Homer · -700 · Butler prose translation, 1900
The Odyssey
The Odyssey is Homer’s epic of Odysseus’s ten-year journey home from Troy, past the Cyclops, Circe, and the suitors waiting in his own house. The Historian reading companion in IO reader places Bronze Age warfare and hospitality customs in context as the story goes, in Samuel Butler’s readable public-domain prose translation.
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PART I · PARAGRAPH
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.
Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.
The Odyssey · Homer · tr. Samuel Butler
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The facts
| Length | about 129,600 words · 3,610 sentences |
|---|---|
| In sentence cards | about 241 minutes |
| Difficulty | steady |
| First line | Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. |
| Themes | Books 1–4: Telemachus · Books 5–12: Odysseus's Journey · Books 13–24: The Return |
Is The Odyssey hard to read?
Butler's prose translation reads more like a novel than a poem, which helps. In sentence cards it's about 241 minutes.
Which translation is this?
Samuel Butler's 1900 prose translation, in the public domain.
How long is The Odyssey?
About 129,600 words across 24 books; roughly 3,610 sentences.
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Colophon
Text: Butler prose translation, 1900, from Project Gutenberg (pg:1727). Cover: Standard Ebooks CC0 cover, homer/the-odyssey/william-cullen-bryant — art only, the card's passage is Butler's prose translation. Reviewed 2026-09-04.