The Odyssey is also attributed to the blind poet Homer and Butler’s translation was published in 1900. It is a sequel to the Iliad and relates the long journey taken by the Greek hero Odysseus. The Trojan War is now over and Odysseus is returning home with his men. His journey home begins in Troy, but it will last twenty years, during which he faces many trials, including being trapped by the goddess Calypso on an island. Meanwhile, at Odysseus’s home in Ithaca, his wife Penelope is being pestered by numerous suitors, who in the absence of Odysseus, each want to claim her as their bride. However his son, Telemachus believes that his father is still alive and with the assistance of the goddess Athena, he sets out on a journey to find him.
This translation is also subtitled “Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original”.