The Odyssey (Complete and Unabridged)

by Homer, George Herbert Palmer (Translator), Howard Porter (Editor)

After ten years at Troy, Odysseus longs only for home—but the gods have other plans. Swept from ruinous battlefields to one-eyed Cyclopes, shape-shifting sorceresses, song-laced seas and the yawning halls of the dead, he fights to reach Ithaca and the family who believe him lost forever. Homer’s Odyssey remains the defining adventure of Western a thrilling blend of myth, psychology and road-movie suspense written almost three millennia ago yet still breath-catchingly modern.

This Annotated Classics Edition is designed for readers who want the original poem plus clear guidance every step of the way. It pairs a time-honoured public-domain translation

Scene-by-scene summaries that frame each of the poem’s 24 books, so you can grasp the plot before diving into Homer’s lines.

A 300-entry glossary of characters, places and epithets—quickly decode references to “grey-eyed Athene,” “rosy-fingered Dawn” or the “wine-dark sea.”

A concise introduction by Theodore A. Buckley (1852) that traces the poem’s historical context and lasting influence.

Editorial footnotes clarifying Greek customs, mythological allusions and key geographical waypoints on Odysseus’s route.

Whether you are a first-time explorer of ancient epics, a student polishing a classics essay, or a long-time admirer revisiting the wine-dark sea, this volume offers both the uncut poem and the navigational tools to savour it. Turn the page and join one of literature’s greatest heroes on the most perilous homecoming ever told.

Mass Market Paperback

Published January 1, 1962

About the author

Homer (Greek: Όμηρος born c. 8th century BC) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.
Homer's Iliad centers on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles during the last year of the Trojan War. The Odyssey chronicles the ten-year journey of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, back to his home after the fall of Troy. The poems are in Homeric Greek, also known as Epic Greek, a literary language which shows a mixture of features of the Ionic and Aeolic dialects from different centuries; the predominant influence is Eastern Ionic. Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally. Despite being predominantly known for its tragic and serious themes, the Homeric poems also contain instances of comedy and laughter.
Homer's epic poems shaped aspects of ancient Greek culture and education, fostering ideals of heroism, glory, and honor. To Plato, Homer was simply the one who "has taught Greece" (τὴν Ἑλλάδα πεπαίδευκεν). In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, Virgil refers to Homer as "Poet sovereign", king of all poets; in the preface to his translation of the Iliad, Alexander Pope acknowledges that Homer has always been considered the "greatest of poets". From antiquity to the present day, Homeric epics have inspired many famous works of literature, music, art, and film.
The question of by whom, when, where and under what circumstances the Iliad and Odyssey were composed continues to be debated. Scholars remain divided as to whether the two works are the product of a single author. It is thought that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity; the most widespread account was that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.

French: Homère, Italian: Omero, Portuguese, Spanish: Homero.