ αὖθι μένων Τρώων πόλιν ἀμφιμάχωμαι,
 * '''If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy,
 * IX. 412-413 (tr. Robert Fagles); spoken by Achilles.


 * Μύθων τε ῥητῆρ' ἔμεναι πρηκτῆρά τε ἔργων.
 * Be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.
 * IX. 443 (tr. Andrew Lang).

χωλαί τε ῥυσαί τε παραβλῶπές τ' ὀφθαλμώ, αἵ ῥά τε καὶ μετόπισθ' ἄτης ἀλέγουσι κιοῦσαι. Lame are their feet, and wrinkled is their face; With humble mien, and with dejected eyes, Constant they follow where Injustice flies.
 * Καὶ γάρ τε λιταί εἰσι Διὸς κοῦραι μεγάλοιο
 * Prayers are Jove's daughters, of celestial race,
 * IX. 498–500 (tr. Alexander Pope).

...ὄλεθρος...Ἀχαιοῖς ἠὲ βιῶναι.
 * Book X
 * Ἐπὶ ξυροῦ ἵσταται ἀκμῆς
 * Life and death are balanced as it were on the edge of a razor.
 * X. 173–174 (tr. Samuel Butler).

ἰούς τ' ἐκτάμνειν ἐπί τ' ἤπια φάρμακα πάσσειν.
 * Book XI
 * Ἰητρὸς γὰρ ἀνὴρ πολλῶν ἀντάξιος ἄλλων
 * A physician is worth more than several other men put together, for he can cut out arrows and spread healing herbs.
 * XI. 514–515 (tr. Samuel Butler).

Fight for your country—that is the best, the only omen!
 * Book XII
 * Εἷς οἰωνὸς ἄριστος ἀμύνεσθαι περὶ πάτρης.
 * Bird-signs!
 * XII. 243 (tr. Robert Fagles).

αἰεὶ δὴ μέλλοιμεν ἀγήρω τ' ἀθανάτω τε ἔσσεσθ', οὔτέ κεν αὐτὸς ἐνὶ πρώτοισι μαχοίμην οὔτέ κε σὲ στέλλοιμι μάχην ἐς κυδιάνειραν· νῦν δ' ἔμπης γὰρ κῆρες ἐφεστᾶσιν θανάτοιο μυρίαι, ἃς οὐκ ἔστι φυγεῖν βροτὸν οὐδ' ὑπαλύξαι, ἴομεν ἠέ τῳ εὖχος ὀρέξομεν ἠέ τις ἡμῖν. would be able to live on forever, ageless, immortal, so neither would I myself go on fighting in the foremost, nor would I urge you into the fighting where men win glory. But now, seeing that the spirits of death stand close about us in their thousands, no man can turn aside or escape them, let us go on and win glory for ourselves, or yield it to others.
 * Ὦ πέπον εἰ μὲν γὰρ πόλεμον περὶ τόνδε φυγόντε
 * Man, supposing you and I, escaping this battle,
 * XII. 322–328 (tr. R. Lattimore); Sarpedon to Glaukos.


 * Book XIII

ἀσπὶς ἄρ' ἀσπίδ' ἔρειδε, κόρυς κόρυν, ἀνέρα δ' ἀνήρ. leaned on buckler, helmet on helmet, man against man.
 * Φράξαντες δόρυ δουρί, σάκος σάκεϊ προθελύμνῳ·
 * Locking spear by spear, shield against shield at the base, so buckler
 * XIII, 130–131 (tr. R. Lattimore).

πεῖραρ ἐπαλλάξαντες ἐπ' ἀμφοτέροισι τάνυσσαν ἄῤῥηκτόν τ' ἄλυτόν τε, τὸ πολλῶν γούνατ' ἔλυσεν. strangling both sides at once by stretching the mighty cable, never broken, never slipped, that snapped the knees of thousands.
 * Τοὶ δ' ἔριδος κρατερῆς καὶ ὁμοιΐου πτολέμοιο
 * Both gods knotted the rope of strife and leveling war,
 * XIII. 358–360 (tr. Robert Fagles).

ἄλλῳ δ' ὀρχηστύν, ἑτέρῳ κίθαριν καὶ ἀοιδήν, ἄλλῳ δ' ἐν στήθεσσι τιθεῖ νόον εὐρύοπα Ζεὺς ἐσθλόν, τοῦ δέ τε πολλοὶ ἐπαυρίσκοντ' ἄνθρωποι. To some, sweet music, and the charm of song; To few, and wondrous few, has Jove assigned A wise, extensive, all-considering mind.
 * Ἄλλῳ μὲν γὰρ ἔδωκε θεὸς πολεμήϊα ἔργα,
 * To some the powers of bloody war belong,
 * XIII. 730–733 (tr. Alexander Pope).

βέλτερον ὃς φεύγων προφύγῃ κακὸν ἠὲ ἁλώῃ. fleeing disaster, even in pitch darkness. Better to flee from death than feel its grip. The man does better who runs from disaster than he who is caught by it.
 * Book XIV
 * Οὐ γάρ τις νέμεσις φυγέειν κακόν, οὐδ' ἀνὰ νύκτα.
 * No shame in running,
 * XIV. 80–81 (tr. Robert Fagles).
 * Richmond Lattimore's translation:
 * There is no shame in running, even by night, from disaster.



πάρφασις, ἥ τ' ἔκλεψε νόον πύκα περ φρονεόντων. the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover's whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad. To win the wisest, and the coldest warm: Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire, The kind deceit, the still reviving fire, Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs, Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.
 * Ἔνθ' ἔνι μὲν φιλότης, ἐν δ' ἵμερος, ἐν δ' ὀαριστὺς
 * There is the heat of Love,
 * XIV. 216–217 (tr. Robert Fagles).
 * Alexander Pope's translation:
 * In this was every art, and every charm,


 * Ἔνθ' Ὕπνῳ ξύμβλητο κασιγνήτῳ Θανάτοιο.
 * There she encountered Sleep, the brother of Death.
 * XIV. 231 (tr. R. Lattimore).


 * Ὕπνε ἄναξ πάντων τε θεῶν πάντων τ' ἀνθρώπων.
 * Sleep, universal king of gods and men.
 * XIV. 233 (tr. Lord Derby).


 * Book XV


 * Ῥεῖα δ' ἀρίγνωτος Διὸς ἀνδράσι γίγνεται ἀλκή.
 * Easily seen is the strength that is given from Zeus to mortals.
 * XV. 490 (tr. R. Lattimore).

τεθνάμεν. Who for his country falls.'''
 * Οὔ οἱ ἀεικὲς ἀμυνομένῳ περὶ πάτρης
 * '''A glorious death is his
 * XV. 496–497 (tr. Lord Derby); spoken by Hector.

φευγόντων δ' οὔτ' ἂρ κλέος ὄρνυται οὔτέ τις ἀλκή. The brave live glorious, or lamented die; The wretch who trembles in the field of fame, Meets death, and worse than death, eternal shame.
 * Αἰδομένων δ' ἀνδρῶν πλέονες σόοι ἠὲ πέφανται·
 * On valour's side the odds of combat lie,
 * XV. 563–564 (tr. Alexander Pope).

ἡμετέρας, νῦν αὐτὸς ἐποτρύνει καὶ ἀνώγει. it's Zeus who drives us, hurls us on today!
 * Ἀλλ' εἰ δή ῥα τότε βλάπτε φρένας εὐρύοπα Ζεὺς
 * Oh but if Zeus's lightning blinded us those days,
 * XV. 724–725 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Book XVI
 * Ἐν γὰρ χερσὶ τέλος πολέμου, ἐπέων δ' ἐνὶ βουλῇ.
 * The proof of battle is action, proof of words, debate.
 * XVI. 630 (tr. Robert Fagles).

