THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER.

Translatedwith an introduction by Richmond Lattimore '26. New York: Harper & Row,1967. 374 pp. $8.95.

Richmond Lattimore is a courageous man. The translation of an Homeric epic is itself an heroic action even for a poet and scholar of Mr. Lattimore's stature. The size of the epic and the greatness of Homer's reputation are enough to make anyone pause. The true courage to me, however, lies in Mr. Lattimore's choice of style. He eschews both the high style of embellishment and conscious archaizing and the low style of racy colloquialisms. He calls the style "plain," but this word suggests to me clarity without distinction. My choice would be "lucid," a combination of clarity and grace.

The clarity is that of a window pane through which the true light of Homer's genius can shine. Every characteristic of Homeric style is here, transformed from the Greek language with all its inflections to English where sense depends upon word order. Homeric verse paragraphs have been preserved with their rapidly flowing movement, patterned and spaced into six-beat lines. The shifting caesuras and varied kinds of enjambment reflect the subtleties of Homer's poetics. A comparison of any passage with the original text quickly reveals the skill with which the accurate rendering of the Greek text is simultaneously readable English. One is never conscious of the translator's style, only of the poet's meaning. We hear of physical and moral courage; there is also aesthetic courage. It is this quality which underlies the energy and delicacy of this English Odyssey.

Homer's Odyssey, Lattimore's English, Harper & Row's book make this an asset for any man's library. It also has particular associations for the Dartmouth man. Mr. Lattimore entered Dartmouth College already knowing Greek, since he had been tutored by his father, David Lattimore, Professor of Far Eastern Civilizations. He took a course in The Odyssey from Royal Nemiah, Lawrence Professor of Greek Language and Literature. Now Mr. Lattimore, the Paul Shorey Professor of Greek at Bryn Mawr, has dedicated his translation to Royal Nemiah.

But here I am, and I am as you see me, and after hardships and suffering much I have come, in the twentieth year, back to my own country.

But here you see the work of Athene, ...

A Greek scholar, author of The Art of Greek Comedy and The Novel and the Reader, Miss Lever is Professor of Englishat Wellesley College.