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The Odyssey

By Homer

Translators and scholars have translated the main works attributed to Homer, the Iliad and Odyssey, from the Homeric Greek into English, since the 16th and 17th centuries. Translations are ordered chronologically by date of first publication, with first lines provided to illustrate the style of the translation.

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Project Gutenberg eBook #1727 — plain-text edition
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44 jurisdictions · latest check 31 Aug 2026

author (original classical Greek epic) Homer died -700; translator (English prose) Samuel Butler died 1902; writer of Preface to Second Edition / editor of the 1921 second-edition material Henry Festing Jones died 1928. All identified copyright-relevant edition contributors are beyond the conservative expiry cutoff applied from the cited jurisdictional duration rule as of 2026-08-31.

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The Odyssey

Homer

Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, oh daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them.

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