ὕπνῳ καὶ θανάτῳ διδυμάοσιν, οἵ ῥά μιν ὦκα θήσουσ' ἐν Λυκίης εὐρείης πίονι δήμῳ. of Sleep and Death, who are twin brothers, and these two shall lay him down presently within the rich countryside of broad Lykia.
 * Πέμπε δέ μιν πομποῖσιν ἅμα κραιπνοῖσι φέρεσθαι
 * Then give him into the charge of swift messengers to carry him,
 * XVI. 671–673 (tr. R. Lattimore).


 * Ἀλλ' αἰεί τε Διὸς κρείσσων νόος ἠέ περ ἀνδρῶν.
 * But the will of Zeus will always overpower the will of men.
 * XVI. 688 (tr. Robert Fagles).

κεῖτο μέγας μεγαλωστί, λελασμένος ἱπποσυνάων. mightily in his might, his horsemanship all forgotten.
 * Ὃ δ' ἐν στροφάλιγγι κονίης
 * He in the turning dust lay
 * XVI. 775–776 (tr. R. Lattimore).


 * I am foremost of all the Trojan warriors to stave the day of bondage from off them; as for you, vultures shall devour you here.
 * XVI (tr. Samuel Butler); Hector to Patroclus.


 * I say further, and lay my saying to your heart, you too shall live but for a little season; death and the day of your doom are close upon you, and they will lay you low by the hand of Achilles son of Aiakos.
 * XVI (tr. S. Butler); Patroclus to Hector.


 * Book XVII


 * Ῥεχθὲν δέ τε νήπιος ἔγνω.
 * Once a thing has been done, the fool sees it.
 * XVII. 32 (tr. R. Lattimore).

πάντων, ὅσσά τε γαῖαν ἔπι πνείει τε καὶ ἕρπει. there is not anywhere a thing more dismal than man is. of all that breathe and crawl across the earth.
 * Οὐ μὲν γάρ τί πού ἐστιν ὀϊζυρώτερον ἀνδρὸς
 * Among all creatures that breathe on earth and crawl on it
 * XVII. 446–447 (tr. R. Lattimore); Zeus.
 * Robert Fagles's translation:
 * There is nothing alive more agonized than man


 * Ἥσω γὰρ καὶ ἐγώ, τὰ δέ κεν Διὶ πάντα μελήσει.
 * I'll fling a spear myself and leave the rest to Zeus.
 * XVII. 515 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Book XVIII

καὶ χόλος, ὅς τ' ἐφέηκε πολύφρονά περ χαλεπῆναι, ὅς τε πολὺ γλυκίων μέλιτος καταλειβομένοιο ἀνδρῶν ἐν στήθεσσιν ἀέξεται ἠΰτε καπνός. and anger that drives the sanest man to flare in outrage— bitter gall, sweeter than dripping streams of honey, that swarms in people's chests and blinds like smoke.
 * Ὡς ἔρις ἔκ τε θεῶν ἔκ τ' ἀνθρώπων ἀπόλοιτο
 * If only strife could die from the lives of gods and men
 * XVIII. 107–110 (tr. Robert Fagles); spoken by Achilles.


 * Ἀλλ' οὐ Ζεὺς ἄνδρεσσι νοήματα πάντα τελευτᾷ.
 * But Zeus does not bring to accomplishment all thoughts in men's minds.
 * XVIII. 328 (tr. R. Lattimore).


 * Book XIX
 * Θεὸς διὰ πάντα τελευτᾷ.
 * It is the god who accomplishes all things.
 * XIX. 90 (tr. R. Lattimore).

ἄκμηνος σίτοιο δυνήσεται ἄντα μάχεσθαι. long until the sun goes down if he is starved for food.
 * Οὐ γὰρ ἀνὴρ πρόπαν ἦμαρ ἐς ἠέλιον καταδύντα
 * For a man will not have strength to fight his way forward all day
 * XIX. 162–163 (tr. R. Lattimore).

παντοῖοι, ἐπέων δὲ πολὺς νομὸς ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα. of every kind, the range of words is wide, and their variance.
 * Book XX
 * Στρεπτὴ δὲ γλῶσσ' ἐστὶ βροτῶν, πολέες δ' ἔνι μῦθοι
 * The tongue of man is a twisty thing, there are plenty of words there
 * XX. 248–249 (tr. R. Lattimore).

ἔσσεται ἢ ἠὼς ἢ δείλη ἢ μέσον ἦμαρ ὁππότε τις καὶ ἐμεῖο Ἄρῃ ἐκ θυμὸν ἕληται ἢ ὅ γε δουρὶ βαλὼν ἢ ἀπὸ νευρῆφιν ὀϊστῷ. when some man in the fighting will take the life from me also either with a spearcast or an arrow flown from the bowstring.
 * Book XXI
 * Ἀλλ' ἔπι τοι καὶ ἐμοὶ θάνατος καὶ μοῖρα κραταιή·
 * There shall be a dawn or an afternoon or a noontime
 * XXI. 110 (tr. R. Lattimore); spoken by Achilles.

ἔμμεναι, εἰ δὴ σοί γε βροτῶν ἕνεκα πτολεμίξω δειλῶν, οἳ φύλλοισιν ἐοικότες ἄλλοτε μέν τε ζαφλεγέες τελέθουσιν ἀρούρης καρπὸν ἔδοντες, ἄλλοτε δὲ φθινύθουσιν ἀκήριοι. if I am to fight even you for the sake of insignificant mortals, who are as leaves are, and now flourish and grow warm with life, and feed on what the ground gives, but then again fade away and are dead.
 * Ἐννοσίγαι' οὐκ ἄν με σαόφρονα μυθήσαιο
 * Shaker of the earth, you would have me be as one without prudence
 * XXI. 462–466 (tr. R. Lattimore); Apollo to Poseidon.

οὐδὲ λύκοι τε καὶ ἄρνες ὁμόφρονα θυμὸν ἔχουσιν.
 * Book XXII
 * Ὡς οὐκ ἔστι λέουσι καὶ ἀνδράσιν ὅρκια πιστά,
 * There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind.
 * XXII. 262–263 (tr. Samuel Butler); Achilles to Hector.

μὴ μὰν ἀσπουδί γε καὶ ἀκλειῶς ἀπολοίμην, ἀλλὰ μέγα ῥέξας τι καὶ ἐσσομένοισι πυθέσθαι. but not without struggle, not without glory, no, in some great clash of arms that even men to come will hear of down the years! Let me at least not die without a struggle, inglorious, but do some big thing first, that men to come shall know of it.
 * Νῦν αὖτέ με μοῖρα κιχάνει.
 * So now I meet my doom. Well let me die—
 * XXII. 303 (tr. Robert Fagles); spoken by Hector.
 * Richmond Lattimore's translation:
 * But now my death is upon me.


 * Μή με κύον γούνων γουνάζεο μὴ δὲ τοκήων.
 * No more entreating of me, you dog, by knees or parents.
 * XXII. 345 (tr. R. Lattimore); Achilles to Hector.

ψυχὴ καὶ εἴδωλον, ἀτὰρ φρένες οὐκ ἔνι πάμπαν. a soul and an image, but there is no real heart of life in it.'''
 * Book XXIII
 * Ὢ πόποι ἦ ῥά τίς ἐστι καὶ εἰν Ἀΐδαο δόμοισι
 * Oh, wonder! '''Even in the house of Hades there is left something,
 * XXIII. 103–104 (tr. R. Lattimore); Achilles after seeing Patroclus' ghost.

