The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original
Homer (-751–-651), -750
★ 3.86 from 1.3m ratings on Goodreads
A homecoming story where the hero keeps losing ships, men and years, told through monsters, goddesses and one patient wife. Butler's plain prose reads like a travel narrative. Butler's plain prose carries you through shipwrecks, monsters and long sea roads, with home and longing always pulling underneath.
Feels like wonder, longing and joy. About home, adventure and identity.
Who it’s for
You may like this if you want a direct, story-first route into an old epic, especially one centered on family and return. Be aware that the poem includes violent episodes and some uneven pacing, and that Butler's 1900 prose will suit some readers better than others.
Why read it
It offers a clear way into a foundational homecoming story, with adventure, grief and recognition enough to keep the old poem close.
Pages from the book
Reaching for someone you love and closing your arms on air.
“Then I tried to find some way of embracing my poor mother’s ghost. Thrice I sprang towards her and tried to clasp her in my arms, but each time she flitted from my embrace as it were a dream or phantom, and being touched to the quick I said to her, ‘Mother, why do you not stay still when I would embrace you? If we could throw our arms around one another we might find sad comfort in the sharing of our sorrows even in the house of Hades; does Proserpine want to lay a still further load of grief upon me by mocking me with a phantom only?’ For some people, night is when the day's brave face comes off.
“Stranger, I should like to speak with you briefly about another matter. It is indeed nearly bed time—for those, at least, who can sleep in spite of sorrow. As for myself, heaven has given me a life of such unmeasurable woe, that even by day when I am attending to my duties and looking after the servants, I am still weeping and lamenting during the whole time; then, when night comes, and we all of us go to bed, I lie awake thinking, and my heart becomes a prey to the most incessant and cruel tortures. Why a beggar tells a rich man his luck is borrowed.
Man is the vainest of all creatures that have their being upon earth. As long as heaven vouchsafes him health and strength, he thinks that he shall come to no harm hereafter, and even when the blessed gods bring sorrow upon him, he bears it as he needs must, and makes the best of it; for God almighty gives men their daily minds day by day. What readers say
Readers find the epic surprisingly accessible, exciting, and entertaining, with vivid adventures and mythological encounters. Many also value its homecoming and family drama, while some note violent content, uneven pacing, and translation-dependent enjoyment.
Homer.Samuel Butler, who made this 1900 prose translation, also wrote the satire Erewhon. In The Authoress of the Odyssey he argued the poem was composed by a young woman from Sicily.
Books that feel like this
More by Homer
The Odyssey
Homer, -800
The first great story about a journey home — and every stop along the way is a good reason to give up.
The Iliad
Homer, -750
A war stalled outside a city, a commander's wounded pride, and the best fighter in the army refusing to fight. Seven weeks of rage, grief and armour.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original for me?
- You may like this if you want a direct, story-first route into an old epic, especially one centered on family and return. Be aware that the poem includes violent episodes and some uneven pacing, and that Butler's 1900 prose will suit some readers better than others.
- What is The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original like?
- Butler's plain prose carries you through shipwrecks, monsters and long sea roads, with home and longing always pulling underneath. Feels like wonder, longing and joy. About home, adventure and identity.
- What should I read after The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original?
- If you liked The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original, try The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum), Anne of Avonlea (L. M. Montgomery) and Frankenstein (Mary Shelley).
A taste of the feed
How does an entire civilization exist through a filter of green glass?
Even with eyes protected by the green spectacles, Dorothy and her friends were at first dazzled by the brilliancy of the wonderful City. The streets were lined with beautiful houses all built of green marble and studded everywhere with sparkling emeralds. They walked over a pavement of the same green marble, and where the blocks were joined together were rows of emeralds, set closely, and glittering in the brightness of the sun. The window panes were of green glass; even the sky above the City had a green tint, and the rays of the sun were green.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · L. Frank Baum
A mind wakes up with no history, and nobody to ask.
“But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From my earliest remembrance I had been as I then was in height and proportion. I had never yet seen a being resembling me or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans.
Frankenstein · Mary Shelley
The night the ocean itself began to give off light.
While sailing a little south of the Plata on one very dark night, the sea presented a wonderful and most beautiful spectacle. There was a fresh breeze, and every part of the surface, which during the day is seen as foam, now glowed with a pale light. The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake she was followed by a milky train. As far as the eye reached, the crest of every wave was bright, and the sky above the horizon, from the reflected glare of these livid flames, was not so utterly obscure as over the vault of the heavens.
The Voyage of the Beagle · Charles Darwin
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