725 BCE · Homer

The Odyssey

A war hero spends ten years trying to become an ordinary man again.

725 BCEHomer

Homer

Quotes

Quotes · The Odyssey

Passages worth saving.

Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.
Book I, the opening invocation. Note that the first thing we are told about him is not that he is strong or brave but that he is ingenious. Translation: Samuel Butler, 1900, public domain.
My name is Noman; this is what my father and mother and my friends have always called me.
Book IX. Odysseus gives up his identity to save his life, and then cannot resist taking it back a few minutes later. Translation: Samuel Butler, 1900, public domain.
Say not a word in death's favour; I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead.
Book XI. Achilles, the hero who chose glory over long life in the Iliad, on how that decision looks from the other side. Translation: Samuel Butler, 1900, public domain.
There is nothing better or more delightful than when a whole household lives in harmony.
Book VI. Odysseus says this to a young princess who has just found him naked on a beach, and it turns out to be the thing he actually wants. Translation: Samuel Butler, 1900, public domain.
See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly.
Book I. Zeus opens the poem by complaining that mortals blame heaven for disasters they arranged themselves. Worth holding on to through the rest of the story. Translation: Samuel Butler, 1900, public domain.