μήτι δ' αὖτε κυβερνήτης ἐνὶ οἴνοπι πόντῳ νῆα θοὴν ἰθύνει ἐρεχθομένην ἀνέμοισι· μήτι δ' ἡνίοχος περιγίγνεται ἡνιόχοιο. It is by skill that the sea captain holds his rapid ship on its course, though torn by winds, over the wine-blue water. By skill charioteer outpasses charioteer.
 * Μήτι τοι δρυτόμος μέγ' ἀμείνων ἠὲ βίηφι·
 * The woodcutter is far better for skill than he is for brute strength.
 * XXIII. 315–318 (tr. R. Lattimore).


 * Book XXIV


 * Τλητὸν γὰρ Μοῖραι θυμὸν θέσαν ἀνθρώποισιν.
 * The Fates have given mortals hearts that can endure.
 * XXIV. 49 (tr. Robert Fagles).

χερσὶν Ἀχιλλῆος λάβε γούνατα καὶ κύσε χεῖρας δεινὰς ἀνδροφόνους, αἵ οἱ πολέας κτάνον υἷας. and kneeling down beside Achilles, clasped his knees and kissed his hands, those terrible, man-killing hands that had slaughtered Priam's many sons in battle.
 * Ἄγχι δ' ἄρα στὰς ...
 * The majestic king of Troy slipped past the rest
 * XXIV. 477–479 (tr. Robert Fagles).

ἀνδρὸς παιδοφόνοιο ποτὶ στόμα χεῖρ' ὀρέγεσθαι. I put to my lips the hands of the man who killed my son. I put my lips to the hands of the man who has killed my children.
 * Ἔτλην δ' οἷ' οὔ πώ τις ἐπιχθόνιος βροτὸς ἄλλος,
 * I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before—
 * XXIV. 505–506 (tr. Robert Fagles); Priam to Achilles.
 * Richmond Lattimore's translation:
 * I have gone through what no other mortal on earth has gone through;

ἐν θυμῷ κατακεῖσθαι ἐάσομεν ἀχνύμενοί περ· οὐ γάρ τις πρῆξις πέλεται κρυεροῖο γόοιο· ὡς γὰρ ἐπεκλώσαντο θεοὶ δειλοῖσι βροτοῖσι ζώειν ἀχνυμένοις· αὐτοὶ δέ τ' ἀκηδέες εἰσί. What good's to be won from tears that chill the spirit? So the immortals spun our lives that we, we wretched men live on to bear such torments—the gods live free of sorrows.
 * Ἄλγεα δ' ἔμπης
 * Let us put our griefs to rest in our own hearts...
 * XXIV. 522–526 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Καὶ σὲ γέρον τὸ πρὶν μὲν ἀκούομεν ὄλβιον εἶναι.
 * And you, old sir, we are told you prospered once.
 * XXIV. 543 (tr. R. Lattimore); Achilles to Priam.

Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσε· πολλῶν δ’ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω, πολλὰ δ’ ὅ γ’ ἐν πόντῳ πάθεν ἄλγεα ὃν κατὰ θυμόν, ἀρνύμενος ἥν τε ψυχὴν καὶ νόστον ἑταίρων. driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds, many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea, fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.
 * Book I
 * Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
 * Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
 * I. 1–5 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Αὐτῶν γὰρ σφετέρῃσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὄλοντο.
 * The recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all.
 * I. 7 (tr. Robert Fagles).

ἐξ ἡμέων γάρ φασι κάκ' ἔμμεναι· οἱ δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ σφῇσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὑπὲρ μόρον ἄλγε' ἔχουσιν.
 * ὢ πόποι, οἷον δή νυ θεοὺς βροτοὶ αἰτιόωνται.
 * See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly.
 * I. 32–34 (tr. Samuel Butler).

ἧς γαίης, θανέειν ἱμείρεται. merely to see the hearthsmoke leaping upward from his own island, that he longs to die.
 * Ἱέμενος καὶ καπνὸν ἀποθρῴσκοντα νοῆσαι
 * Such desire is in him
 * I. 58–59 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald).

has ever really known who gave him life?
 * Οὐκ οἶδ'· οὐ γάρ πώ τις ἑὸν γόνον αὐτὸς ἀνέγνω.
 * Who, on his own,
 * I. 216 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Ταῦτα θεῶν ἐν γούνασι κεῖται.
 * These things surely lie on the knees of the gods.
 * I. 267. Cf. Iliad XVII. 514.

οἱ πλέονες κακίους, παῦροι δέ τε πατρὸς ἀρείους. Generally they are worse; but just a few are better.
 * Book II
 * Παῦροι γάρ τοι παῖδες ὁμοῖοι πατρὶ πέλονται,
 * Few sons, indeed, are like their fathers.
 * II. 276–277 (tr. E. V. Rieu).

ἀκραῆ ζέφυρον, κελάδοντ' ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον.
 * Τοῖσιν δ' ἴκμενον οὖρον ἵει γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη,
 * Grey-eyed Athene sent them a favourable gale, a fresh West Wind, singing over the wine-dark sea.
 * II. 420–421 (tr. S. H. Butcher and Andrew Lang).

ἄλλα δὲ καὶ δαίμων ὑποθήσεται. the rest some power will inspire you to say.
 * Book III
 * Τηλέμαχ', ἄλλα μὲν αὐτὸς ἐνὶ φρεσὶ σῇσι νοήσεις,
 * Some of the words you'll find within yourself,
 * III. 26–27 (tr. Robert Fagles); Athena to Telemachus.


 * Πάντες δὲ θεῶν χατέουσ' ἄνθρωποι.
 * All men need the gods...
 * III. 48 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Ψεῦδος δ' οὐκ ἐρέει· μάλα γὰρ πεπνυμένος ἐστίν.
 * He will tell you no lies, for he is an excellent person.
 * III. 328 (tr. Samuel Butler).

κλαίειν, ὅς κε θάνῃσι βροτῶν καὶ πότμον ἐπίσπῃ. τοῦτό νυ καὶ γέρας οἶον ὀϊζυροῖσι βροτοῖσι, κείρασθαί τε κόμην βαλέειν τ' ἀπὸ δάκρυ παρειῶν. for any man gone down to meet his fate. What other tribute can we pay to wretched men than to cut a lock, let tears roll down our cheeks?
 * Book IV
 * Νεμεσσῶμαί γε μὲν οὐδὲν
 * Not that I'd grudge a tear
 * IV. 195–198 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * θεοὶ δέ τε πάντα ἴσασιν.
 * The gods know all things.
 * IV. 468.

θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι σιδήρεος, ἀλλ' ἐλεήμων. the heart within my breast. I am all compassion.
 * Book V
 * Οὐδέ μοι αὐτῇ
 * Not iron, trust me,
 * V. 190–191 (tr. Robert Fagles).

οἴκαδέ τ' ἐλθέμεναι καὶ νόστιμον ἦμαρ ἰδέσθαι. to travel home and see the dawn of my return.
 * Ἀλλὰ καὶ ὧς ἐθέλω καὶ ἐέλδομαι ἤματα πάντα
 * Nevertheless I long—I pine, all my days—
 * V. 219–220 (tr. Robert Fagles).

ἤδη γὰρ μάλα πολλὰ πάθον καὶ πολλὰ μόγησα. Shall bear that also; for, by practice taught, I have learned patience, having much endured.
 * Τλήσομαι ἐν στήθεσσιν ἔχων ταλαπενθέα θυμόν·
 * My soul
 * V. 222–223 (tr. William Cowper).


