Translators and scholars have translated the main works attributed to Homer, the Iliad and Odyssey, from the Homeric Greek into English, since the 16th and 17th centuries. Translations are ordered chronologically by date of first publication, with first lines provided to illustrate the style of the translation.
Not all translators translated both the Iliad and Odyssey; in addition to the complete translations listed here, numerous partial translations, ranging from several lines to complete books, have appeared in a variety of publications.
The "original" text cited below is that of "the Oxford Homer."[1]
Poet | Provenance | Proemic verse | |
---|---|---|---|
Homer | c. 8th century BC Greek rhapsode |
|
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hall, Arthur of Grantham |
1539–1605, M. P., courtier, translator |
1581 | London, for Ralph Newberie |
|
[3] |
Rawlyns, Roger |
1587 | London, Orwin | [4] | ||
Colse, Peter |
1596 | London, H. Jackson | [5] | ||
Chapman, George |
1559–1634, dramatist, poet, classicist |
1611–15 | London, Rich. Field for Nathaniell Butter[6] |
|
[7] |
Grantham, Thomas |
c. 1610–1664 |
1659 | London, T. Lock |
|
[8] |
Ogilby, John |
1600–1676, cartographer, publisher, translator |
1660 | London, Roycroft |
|
[9] |
Hobbes, Thomas |
1588–1679, acclaimed philosopher, etc. |
1676 | London, W. Crook |
|
[10] |
Dryden, John |
1631–1700, dramatist, Poet Laureate |
1700 | London, J. Tonson |
|
[11] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ozell, John | d. 1743, translator, accountant |
1712 | London, Bernard Lintott | ||
Broome, William | 1689–1745, poet, translator | ||||
Oldisworth, William | 1680–1734[12] | ||||
Pope, Alexander |
1688–1744, poet |
1715 | London, Bernard Lintot |
|
[13] |
Tickell, Thomas |
1685–1740, poet |
1715 | London, Tickell |
|
[14] |
Fenton, Elijah |
1683–1730, poet, biographer, translator |
1717 | London, printed for Bernard Lintot | ||
Cooke, T. |
1729 | ||||
Fitz-Cotton, H. |
1749 | Dublin, George Faulkner | |||
Ashwick, Samuel |
1750 | London, printed for Brindley, Sheepey and Keith |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Scott, J. N. |
1755 | London, Osborne and Shipton | |||
Langley, Samuel, |
1720– 1791 Rector of Checkley[15] |
1767 | London, Dodsley | ||
Macpherson, James |
1736–1796, poet, compiler of Scots Gaelic poems, politician |
1773 | London, T. Becket |
|
[16] |
Cowper, William |
1731–1800, poet and hymnodist |
1791 | London, J. Johnson |
|
[17] |
Tremenheere, William, | 1757– 1838 Chaplain to the Royal Navy[18] |
1792 | London, Faulder? | ||
Geddes, Alexander |
1737–1802, Scots Roman Catholic theologian; scholar, poet |
1792 | London: printed for J. Debrett | ||
Bak, Joshua (T. Bridges?) |
1797 | London |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Williams, Peter? | |||||
Bulmer, William [improper synthesis?] |
1757–1830, printer |
1807 |
|
[19] | |
Cowper, William (3rd edition) |
1731–1800, poet and hymnodist |
1809 |
|
[20] | |
Morrice, Rev. James |
1809 |
|
[21] | ||
Cary, Henry |
1772–1844, author, translator |
1821 | London, Munday and Slatter |
|
[22] |
Sotheby, William |
1757–1833, poet, translator |
1831 | London, John Murray | ||
Anonymous
A Graduate Of The University |
1847 | Dublin, Cumming and Ferguson | Sing, Goddess, the fatal resentment of Achilles, the son of Peleus, which caused innumerable woes to the Achaeans, and prematurely despatched many brave souls of heroes to Orcus, and made themselves (i.e. their bodies) a prey to dogs and all birds, (for the counsel of Jove was being accomplished,) from the time that Atrides, king of men, and the noble Achilles, first contending, were disunited. | ||
Munford, William |
1775–1825, American lawyer [23] |
1846 | Boston, Little Brown | ||
Brandreth, Thomas Shaw |
1788–1873, mathematician, inventor, classicist |
1846 | London, W. Pickering |
|
[24] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Buckley, Theodore Alois |
1825–1856, translator |
1851 | London, H. G. Bohn |
|
[25] |
Hamilton, Sidney G. |
