Homer - The Odyssey (Translated by Alexander Pope)

"The thing that best distinguishes this from all other translations of Homer is that it alone equals the original in its ceaseless pour of verbal music. . . . Pope worked miracles in highlighting the play of vowels through his lines. . . . Every word is weighted, with a pressure of mind behind it. This is a poem you can live your way into, over the years, since it yields more at every encounter." -- "On Reading Pope's Homer" New York Times, 6/1/1997 When Alexander Pope's majestic translation of Homer's Odyssey appeared in 1726, his translation of the Iliad had already been acclaimed by Samuel Johnson as "a performance which no age or nation could hope to equal." For the Odyssey, Pope was aided by William Broome and Elijah Fenton. While other translations have since appeared, Pope's is unrivaled in its melodious beauty. Illustrated beautifully by Flaxman, this is the tale of Odysseus’s return from the war at Troy, seeking Ithaca his home and Penelope his wife. Along the way he encount