 * Book VI

ἄνδρα τε καὶ οἶκον, καὶ ὁμοφροσύνην ὀπάσειαν ἐσθλήν· οὐ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ γε κρεῖσσον καὶ ἄρειον, ἢ ὅθ' ὁμοφρονέοντε νοήμασιν οἶκον ἔχητον ἀνὴρ ἠδὲ γυνή· πόλλ' ἄλγεα δυσμενέεσσι, χάρματα δ' εὐμενέτῃσι· μάλιστα δέ τ' ἔκλυον αὐτοί. a home, a husband, and harmonious converse with him – '''the best thing in the world being a strong house held in serenity where man and wife agree.''' Woe to their enemies, joy to their friends! But all this they know best.
 * Σοὶ δὲ θεοὶ τόσα δοῖεν, ὅσα φρεσὶ σῇσι μενοινᾷς,
 * And may the gods accomplish your desire:
 * VI. 180–185 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald); Odysseus to Nausicaa.

ἐσθλοῖσ' ἠδὲ κακοῖσιν, ὅπως ἐθέλῃσιν, ἑκάστῳ.'' And the good suffers, while the bad prevails.
 * Ζεὺς δ' αὐτὸς νέμει ὄλβον Ὀλύμπιος ἀνθρώποισιν,
 * Jove weighs affairs of earth in dubious scales,
 * VI. 188 (tr. Alexander Pope).

ἔπλετο, ἥ τ' ἐκέλευσεν ἕο μνήσασθαι ἀνάγκῃ καὶ μάλα τειρόμενον καὶ ἐνὶ φρεσὶ πένθος ἔχοντα. Who still, whatever anguish load our breast, Makes us remember in our own despite Both food and drink.
 * Book VII
 * Οὐ γάρ τι στυγερῇ ἐπὶ γαστέρι κύντερον ἄλλο
 * Nothing more shameless is than Appetite,
 * VII. 216–218 (tr. P. S. Worsley).

ἀνδράσιν, οὔτε φυὴν οὔτ’ ἂρ φρένας οὔτ’ ἀγορητύν. not build and brains and flowing speech to all.
 * Book VIII
 * Οὕτως οὐ πάντεσσι θεοὶ χαρίεντα διδοῦσιν
 * The gods don't hand out all their gifts at once,
 * VIII. 167–168 (tr. Robert Fagles).

ὅσσοι νῦν βροτοί εἰσιν ἐπὶ χθονὶ σῖτον ἔδοντες. of those who still eat bread upon the face of the earth.
 * Τῶν δ' ἄλλων ἐμέ φημι πολὺ προφερέστερον εἶναι,
 * I far excel every one else in the whole world,
 * VIII. 221–222 (tr. Samuel Butler).

ὡς καὶ νῦν Ἥφαιστος ἐὼν βραδὺς εἷλεν Ἄρηα, ὠκύτατόν περ ἐόντα θεῶν, οἳ Ὄλυμπον ἔχουσιν. Swift vengeance waits; and art subdues the strong! Dwells there a god on all the Olympian brow More swift than Mars, and more than Vulcan slow? Yet Vulcan conquers, and the god of arms Must pay the penalty for lawless charms.
 * Οὐκ ἀρετᾷ κακὰ ἔργα· κιχάνει τοι βραδὺς ὠκύν,
 * Behold on wrong
 * VIII. 329–331 (tr. Alexander Pope).


 * Δειλαί τοι δειλῶν γε καὶ ἐγγύαι ἐγγυάασθαι.
 * Worthless is as worthless does.
 * VIII. 351 (tr. Martin Hammond).

γίνεται, ὅς κεν ἑταῖρος ἐὼν πεπνυμένα εἰδῇ.
 * Ἐπεὶ οὐ μέν τι κασιγνήτοιο χερείων
 * For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother.
 * VIII. 585–586 (tr. G. H. Palmer).

what shall I save for last?
 * Book IX
 * Τί πρῶτόν τοι ἔπειτα, τί δ' ὑστάτιον καταλέξω.
 * Well then, what shall I go through first,
 * IX. 14 (tr. Robert Fagles)

γίνεται, εἴ περ καί τις ἀπόπροθι πίονα οἶκον γαίῃ ἐν ἀλλοδαπῇ ναίει ἀπάνευθε τοκήων. 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.
 * Ὡς οὐδὲν γλύκιον ἧς πατρίδος οὐδὲ τοκήων
 * So nothing is as sweet as a man's own country,
 * IX. 34–36 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Οὖτις ἐμοί γ' ὄνομα.
 * Nobody—that's my name.
 * IX. 366 (tr. Robert Fagles); Odysseus to Polyphemus.

«ὦ φίλοι, Οὖτίς με κτείνει δόλῳ οὐδὲ βίηφιν.» ‘Nobody's killing me now by fraud and not by force!’
 * Τοὺς δ' αὖτ' ἐξ ἄντρου προσέφη κρατερὸς Πολύφημος·
 * ‘Nobody, friends’—Polyphemus bellowed back from his cave—
 * IX. 407–408 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Book X
 * Νεκύων ἀμενηνὰ κάρηνα.
 * The fleeting shadows of the dead.
 * X. 521 (tr. G. A. Schomberg).

νοσφισθείς. On distant shores unwept, unburied lie.
 * Book XI
 * Μή μ' ἄκλαυτον ἄθαπτον ἰὼν ὄπιθεν καταλείπειν
 * His cold remains all naked to the sky,
 * XI. 72–73 (tr. Alexander Pope); of Elpenor.

τρὶς δέ μοι ἐκ χειρῶν σκιῇ εἴκελον ἢ καὶ ὀνείρῳ ἔπτατ'. three times she fluttered through my fingers, sifting away like a shadow, dissolving like a dream. Thrice from my empty arms the phantom flew.
 * Τρὶς μὲν ἐφωρμήθην, ἑλέειν τέ με θυμὸς ἀνώγει,
 * Three times I rushed toward her, desperate to hold her,
 * XI. 206–208 (tr. Robert Fagles); Odysseus attempting to embrace his mother's spirit in the Underworld.
 * Compare Virgil, Aeneid, II. 792–793 (tr. C. Pitt):
 * Thrice round her neck my eager arms I threw;


 * Ὥρη μὲν πολέων μύθων, ὥρη δὲ καὶ ὕπνου.
 * There is a time for many words and there is a time also for sleep.
 * XI. 379 (tr. A. T. Murray).

Think all are false, nor even the faithful trust.
 * Ἐπεὶ οὐκέτι πιστὰ γυναιξίν.
 * The time for trusting women's gone forever!
 * XI. 456 (tr. Robert Fagles).
 * Alexander Pope's translation:
 * For since of womankind so few are just,

ἀνδρὶ παρ' ἀκλήρῳ, ᾧ μὴ βίοτος πολὺς εἴη, ἢ πᾶσιν νεκύεσσι καταφθιμένοισιν ἀνάσσειν. some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive— than rule down here over all the breathless dead.''' 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. 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: Serve a poor churl who drags his days in grief, Than the whole lordship of the dead were mine.
 * βουλοίμην κ' ἐπάρουρος ἐὼν θητευέμεν ἄλλῳ,
 * '''By god, I'd rather slave on earth for another man—
 * XI. 489–492 (tr. Robert Fagles); Achilles' ghost to Odysseus.
 * Alexander Pope's translation:
 * Rather I'd choose laboriously to bear
 * [[File:Punishment sisyph.jpg|thumb|With many a weary step, and many a groan,
 * Rather would I, in the sun's warmth divine,

λᾶαν βαστάζοντα πελώριον ἀμφοτέρῃσιν. τοι ὁ μὲν σκηριπτόμενος χερσίν τε ποσίν τε λᾶαν ἄνω ὤθεσκε ποτὶ λόφον· ἀλλ' ὅτε μέλλοι ἄκρον ὑπερβαλέειν, τότ' ἀποστρέψασκε Κραταιΐς· αὖτις ἔπειτα πέδονδε κυλίνδετο λᾶας ἀναιδής. 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.
 * Καὶ μὴν Σίσυφον εἰσεῖδον κρατέρ' ἄλγε' ἔχοντα,
 * With many a weary step, and many a groan,
 * XI. 593–598 (tr. William Broome); of Sisyphus.


