THE ODYSSEY RENDERED INTO ENGLISH PROSE.
The Odyssey Rendered int ) English Prose. By Samuel Butler. (Longmans and Co. 7s. 6d.)—Mr. Butler includes in his title "for the Use of Those who Cannot Read the Original." And from this point of view his version is at least a possible success. This is a difficult matter to decide. There are but few such readers, and the critic to whom a translation is handed over for appreeia- tion is not likely to be one of them. Still, one can imagine Mr. Butler pleasing people who would not care for the admirable work of Messrs. Butcher and Lang. Admirable it is, but it is not actual human speech ; no one ever talked it; no one would ever write it, except for the one purpose of helping a learner to understand Homer. But Mr. Butler's version is actual speech ; it is sometimes prosaic, but it is vivid, it gives a picture of life painted without any conventional lines or colours. Mr. Butler omits the stock epithets ; he omits other things, sometimes using, we are disposed to think, too much freedom in this respect ; but on the whole he produces a very fair representation of at least some aspects of his original. Here is a specimen of his work Meanwhile the suitors were throwing discs or aiming with spears at a mark on the levelled ground in front of Ulysses' house, and were behaving with all their old insolence. Antinous and Eurymachus, who were their ringleaders and much the fore- most among them all, were sitting together when Noemon son of Phronius came up and said to Antinous, Have we any idea, Ant inous, on what day Telemachus returns from Pylos ? He has a ship of mine, and I want it, to cross over to Elis : I have twelve brood mares there with yearling mule foals by their side not yet broken in, and I want to bring one of them over here and break him.' They were astounded when they beard this, for they had made sure that Telemachus had not gone to the city of Neleus. They thought he I78.14 only away somewhere on the farms, and was with the sheep, or with the swineherd ; so Antinous said, When did he go ? Tell me truly, and what young men did he take with him ? Were they freemen or his own bondsmen—for he might manage that too ? Tell me also, did you let him have the ship of your own free will because he asked you, or did he
take it without your leave ? I lent it him,' answered Noemon, what else could I do when a man of his position said he was in a difficulty, and asked me to oblige him ? I could not possibly refuse ? As for those who went with him, they were the best young men we have, and I saw Mentor go on board as captain-- or some god who was exactly like him.'" But there is something in this passage which suggests a serious eriticism. Mr. Putler has a strange theory as to the authorship
of the Odyssey. It was written, he thinks, by a young Sicilian woman. Now to support this, or indeed any theory of authorship, a clear knowledge of the society of the Homeric age is wanted. Do we find it in this book ? Antinoiis wants to know whom Telemachus had got for the crew. There were three classes,— soi:ipot, freeborn youths, who were their own masters. eijess, who were free in a sense, but adscripti glebae ; and SAZ;;Es, who were absolutely slaves. When Antinotis hears that Telemachus had Koivoi with him he recognises the importance of the fact. The young Prince bad a party in the island; he was not obliged to make up his crew out of his own dependants. But Mr. Butler's version fails to make this clear. There is a strange error in the extract, "May Jove take him before he is f all- grown." Can this possibly be meant for wplv eIv ira007(00.cu? One other criticism we shall make, and this too is suggested by the authorship theory. When Hermes brings to Calypso the message that she must let Ulysses go the poet says, Alynasv ll Kaae44, Mr. Butler translates "She trembled with rage." Surely it was with fear, not rage. She remembers how Orion and lesion, both mortal men loved by goddesses, had perished, and she trembles for her dear Ulysses. The " young woman " would have known this. Besides, the etymology of Pirlow, presumably con- nected with frigus, excludes the idea of rage, which, indeed, the lexicons do not recognise. Mr. Butler has made a serious effort to bring the English reader nearer to.a great classic ; but we are not more disposed than before to see in him an expert in Homeric lore.
Previous page