1855–58 | Philadelphia | |||
Clark, Thomas | |||||
Newman, Francis William |
1807–1893, classics professor[26] |
1856 | London, Walton & Maberly |
|
[27] |
Wright, Ichabod Charles |
1795–1871, translator, poet, accountant |
1858–65 | Cambridge, Macmillan | ||
[28] | |||||
Giles, Rev. Dr. J. A. [John Allen] |
1808–1884, headmaster, scholar, prolific author, clergyman[29] |
1861–82 |
|
[30] | |
Dart, J. Henry | 1817–1887, East India Company counsel[31] |
1862 | London, Longmans Green |
|
[32] |
Barter, William G. T | 1808–1871, barrister [33][34] |
1864 | London, Longman, Brown, and Green |
|
[35] |
Norgate, T. S. [Thomas Starling, Jr.] |
1807–1893, clergyman[36] |
1864 | London, Williams and Norgate |
|
[37] |
Derby, 14th Earl of Smith-Stanley, Edward 14th Earl of derby |
1799–1869, Prime Minister |
1864 |
|
[38] | |
Simcox, Edwin W. |
1865 | London, Jackson, Walford and Hodder | |||
Worsley, Philip Stanhope | 1835–1866, poet |
1865 | Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood and Sons |
|
[39] |
Conington, John | 1825–1869, classics professor | ||||
Blackie, John Stuart |
1809–1895, Scots professor of classics |
1866 | Edinburgh, Edmonston and Douglas |
|
[40] |
Calverley, Charles Stuart |
1831–1884, poet, wit |
1866 |
|
[41] | |
Herschel, Sir John |
1792–1871, scientist |
1866 | London & Cambridge, Macmillan |
|
[42] |
Omega | 1866 | London: Hatchard and Co. |
|
[43] | |
Cochrane, James Inglis |
1867 | Edinburgh |
|
[44] | |
Merivale, Charles, Dean of Ely |
1808–1893, clergyman, historian |
1868 | London, Strahan |
|
[45] |
Gilchrist, James |
1869 |
|
[30] | ||
Bryant, William Cullen |
1794–1878, American poet, Evening Post editor |
1870 | Boston, Houghton, Fields Osgood |
|
[24] |
Caldcleugh, W. G. |
1812–1872, American lawyer[46][47] |
1870 | Philadelphia, Lippincott |
|
[24] |
Rose, John Benson |
1874 | London, privately printed |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Barnard, Mordaunt Roger |
1828–1906, clergyman, translator |
1876 | London, Williams and Margate | ||
Cayley, C. B. [Charles Bagot] |
1823–1883, translator |
1877 | London, Longmans |
|
[22] |
Mongan, Roscoe |
1879 | London, James Cornish & Sons | |||
Hailstone, Herbert |
Cambridge classicist, poet | 1882 | London, Relfe Brothers |
|
[48] |
Lang, Andrew | 1844–1912, Scots poet, historian, critic, folk tales collector, etc. |
1882[49] | London, Macmillan |
|
[50] |
Leaf, Walter | 1852–1927, banker, scholar | ||||
Myers, Ernest | 1844–1921, poet, classicist | ||||
Green, W.C. |
1884 |
|
[30] | ||
Way, Arthur Sanders (Avia) |
1847–1930, Australian classicist, headmaster |
1886–8 | London, S. Low |
|
[51] |
Howland, G. [George] |
1824–1892, American educator, author, translator[52] |
1889 |
|
[53] | |
Cordery, John Graham |
1833–1900, civil servant, British Raj[54] |
1890 | London |
|
[55] |
Garnett, Richard |
1890 |
|
[56] | ||
Purves, John |
1891 | London, Percival |
|
[57] | |
Bateman, C. W. |
c. 1895 | London, J. Cornish |
|
[40] | |
Mongan, R. | c. 1895 | ||||
Butler, Samuel |
1835–1902, novelist, essayist, critic |
1898 | London, Longmans, Green[58] |
|
[59] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tibbetts, E. A. |
1907 | Boston, R.G. Badges | |||
Blakeney, E. H. |
1869–1955, educator, classicist, poet |
1909–13 | London, G. Bell and Sons |
|
[60] |
Lewis, Arthur Garner |
1911 | New York, Baker & Taylor | |||
Murray, Augustus Taber |
1866–1940, American professor of classics |
1924–5 | Cambridge & London, Harvard & Heinemann |
|
[61] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Murison, A. F. |
1847–1934, Professor of Roman Law, translator, classicist |
1933 | London, Longmans Green |
|
[62] |
Marris, Sir William S. |
1873–1945, governor, British Raj |
1934 | Oxford | ||
Rouse, W. H. D. |
1863–1950, Pedagogist of classical studies |
1938 | London, T. Nelson & Sons |
|
[63] |
Smith, R. [James Robinson] |
1888–1964, Classicist, translator, poet[64] |
1938 | London, Grafton | ||
Smith, William Benjamin | 1850–1934, American professor of mathematics |