 * Book XII
 * Ὦ φίλοι, οὐ γάρ πώ τι κακῶν ἀδαήμονές εἰμεν.
 * Friends, we're hardly strangers at meeting danger.
 * XII. 209 (tr. Robert Fagles).

λιμῷ δ' οἴκτιστον θανέειν καὶ πότμον ἐπισπεῖν. true, but to die of hunger, starve to death— that's the worst of all.
 * Πάντες μὲν στυγεροὶ θάνατοι δειλοῖσι βροτοῖσι,
 * All ways of dying are hateful to us poor mortals,
 * XII. 342–343 (tr. Robert Fagles).

ἢ δηθὰ στρεύγεσθαι ἐὼν ἐν νήσῳ ἐρήμῃ. than die by inches on this desolate island here!
 * βούλομ' ἅπαξ πρὸς κῦμα χανὼν ἀπὸ θυμὸν ὀλέσσαι
 * I’d rather die at sea, with one deep gulp of death,
 * XII. 351–352 (tr. Robert Fagles).

αὖτις ἀριζήλως εἰρημένα μυθολογεύειν.
 * Ἐχθρὸν δέ μοί ἐστιν
 * I hate saying the same thing over and over again.
 * XII. 453–454 (tr. Samuel Butler).

νήγρετος ἥδιστος, θανάτῳ ἄγχιστα ἐοικώς. soundest oblivion, still as the sleep of death itself...
 * Book XIII
 * Καὶ τῷ νήδυμος ὕπνος ἐπὶ βλεφάροισιν ἔπιπτε,
 * An irresistible sleep fell deeply on his eyes, the sweetest,
 * XIII. 79–80 (tr. Robert Fagles).

χαίρων ᾗ γαίῃ, κύσε δὲ ζείδωρον ἄρουραν.
 * Γήθησέν τ' ἄρ' ἔπειτα πολύτλας δῖος Ὀδυσσεὺς
 * Then Ulysses rejoiced at finding himself again in his own land, and kissed the bounteous soil.
 * XIII. 353–354 (tr. Samuel Butler).

ξεῖνον ἀτιμῆσαι· πρὸς γὰρ Διός εἰσιν ἅπαντες ξεῖνοί τε πτωχοί τε. δόσις δ' ὀλίγη τε φίλη τε γίνεται ἡμετέρη. 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.
 * Book XIV
 * Ξεῖν', οὔ μοι θέμις ἔστ', οὐδ' εἰ κακίων σέθεν ἔλθοι,
 * It's wrong, my friend, to send any stranger packing—
 * XIV. 56–59 (tr. Robert Fagles).

ἀλλὰ δίκην τίουσι καὶ αἴσιμα ἔργ' ἀνθρώπων. They honor justice, honor the decent acts of men.
 * Οὐ μὲν σχέτλια ἔργα θεοὶ μάκαρες φιλέουσιν,
 * The blessed gods have no love for crime.
 * XIV. 83–84 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Ἄλλος γάρ τ' ἄλλοισιν ἀνὴρ ἐπιτέρπεται ἔργοις.
 * Each man delights in the work that suits him best.
 * XIV. 228 (tr. Robert Fagles).

ἠλεός, ὅς τ' ἐφέηκε πολύφρονά περ μάλ' ἀεῖσαι καί θ' ἁπαλὸν γελάσαι καί τ' ὀρχήσασθαι ἀνῆκε, καί τι ἔπος προέηκεν, ὅ πέρ τ' ἄῤῥητον ἄμεινον. under the influence of wine, which makes even the wisest people sing and giggle, and dance, and say things best not spoken.
 * εὐξάμενός τι ἔπος ἐρέω· οἶνος γὰρ ἀνώγει,
 * I want to brag a little. I am dizzy,
 * XIV. 463–466 (tr. Emily Wilson).

οἶσθα γὰρ οἷος θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι γυναικός· κείνου βούλεται οἶκον ὀφέλλειν, ὅς κεν ὀπυίῃ, παίδων δὲ προτέρων καὶ κουριδίοιο φίλοιο οὐκέτι μέμνηται τεθνηότος οὐδὲ μεταλλᾷ.
 * Book XV
 * Μή νύ τι σεῦ ἀέκητι δόμων ἐκ κτῆμα φέρηται.
 * 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.
 * XV. 19–23 (tr. Samuel Butler).

ἀνδρὸς ξεινοδόκου, ὅς κεν φιλότητα παράσχῃ.
 * Τοῦ γάρ τε ξεῖνος μιμνῄσκεται ἤματα πάντα
 * For a guest remembers all his days the hospitable man who showed him kindness.
 * XV. 54–55 (tr. G. H. Palmer).

ξεῖνον ἐποτρύνῃ καὶ ὃς ἐσσύμενον κατερύκῃ. χρὴ ξεῖνον παρεόντα φιλεῖν, ἐθέλοντα δὲ πέμπειν. Who drives the free, or stays the hasty friend: True friendship's laws are by this rule expressed, Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.
 * ἶσόν τοι κακόν ἐσθ', ὅς τ' οὐκ ἐθέλοντα νέεσθαι
 * Alike he thwarts the hospitable end,
 * XV. 72–74 (tr. Alexander Pope).

ἔστι δὲ τερπομένοισιν ἀκουέμεν· οὐδέ τί σε χρή, πρὶν ὥρη, καταλέχθαι· ἀνίη καὶ πολὺς ὕπνος. A part we consecrate to soft repose, A part in pleasing talk we entertain; For too much rest itself becomes a pain.
 * Αἵδε δὲ νύκτες ἀθέσφατοι· ἔστι μὲν εὕδειν,
 * Long nights the now declining year bestows;
 * XV. 392–394 (tr. Alexander Pope).

κήδεσιν ἀλλήλων τερπώμεθα λευγαλέοισι μνωομένω· μετὰ γάρ τε καὶ ἄλγεσι τέρπεται ἀνήρ, ὅς τις δὴ μάλα πολλὰ πάθῃ καὶ πόλλ' ἐπαληθῇ. sit in my cottage over food and wine, and take some joy in hearing how much pain we each have suffered. After many years of agony and absence from one's home, a person can begin enjoying grief. 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.
 * Νῶϊ δ' ἐνὶ κλισίῃ πίνοντέ τε δαινυμένω τε
 * But let us, you and I,
 * XV. 398–401 (tr. Emily Wilson).
 * Alexander Pope's translation:
 * Here let us feast, and to the feast be joined
 * 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.

δάκρυον ἧκε χαμᾶζε· πάρος δ' ἔχε νωλεμὲς αἰεί.
 * Book XVI
 * Υἱὸν κύσε, κὰδ δὲ παρειῶν
 * He kissed his son, and a tear fell from his cheek on to the ground, for he had restrained all tears till now.
 * XVI. 190–191 (tr. Samuel Butler).

