Customer Reviews

The Odyssey: Books 1-12 (The Loeb Classical Library, No 104)

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Talking to other students of Greek, I'm fascinated by the ambivalence they feel for the Loeb series. For some, to read a Greek text in a Loeb edition is an act of sacrilege for which burning at the stake is not sufficient punishment. According to these Greek students, one should have only the Greek text furnished with an appropriately massive critical apparatus. Amusingly, the one person I know who is most vociferously against the Loeb series was quite upset when, a few months ago, I ran into him at a university bookstore and found, horror of horrors, that he was purchasing a Loeb. Needless to say, I have no such prejudice against the Loeb series and find certain volumes to be quite helpful in learning Greek.

Unfortunately, many of the translations that come alongside the Greek texts in the Loeb series are not particulalry faithful to the original text and are therefore useless if one is looking for a simple crib to help construe the meaning of this or that word or construction.

Fortunately, the translation for the Loeb edition of the Odyssey is a great crib. It is, for the most part, painstakingly faithful to the Greek, although there are a few strange lapses here and there where the translator(s) have decided to add a few words that are not in the Greek.

As for those who are Greekless and are simply looking for an accurate translation of the Odyssey, I'm not sure that I can recommend the translation. On the one hand, it is faithful to the sense of the text, but capture none of the sensuality of the text; that is to say, the rhythm and sound that make Homer so pleasurable are not reproduced in the translation. So, the translation is an excellent crib for construing the sense of Homer's text, but that's the extent of its merit.

Every generation must have its own translations of Homer, but a good place for an aspiring translator to start will always be the Loeb library: translations facing the original Greek, a reasonable price, a cover design that doesn't try to look especially modern. Of course, if you're just looking to read Homer in English, there are better translations (my own personal favorite is Fagles).

Dimock's revision of Murray's translation has updated the text so that it seems a little less archaic. However, as an aid for translation of the Greek, the line by line literal translations have no equals.
Excellent for those learning, or relearning, reading Homeric Greek in the "original"

Murray's translation of the Odyssey was issued in 1919 and several times since.

Dimock's was issued in 1995 (2nd edition).

Dimock's was re-printed "with corrections" in 1998.

If the best text of this version is important to you for scholarship, you want the latest, "corrected" version, not an out-dated second-hand book or a library discard.

I have no opinion on the quality of Greek or the usefulness of the translation for academic purposes, and defer to the other reviewers.

On snobbishness: the Classics Libraries with which I am familiar (at two universities) are chock-full of Loeb and proudly so, it seems. Yale Bookstore stocks them, so they have overcome their rivalry that much. No good reason to be a snob about Loeb--especially if you have little Latin and less Greek.

First off, I'm a HUGE fan of the Loeb Classical Library series--it's the best thing since sliced bread (actually better). After a brief perusal I can say that the translation in this volume is generally helpful and accurate, BUT I just opened up to the start of book 9 (pp. 316-7) and found a glaring error: there is an entire line of Greek (ll. 8-9) that has been omitted from the English translation. On p. 317 after "as they sit side by side," it should say: "and alongside tables filled full of bread and meat." Then continue with the part about the cupbearer.

EDIT: Just noticed that my version is the 1995 edition; perhaps this mistake has been corrected in the 1998 edition?