1944 | New York, Macmillan | ||
Miller, Walter | 1864–1949, American professor of classics, archaeologist | ||||
Rieu, E. V. | 1887–1972, classicist, publisher, poet |
1950 | Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Penguin |
|
|
Chase, Alsten Hurd | 1906–1994, American chairman of preparatory school classics department[65] |
1950 | Boston, Little Brown |
|
|
Perry, William G. | 1913–1998, Psychologist, professor of education, classicist[66] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lattimore, Richmond |
1906–1984, poet, translator |
1951 | Chicago, University Chicago Press[67] |
|
[68] |
Andrew, S. O. [Samuel Ogden] | 1868–1952, headmaster, classicist [69][70] |
1955 | London, J. M. Dent & Sons |
|
[71] |
Oakley, Michael J. | |||||
Graves, Robert |
1895–1985, Professor of Poetry, translator, novelist |
1959 | New York, Doubleday and London, Cassell |
|
[72] |
Rees, Ennis |
1925–2009, American Professor of English, poet, translator[73] |
1963 | New York, Random House |
|
[72] |
Fitzgerald, Robert |
1910–1985, American Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, poet, critic, translator |
1974 | New York, Doubleday |
|
[74] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hull, Denison Bingham |
1897–1988, American classicist[75][76] |
1982 | |||
Hammond, Martin |
born 1944, Headmaster, classicist |
1987 | Harmondsworth Middlesex, Penguin[77] |
|
[78] |
Fagles, Robert |
1933–2008, American professor of English, poet |
1990 | New York, Viking/Penguin |
|
[79] |
Reck, Michael |
1928–1993, Poet, classicist, orientalist[80] |
1990 | New York, Harper Collins |
|
[81] |
Lombardo, Stanley |
born 1943, American Professor of Classics |
1997 | Indianapolis, Hackett |
|
[82] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Johnston, Ian[83] |
Canadian academic | 2002[84] |
|
[85] | |
Rieu, E. V. (posthumously revised by Rieu, D. C. H. and Jones, Peter) |
1887–1972, classicist, publisher, poet |
2003 | Penguin Books |
|
[86] |
Merrill, Rodney |
American classicist[87] | 2007 | University of Michigan Press |
|
[88] |
Jordan, Herbert |
born 1938, American lawyer, translator[89] |
2008 | University of Oklahoma Press |
|
[90] |
Kline, Anthony S. | born 1947, translator |
2009 |
|
[91] | |
Mitchell, Stephen |
born 1943, American poet, translator |
2011 | Simon & Schuster |
|
[92] |
Verity, Anthony |
born 1939, classical scholar |
2011 | Oxford University Press |
|
[93] |
McCrorie, Edward | born 1936, American poet and classicist | 2012 | The Johns Hopkins University Press |
|
[94] |
Oswald, Alice |
born 1966 British poet, won T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002[95] | 2012 | W. W. Norton & Company | ||
Whitaker, Richard | born 1951, South African classicist, professor of classics |
2012 | New Voices |
|
[96] |
Powell, Barry B. |
born 1942, American poet, classicist, translator |
2013 | Oxford University Press |
|
[97] |
Alexander, Caroline | born 1956, American classicist | 2015 | Ecco Press |
|
[98] |
Blakely, Ralph E. | 2015 | Forge Books |
|
[99] | |
Green, Peter | 1924–2024, British classicist | 2015 | University of California Press |
|
[100] |
Dolan, John | born 1955, poet and author | 2017 | Feral House |
|
[101] |
Wilson, Emily | born 1971, classicist | 2023 | W. W. Norton & Company |
|
[102] |
Poet | Provenance | Proemic verse | |
---|---|---|---|
Homer | c. 8th century BC Greek poet |
|
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chapman, George |
1559–1634, dramatist, poet, classicist |
1615 | London, Rich. Field for Nathaniell Butter |
|
[104] |
Ogilby, John |
1600–1676, cartographer, publisher, translator |
1665 | London, Roycroft |
|
[105] |
Hobbes, Thomas |
1588–1679, acclaimed philosopher, etc. |
1675 | London, W. Crook |
|
[106] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alexander Pope (with William Broome and Elijah Fenton) |
1688–1744, poet |
1725 | London, Bernard Lintot[107] |
|
[108] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cowper, William |