ἠμὲν κυδῆναι θνητὸν βροτὸν ἠδὲ κακῶσαι. to exalt a mortal man or bring him low.
 * Ῥηΐδιον δὲ θεοῖσι, τοὶ οὐρανὸν εὐρὺν ἔχουσιν,
 * It's light work for the gods who rule the skies
 * XVI. 211–212 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Κοίτου τε μνήσαντο καὶ ὕπνου δῶρον ἕλοντο.
 * They remembered bed and took the gift of sleep.
 * XVI. 481 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Book XVII
 * Ἔσθλ' ἀγορεύοντες, κακὰ δὲ φρεσὶ βυσσοδόμευον.
 * Welcome words on their lips, and murder in their hearts.
 * XVII. 66 (tr. Robert Fagles).

ὡς αἰεὶ τὸν ὁμοῖον ἄγει θεὸς ὡς τὸν ὁμοῖον. As ever, god brings like and like together!
 * Νῦν μὲν δὴ μάλα πάγχυ κακὸς κακὸν ἡγηλάζει,
 * Now sure enough the vile man leads the vile!
 * XVII. 217–218 (tr. G. H. Palmer).


 * Αὐτὰρ μῆλα κακοὶ φθείρουσι νομῆες.
 * Bad herdsmen waste the flocks which thou hast left behind.
 * XVII. 246 (tr. Worsley).

οὐκέτ' ἔπειτ' ἐθέλουσιν ἐναίσιμα ἐργάζεσθαι· ἥμισυ γάρ τ' ἀρετῆς ἀποαίνυται εὐρύοπα Ζεὺς ἀνέρος, εὖτ' ἄν μιν κατὰ δούλιον ἦμαρ ἕλῃσιν. Their minds no more to righteous courses bend. Half that man's virtue doth Zeus take away, Whom he surrenders to the servile day.
 * Δμῶες δ', εὖτ' ἂν μηκέτ' ἐπικρατέωσιν ἄνακτες,
 * Servants, when their lords no longer sway,
 * XVII. 320–323 (tr. Worsley).


 * Αἰδὼς δ' οὐκ ἀγαθὴ κεχρημένῳ ἀνδρὶ παρεῖναι.
 * How ill, alas! do want and shame agree!
 * XVII. 347 (tr. Alexander Pope).

ἀλλοτρίων χαρίσασθαι.
 * Ἐπεὶ οὔ τις ἐπίσχεσις οὐδ' ἐλεητὺς
 * Shameless they give, who give what's not their own.
 * XVII. 451–452 (tr. Alexander Pope).


 * Εἰ δή πού τις ἐπουράνιος θεός ἐστι.
 * If indeed there be a god in heaven.
 * XVII. 484 (tr. S. H. Butcher and Andrew Lang).

παντοῖοι τελέθοντες, ἐπιστρωφῶσι πόληας, ἀνθρώπων ὕβριν τε καὶ εὐνομίην ἐφορῶντες.
 * Καί τε θεοὶ ξείνοισιν ἐοικότες ἀλλοδαποῖσι,
 * And gods in guise of strangers from afar in every form do roam our cities, marking the sin and righteousness of men.
 * XVII. 485–487 (tr. G. H. Palmer).


 * Book XVIII

πάντων, ὅσσα τε γαῖαν ἔπι πνείει τε καὶ ἕρπει. our mother earth breeds nothing feebler than a man. earth bears none frailer than mankind.
 * Οὐδὲν ἀκιδνότερον γαῖα τρέφει ἀνθρώποιο
 * Of all that breathes and crawls across the earth,
 * XVIII. 130–131 (tr. Robert Fagles). Cf. Iliad, XVII. 446–447.
 * Samuel Butler's translation:
 * Man is the vainest of all creatures that have their being upon earth.
 * Robert Fitzgerald's translation:
 * Of mortal creatures, all that breathe and move,


 * Ἀλλ' ὅ γε σιγῇ δῶρα θεῶν ἔχοι, ὅττι διδοῖεν.
 * Just take in peace what gifts the gods will send.
 * XVIII. 142 (tr. Robert Fagles).


 * Book XIX
 * Αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐφέλκεται ἄνδρα σίδηρος.
 * Iron has powers to draw a man to ruin.
 * XIX. 13 (tr. Robert Fagles); Odysseus to Telemachus.


 * Αἶψα γὰρ ἐν κακότητι βροτοὶ καταγηράσκουσιν.
 * Hardship can age a person overnight.
 * XIX. 360 (tr. Robert Fagles).

αἱ μὲν γὰρ κεράεσσι τετεύχαται, αἱ δ' ἐλέφαντι. τῶν οἳ μέν κ' ἔλθωσι διὰ πριστοῦ ἐλέφαντος, οἵ ῥ' ἐλεφαίρονται, ἔπε' ἀκράαντα φέροντες· οἳ δὲ διὰ ξεστῶν κεράων ἔλθωσι θύραζε, οἵ ῥ' ἔτυμα κραίνουσι, βροτῶν ὅτε κέν τις ἴδηται. one is made of ivory, the other made of horn. Those that pass through the ivory cleanly carved are will-o'-the-wisps, their message bears no fruit. The dreams that pass through the gates of polished horn are fraught with truth, for the dreamer who can see them.
 * Δοιαὶ γάρ τε πύλαι ἀμενηνῶν εἰσὶν ὀνείρων·
 * Two gates there are for our evanescent dreams,
 * XIX. 563–568 (tr. Robert Fagles); spoken by Penelope.

ἀνθρώπους· ἐπὶ γάρ τοι ἑκάστῳ μοῖραν ἔθηκαν ἀθάνατοι θνητοῖσιν ἐπὶ ζείδωρον ἄρουραν. The immortals give each thing its proper place in our mortal lives throughout the good green earth.
 * Ἀλλ' οὐ γάρ πως ἔστιν ἀΰπνους ἔμμεναι αἰὲν
 * But one can't go without his sleep forever.
 * XIX. 592–594 (tr. Robert Fagles).

A little longer to thy purpose cling! ἐσθλῶν ἠδὲ κακῶν, ἐπεὶ ἂρ βλέφαρ' ἀμφικαλύψῃ. dissolving all, the good and the bad, once it seals our eyes.
 * Book XX
 * Τέτλαθι δή, κραδίη· καὶ κύντερον ἄλλο ποτ' ἔτλης.
 * Bear up, old heart! You've borne worse, far worse...
 * XX. 18 (tr. Robert Fagles).
 * P. S. Worsley's translation:
 * Bear up, my soul, a little longer yet;
 * Νύκτας δ' ὕπνος ἔχῃσιν, – ὁ γάρ τ' ἐπέλησεν ἁπάντων,
 * Sweet oblivion, sleep
 * XX. 85–86 (tr. Robert Fagles).

σαρδάνιον μάλα τοῖον.
 * Μείδησε δὲ θυμῷ
 * The chief indignant grins a ghastly smile.
 * XX. 301–302 (tr. Alexander Pope).

ῥηϊδίως ἐτάνυσσε νέῳ περὶ κόλλοπι χορδήν. Unlab'ring strains the chord to a new lyre.
 * Book XXI
 * Ὡς ὅτ' ἀνὴρ φόρμιγγος ἐπιστάμενος καὶ ἀοιδῆς
 * As when in harp and song adept, a bard
 * XXI. 406–407 (tr. William Cowper).


 * Book XXII
 * Ὡς κακοεργίης εὐεργεσίη μέγ' ἀμείνων.
 * Clearly doing good puts doing bad to shame.
 * XXII. 374 (tr. Robert Fagles).

σήμαθ', ἃ δὴ καὶ νῶϊ κεκρυμμένα ἴδμεν ἀπ' ἄλλων. known to us both but hidden from the world.
 * Book XXIII
 * Ἔστι γὰρ ἥμιν
 * We two have secret signs,
 * XXIII. 109–110 (tr. Robert Fagles).

