Bloomsbury (2014) p/b 352pp £9.82 (9781472532480)
This is a reissue of Hammond’s translation of Homer’s Odyssey from 2000, which must compete with many other translations of the Odyssey available for teachers’ recommendation to classes. It is a prose translation, with helpful layout and useful introduction, clearly presented on the page and well bound in a sturdy cover. It has line numbers next to the text to help students navigate their way through the text and to make precise references. Proper nouns are given in the Greek style, even to the extent that familiar names like Circe become Kirke, which may make things tricky, as traditional English pronunciations will not fit the transliteration on the page; the Cyclops remains the Cyclops however. The old favourite ‘the wine-dark sea’ has gone and the sea becomes sparkling; other formulaic epithets (‘Dawn with her rosy fingers’) are repeated exactly, remaining true to Homer but sitting awkwardly with the modern prose which would not use repeated phrases in the same way.
The aim of the translation is to accurately render the Greek into modern English. The diction throughout is modern with no archaizing or elevated tone apparent, which means that poetry is almost entirely absent. It could certainly be recommended for students working closely with the Greek text for a precise idea of how a passage should be translated; students of Classical Civilisation reading for speed and the story may find it rather flat. Despite the modern idiom the speeches do not sound as though anyone would actually say them, so the text falls between a heightened narrative recitation and a prose text to be read like a novel.
Here is Hammond in the passage where Eurykleia recognises Odysseus:
‘Joy and grief together seized her heart and her eyes were filled with tears, and her strong voice was blocked.’
Compare this to E V Rieu’s more natural rhythms in the Penguin Classics edition: ‘Delight and anguish swept through her heart together; her eyes were filled with tears; her voice was strangled by emotion.’
Neither can get the effect of Fenton in Pope’s version of the Odyssey:
‘Smiles dew’d with tears the pleasing strife exprest/Of grief and joy, alternate in her breast.’
Overall this is a highly professional production, thoroughly recommended.
John Bulwer—Euroclassica