1731–1800, poet and hymnodist |
1791 |
|
[109] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cary, H. F.? (“Graduate of Oxford”) |
1772–1844, author, translator |
1823 | London, Whittaker |
|
[110] |
Sotheby, William |
1757–1833, poet, translator |
1834 | London, John Murray |
|
[111] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Buckley, Theodore Alois |
1825–1856, translator |
1851 | London, H. G. Bohn |
|
[112] |
Barter, William G. T., Esq. |
1808–1871, barrister [33][34] |
1862, in part |
London, Bell and Daldy |
|
[113] |
Alford, Henry |
1810–1871, theologian, textual critic, scholar, poet, hymnodist |
1861 | London, Longman, Green, Longman, and Robert |
|
[114] |
Worsley, Philip Stanhope |
1835–1866, poet |
1861–2 | Edinburgh, W. Blackwood & Sons |
|
[115] |
Giles, Rev. Dr. J. A. [John Allen] |
1808–1884, headmaster, scholar, prolific author, clergyman[29] |
1862–77 |
|
||
Norgate, T. S. [Thomas Starling, Jr.] |
1807–1893, clergyman[36] |
1862 | London, Williams and Margate |
|
|
Musgrave, George |
1798–1883, clergyman, scholar, writer[116] |
1865 | London, Bell & Daldy |
|
[117] |
Bigge-Wither, Rev. Lovelace | 1869 | London, James Parker and Co. |
|
[118] | |
Edginton, G. W. [George William] |
Physician[119] | 1869 | London, Longman, Green, Reader, and Dyer |
|
[120] |
Bryant, William Cullen |
1794–1878, American poet, Evening Post editor |
1871 | Boston, Houghton, Fields Osgood |
|
[121] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Barnard, Mordaunt Roger |
1828–1906, clergyman, translator |
1876 | London, Williams and Margate |
|
[122] |
Merry, William Walter | 1835–1918, Oxford classicist and clergyman |
1876 | Oxford, Clarendon |
|
[123] |
Riddell, James | 1823–1866, Oxford classicist[124] | ||||
Mongan, Roscoe |
1879–80 | London, James Cornish & Sons |
|
[125] | |
Butcher, Samuel Henry |
1850–1910, Anglo-Irish professor of classics |
1879 | London, Macmillan |
|
[126] |
Lang, Andrew | 1844–1912, Scots poet, historian, critic, folk tales collector, etc. | ||||
Schomberg, G. A. |
1821–1907, British Raj army general[127] |
1879–82 | London, J. Murray |
|
[128] |
Du Cane, Sir Charles |
1825–1889, governor, M. P. |
1880 | Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood and Sons |
|
[129] |
Way, Arthur Sanders (Avia) |
1847–1930, Australian classicist, headmaster |
1880 | London, Macmillan |
|
[130] |
Hayman, Henry |
1823–1904, translator, clergyman[132] |
1882 | London |
|
[133] |
Hamilton, Sidney G. |
1883 | London, Macmillan |
|
[134] | |
Palmer, George Herbert |
1842–1933, American professor, philosopher, author |
1884 | Boston & New York, Houghton Mifflin |
|
[135] |
Morris, William |
1834–1896, poet, author, artist |
1887 | London, Reeves & Turner |
|
[136] |
Howland, G. [George] |
1824–1892, American educator, author, translator[52] |
1891 | New York |
|
[137] |
Cordery, John Graham |
1833–1900, civil servant, British Raj[54] |
1897 | London, Methuen |
>
|
[138] |
Butler, Samuel |
1835–1902, novelist, essayist, critic |
1900 | London, Longmans, Green[139] |
|
[140] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Monro, David Binning |
1836–1905, Scots anatomy professor, Homerist |
1901 | Oxford, Clarendon |
|
[141] |
Mackail, John William |
1859–1945, Oxford Professor of Poetry |
1903–10 | London, John Murray |
|
[142] |
Cotterill, Henry Bernard |
1846–1924, essayist, translator[143][144] |
1911 | Boston, D. Estes/Harrap |
|
[145] |
Murray, Augustus Taber |
1866–1940, American professor of classics |
1919 | Cambridge & London, Harvard & Heinemann |
|
[146] |
Caulfeild, Francis |
1921 | London, G. Bell & Sons |
On page viii, Caulfeild gives the scansion in Homer's "original metre" of the third line of his translation as:
|
[147] | |
Marris, Sir William S. |
1873–1945, governor, British Raj |
1925 | London, England, and Mysore, India, Oxford University Press |
|
|
Hiller, Robert H. |
1864–1944, American professor of Greek[148][149] |
1925 | Philadelphia and Chicago, etc., John C. Winston |
|