λυσιμελὴς ἐπόρουσε, λύων μελεδήματα θυμοῦ.
 * Ὅτε οἱ γλυκὺς ὕπνος
 * A deep sleep took hold upon him and eased the burden of his sorrows.
 * XXIII. 343–344 (tr. Samuel Butler).

ὡς τὸ πάρος, πλοῦτος δὲ καὶ εἰρήνη ἅλις ἔστω. devoted as in the old days. Let peace and wealth come cresting through the land.
 * Book XXIV
 * Τοὶ δ' ἀλλήλους φιλεόντων
 * Let them be friends,
 * XXIV. 485–486 (tr. Robert Fagles).

Misattributed
μολπῆς τε γλυκερῆς καὶ ἀμύμονος ὀρχηθμοῖο, τῶν πέρ τις καὶ μᾶλλον ἐέλδεται ἐξ ἔρον εἷναι ἢ πολέμου· Τρῶες δὲ μάχης ἀκόρητοι ἔασιν. Their fill of all things, of sleep and love, sweet song And flawless dancing, and most men like these things Much better than war. Only Trojans are always Thirsty for blood!
 * Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing, sooner than of war.
 * A misquotation of:
 * Πάντων μὲν κόρος ἐστὶ καὶ ὕπνου καὶ φιλότητος
 * Men get
 * Iliad, XIII, 636–639 (tr. Ennis Rees)
 * The misquotation implies that an overweening love of war was the norm, whereas the real quote decries the Trojans as inhumane for keeping the war going.

Quotes about Homer

 * O fortunate adolescens, qui tuae virtutis Homerum praeconem inveneris!
 * O happy youth! in having found a Homer to celebrate thy virtues!
 * Alexander the Great at the tomb of Achilles, as quoted by Cicero in Pro Archia 24.


 * Omero poeta sovrano
 * Homer, the sovereign poet.
 * Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia (1321), Inferno, Canto IV, line 88.


 * Ὥσπερ δὲ καὶ τὰ σπουδαῖα μάλιστα ποιητὴς Ὅμηρος ἦν (μόνος γὰρ οὐχ ὅτι εὖ ἀλλὰ καὶ μιμήσεις δραματικὰς ἐποίησεν), οὕτως καὶ τὸ τῆς κωμῳδίας σχῆμα πρῶτος ὑπέδειξεν, οὐ ψόγον ἀλλὰ τὸ γελοῖον δραματοποιήσας· ὁ γὰρ Μαργίτης ἀνάλογον ἔχει, ὥσπερ Ἰλιὰς καὶ ἡ Ὀδύσσεια πρὸς τὰς τραγῳδίας.
 * As, in the serious style, Homer is pre-eminent among poets, for he alone combined dramatic form with excellence of imitation, so he too first laid down the main lines of comedy, by dramatizing the ludicrous instead of writing personal satire. His Margites bears the same relation to comedy that the Iliad and Odyssey do to tragedy.
 * Aristotle, Poetics (tr. S. H. Butcher), section 1448b.


 * Δεδίδαχεν δὲ μάλιστα Ὅμηρος καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ψευδῆ λέγειν ὡς δεῖ.
 * It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skilfully.
 * Aristotle, Poetics (tr. S. H. Butcher), section 1460a.


 * The translator of Homer should above all be penetrated by a sense of four qualities of his author:—that he is eminently rapid; that he is eminently plain and direct both in the evolution of his thought and in the expression of it, that is, both in his syntax and in his words; that he is eminently plain and direct in the substance of his thought, that is, in his matter and ideas; and, finally, that he is eminently noble.
 * Matthew Arnold, On Translating Homer (1861).


 * Homer is the most simple in his style of all the great poets, and resembles most the style of the poetical parts of the Old Testament. They can have no conception of his manner, who are acquainted with him in Mr. Pope's translation only. An excellent poetical performance that translation is, and faithful in the main to the original. In some places, it may be thought to have even improved Homer. It has certainly softened some of his rudenesses, and added delicacy and grace to some of his sentiments. But withal, it is no other than Homer modernised. In the midst of the elegance and luxuriancy of Mr. Pope's language, we lose sight of the old bard's simplicity. I know indeed no author, to whom it is more difficult to do justice in a translation, than Homer.
 * Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (1784), Lecture XLIII: 'Homer's Iliad and Odyssey—Virgil's Aeneid', p. 407.


 * They say no woman could possibly have written the Odyssey. To me, on the other hand, it seems even less possible that a man could have done so. As for its being by a practised and elderly writer, nothing but youth and inexperience could produce anything so naïve and so lovely.
 * Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XII, 'Translating the Odyssey '.


 * Homer's poems were writ from a free fury, an absolute and full soul; Virgil's out of a courtly, laborious, and altogether imitatory spirit: not a simile he hath but is Homer's; not an invention, person, or disposition but is wholly or originally built upon Homerical foundations, and in many places hath the very words Homer useth; ... all Homer's books are such as have been precedents ever since of all sorts of poems; imitating none, nor ever worthily imitated of any.
 * George Chapman, dedication to Achilles' Shield (1598).


 * Of all books extant in all kinds, Homer is the first and best.
 * George Chapman, The Iliads of Homer (1611), Preface to the Reader.


 * Somewhere along the Ionian coast opposite Crete and the islands was a town of some sort, probably of the sort that we should call a village or hamlet with a wall. It was called Ilion but it came to be called Troy, and the name will never perish from the earth. A poet who may have been a beggar and a ballad-monger, who may have been unable to read and write, and was described by tradition as a blind, composed a poem about the Greeks going to war with this town to recover the most beautiful woman in the world. That the most beautiful woman in the world lived in that one little town sounds like a legend; that the most beautiful poem in the world was written by somebody who knew of nothing larger than such little towns is a historical fact.
 * G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man (1925)


 * Mr. Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.
 * Winston Churchill, My Early Life, 1930.


 * Being such an observer he was always making the most unexpected observations, and painting things that were not only unpainted till then but, apparently, unseen by anyone else.
 * Kenyon Cox, Winslow Homer (1914), p. 42.


 * Homer is a world; Virgil, a style.
 * Mark Van Doren, as quoted in Allen Mandelbaum, trans., The Aeneid of Virgil (1971), p. vi.


 * I have found by trial Homer a more pleasing task than Virgil... For the Grecian is more according to my genius than the Latin poet. [...] Virgil was of a quiet, sedate temper; Homer was violent, impetuous, and full of fire. The chief talent of Virgil was propriety of thoughts, and ornament of words; Homer was rapid in his thoughts, and took all the liberties, both of numbers and of expressions, which his language and the age in which he lived allowed him.
 * John Dryden, Preface to Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700).


 * It is hardly possible to overestimate the importance for Western Literature of the Iliad's demonstration that the fall of an enemy, no less than of a friend or leader, is tragic and not comic. With the Iliad, once for all, an objective and disinterested element enters into the poet's vision of human life. Without this element, poetry is merely instrumental to various social aims, to propaganda, to amusement, to devotion, to instruction: with it, it acquires the authority that since the Iliad it has never lost, an authority based, like the authority of science, on the vision of nature as an impersonal order.
 * Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (1957), p. 319.


 * The Homeric epics are the oldest poems in Greek that survive, but certainly not the oldest there were. It is not merely that their structure is too complicated and that we can point to contradictions in their contents; the legend of Homer himself contains many features incompatible with the portrait of the poet which we should construct from the sophisticated, sceptical and even frivolous spirit of the poems. The traditional picture of the blind old singer of Chios is largely made up of memories that go back to the time when a poet was a vates— a priestly and God-inspired seer. His blindness is merely the outward sign of the inward light that fills his being and enables him to see things others cannot see. This bodily infirmity expresses— as does the lameness of the divine smith Hephaestus—a second idea that was current in primitive times, that a maker of poems, ornaments and other products of handicraft can only come from the ranks of those who are unfit for war and foray. But apart from this feature, the legendary ‘Homer’ is an almost perfect example of the mythical poet who was still half-divine, a wonder-worker and a prophet. We find the clearest embodiment of this idea in Orpheus, the primeval singer who had his harp from Apollo and instruction in the art of song from the Muse herself; with his music he could move not merely men and beasts but even rocks and could reclaim Eurydice from the bonds of death. ‘Homer’ no longer boasts such magical power, but still retains the features of an inspired seer and remains conscious of a mysterious and sacred intimacy with the Muse whom he so confidently invokes.
 * Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art, Volume I: From Prehistoric Times to the Middle Ages (1951)

Who, living, had no roof to shroud his head.'''
 * '''Seven cities warred for Homer, being dead,
 * Thomas Heywood, The Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels (1635).


 * The poems of Homer purported to describe events of the early heroic golden age of, but many of the economic customs Homer described were more characteristic of the late barbaric period, just before 800 B.C.(?), when the epics were supposed to have been written. The forms of government and the economy they describe were feudal, and in some respects resembled Europe's Dark Ages. ..."Gifts" often took the place of royal revenues, taxes, and payments. ...Even craftsmen were often paid for their services in "gifts". Royal revenues also were derived from the king's personal estate, the duty of personal service, tribute, the spoils of war, piracy, and cattle raids. Armies lived off plunder; conquerors were free from taxation.
 * Sidney Homer, A History of Interest Rates (1963) p. 32.


 * Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus.
 * I'm aggrieved when sometimes even excellent Homer nods.
 * Horace, Ars Poetica (c. 18 BC), line 359.

That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet never did I breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken.
 * Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
 * John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer (1817)


 * Once the diction has been established it works of itself. Almost anything the poet wants to say, has only to be turned into this orthodox and ready-made diction and it becomes poetry. 'Whatever Miss T. eats turns into Miss T.'
 * C. S. Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942)


 * In the Odyssey one may liken Homer to the setting sun, of which the grandeur remains without the intensity.
 * Longinus, On the Sublime, sec. 9.


 * Poetry changes with every generation, but it does not improve or progress. It just changes its styles, trappings and some of its obsessions, but we can still enjoy Sappho and Homer; they are today's news as much as when they were written or recited.
 * Marge Piercy "WHY SPECULATE ON THE FUTURE?" in My Life, My Body (2015)


 * The first teacher and beginner of all these beauties of tragedy.
 * Plato, The Republic (c. 380 BC), 10. 595c, tr. P. Shorey.

Nature and Homer were, he found, the same.
 * But when to examine every part he came,
 * Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1711), lines 134–135


 * Our author's work is a wild paradise, where, if we cannot see all the beauties so distinctly as in an ordered garden, it is only because the number of them is infinitely greater. It is like a copious nursery, which contains the seeds and first productions of every kind, out of which those who followed him have but selected some particular plants, each according to his fancy, to cultivate and beautify. If some things are too luxuriant it is owing to the richness of the soil; and if others are not arrived to perfection or maturity, it is only because they are overrun and oppressed by those of a stronger nature.
 * Alexander Pope, The Iliad (1727), Preface


 * We acknowledge him the father of poetical diction, the first who taught that language of the gods to men.
 * Alexander Pope, The Iliad (1727), Preface


 * One of the earliest- and perhaps the first-rivals of the hymnology of war, hatred, and revenge made immortal by Homer was the poetry of an Aeolian woman called Sappha by her people but uniformly known to later times as Sappho...Much of Sappho's poetry was of a plaintive tenderness but she had a fervid feeling for love as a saving grace. Several of her feminine disciples also sang of the beauty and healing force of love. Solon the law-giver and Plato the philosopher were deeply affected by her hymns to the great idea of a social power unrecognized by "the Bible of the Greeks": Homer.
 * Mary Ritter Beard, Woman as force in history (1946)


 * The first notable product of the Hellenic civilization.
 * Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy (1945), Part I: The Pre-Socratics, Ch. 1: The Rise of Greek Civilization.

For all things else will seem so dull and poor, You'l wish 't unread; but oft upon him look, And you will hardly need another book.
 * Read Homer once, and you can read no more,
 * John Sheffield, An Essay upon Poetry (1682)


 * The poems of Homer and his contemporaries were the delight of infant Greece; they were the elements of that social system which is the column upon which all succeeding civilization has reposed. Homer embodied the ideal perfection of his age in human character; nor can we doubt that those who read his verses were awakened to an ambition of becoming like to Achilles, Hector, and Ulysses: the truth and beauty of friendship, patriotism, and persevering devotion to an object, were unveiled to the depths in these immortal creations.
 * Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of Poetry (1821)


 * But how did you come to have this skill about Homer only, and not about Hesiod or the other poets? Does not Homer speak of the same themes which all other poets handle? Is not war his great argument? and does he not speak of human society and of intercourse of men, good and bad, skilled and unskilled, and of the gods conversing with one another and with mankind, and about what happens in heaven and in the world below, and the generations of gods and heroes? Are not these the themes of which Homer sings?
 * Socrates, quoted in The Dialogues of Plato: Ion.

In Homer more than Homer knew.
 * As learned commentators view
 * Jonathan Swift, On Poetry (1733), lines 103–104.


 * Facilius esse Herculi clavam quam Homero versum subripere.
 * It is easier to steal the club of Hercules than a line from Homer.
 * Virgil, as quoted in Suetonius, Vita Vergili, 46.


 * Notwithstanding the veneration due and paid to Homer, it is very strange, yet true, that among the most learned, and the greatest admirers of antiquity, there is scarce one to be found who ever read the Iliad with that eagerness and rapture which a woman feels when she reads the Novel of Zaïda... The common part of mankind is awed with the fame of Homer, rather than struck with his beauties.
 * Voltaire, Essay on Epick Poetry (1727).


 * His gods are perhaps at once absurd and entertaining.
 * Voltaire, Essay on Epick Poetry (1727).


 * It was Homer who gave laws to the artist; it was Homer who inspired the poet.
 * Francis Wayland, The Iliad and the Bible, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), pp. 45 & 609.

Translations
The following translations into English have been used for the quotations:
 * The Iliad, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin, 1991), ISBN 978-1101153635
 * The Iliad of Homer, trans. Richmond Lattimore (University of Chicago Press, 1951)
 * The Iliad of Homer, trans. Samuel Butler (1898)
 * The Iliad of Homer, trans. Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf and Ernest Myers (1883)
 * The Iliad of Homer, trans. Edward, Earl of Derby (1864)
 * The Iliad of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (1720)
 * The Odyssey, trans. Emily Wilson (W. W. Norton & Company, 2017), ISBN 978-0393089059
 * The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin, 1997), ISBN 978-1101221846
 * The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fitzgerald (Doubleday, 1961)
 * The Odyssey, trans. E. V. Rieu (Penguin Books, 1946)
 * The Odyssey, trans. Samuel Butler (1898)
 * The Odyssey, trans. George Herbert Palmer (1884)
 * The Odyssey of Homer, trans. Samuel Butcher and Andrew Lang (1879)
 * The Odyssey of Homer, trans. Philip Stanhope Worsley and John Conington (1865)
 * The Odyssey of Homer, trans. William Cowper (1791)
 * The Odyssey of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (1725)