[150] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bates, Herbert |
1868–1929, novelist, short-story writer |
1929 | New York, McGraw Hill |
|
[151] |
Lawrence, T. E. (T. E. Shaw) |
1888–1935, archaeological scholar, military strategist, author |
1932 | London, Walker, Merton, Rogers; New York, Oxford University Press |
|
[152] |
Rouse, William Henry Denham |
1863–1950, pedogogist of classic studies |
1937 | London, T. Nelson & Sons[153] |
|
[154] |
Rieu, E. V. |
1887–1972, classicist, publisher, poet |
1945 | London & Baltimore, Penguin |
|
[155] |
Andrew, S. O. [Samuel Ogden] |
1868–1952, headmaster [69][70][A] |
1948 | London, J. M. Dent & Sons |
|
[156] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lattimore, Richmond |
1906–1984, poet, translator |
1965 | New York, Harper & Row[157] |
|
[158] |
Rees, Ennis |
1925–2009, American Professor of English, poet, translator[73] |
1960 | New York, Random House |
|
[159] [160] |
Fitzgerald, Robert |
1910–1985, American Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, poet, critic, translator |
1961 | New York, Doubleday |
|
[161] |
Epps, Preston H. |
1888–1982, American professor[162][163][B] |
1965 | New York, Macmillan | ||
Cook, Albert |
1925–1998, professor[164][C] |
1967 | New York, W. W. Norton |
|
[165] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hull, Denison Bingham |
1897–1988, American classicist[75][76] |
1979 | Ohio University Press | ||
Shewring, Walter |
1906–1990, Professor of classics, poet[166] |
1980 | Oxford, Oxford University Press |
|
[167] |
Hammond, Martin |
born 1944, Headmaster, classicist |
2000 | London, Duckworth[168] |
|
[169] |
Mandelbaum, Allen |
born 1926, American professor of Italian literature and of humanities, poet, translator |
1990 | Berkeley, University California Press |
|
[170] |
Rieu, Emile Victor | 1887–1972, classicist, publisher, poet |
1991 | London, Penguin |
|
[171] |
posthumously revised by Rieu, D. C. H. | 1916–2008, Headmaster, classicist | ||||
posthumously revised by Jones, Peter V. | Born 1942 Classicist, writer, journalist | ||||
Fagles, Robert |
1933–2008, American professor of English, poet |
1996 | New York, Viking/Penguin |
|
[172] |
Kemball-Cook, Brian |
1912–2002, Headmaster, classicist[173] |
1993 | London, Calliope Press |
|
[174] |
Dawe, R. D. |
Classicist, translator[175] | 1993 | Sussex, The Book Guild |
|
[176] |
Reading, Peter |
born 1946, Poet |
1994 | |||
Lombardo, Stanley |
born 1943, American Professor of Classics |
2000 | Indianapolis, Hackett |
|
[177][178] |
Translator | Publication | Proemic verse | R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Eickhoff, R. L. |
translator, poet, playwright, novelist, classicist[179] | 2001 | New York, T. Doherty |
|
[179] |
Johnston, Ian[83] |
Canadian academic | 2006 | Arlington, Richer Resources Publications |
|
[180] |
Merrill, Rodney |
American classicist[87] | 2002 | University of Michigan Press |
|
[87] |
Kline, Anthony S. | born 1947, translator |
2004 | [181] | ||
McCrorie, Edward |
American professor of English, classicist | 2004 | Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press |
|
[183] |
Armitage, Simon |
born 1963, poet, playwright, novelist |
2006 | London, Faber and Faber Limited | — Verse-like radio dramatization[184] — | |
Stein, Charles |
American poet, translator[185] | 2008 | Berkeley, North Atlantic Books |
|
[185] |
Mitchell, Stephen |
born 1943, American poet and anthologist |
2013 | Atria Paperback |
|
[186] |
Powell, Barry B. |
born 1942, American poet, classicist, translator |
2014 | Oxford University Press |
|
[187] |
Verity, Anthony |
born 1939 classical scholar |
2017 | Oxford University Press |
|
[188] |
Whitaker, Richard |
born 1951, South African classicist, professor of classics |
2017 | African Sun Press |
|
[189] |
Wilson, Emily | born 1971, classicist | 2017 | W. W. Norton & Company |
|
[190] |
Green, Peter | born 1924, British classicist | 2018 | University of California Press |
|
[191] |
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