zlacker

> Any specific reasons why?

I don't think it reads very smoothly, and Butler adopts a kind of archaic tone (even for the time, I mean—not just that the translation is, itself, now old) that does more harm than good to the text. Not literal enough to justify the clunkiness, not distinctive and skilled and poetically-sublime enough to be a great English work in its own right (see: Pope) despite putting some effort into it[1]—basically, just a rougher read than other options, without much benefit to offset that. It's not terrible, I'm just not sure there's anything to recommend it—I'd say read a different Homer, and if you want to read Butler, read Erewhon or one of his other novels.

[1] For instance, from the link:

"So saying she bound on her glittering golden sandals, imperishable, with which she can fly like the wind over land or sea; she grasped the redoubtable bronze-shod spear, so stout and sturdy and strong, [...]"

He's trying with all that alliteration and the meter, and at times it works quite well for the space of a few words, but the wider a view, if you will, one takes of it, and as one proceeds with the reading, the worse it looks—to my eye, anyway.

[EDIT]

Other Butler, for free.

Erewhon:

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/samuel-butler/erewhon

The Way of All Flesh:

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/samuel-butler/the-way-of-a...

If you read and like Erewhon, you'll probably also like the sequel Erewhon Revisited. Didn't see it on Standard Ebooks, but I assume PG has it.

>>bamfly+(OP)
Seeing how we are reading, not reciting, these texts, I prefer to sacrifice meter for brevity and clarity. Have you any particular recommendations? I can read Greek and do speak a bit of the modern language (just from Duolingo) if that would be a consideration.

>>dotanc+Ur
Heh—my favorite prose Odyssey's kinda a bad one, from many perspectives, as it's an even less a literal rendering than most: TE Lawrence's 1932 translation (publishing as TE Shaw—you might find it under either name). It's not so far off it'd be at all fair to call it a retelling, but it's also less-close to the original than most translations. It's also guilty of some of the deliberate archaism in its language that I just accused Butler of, but is more to-my-taste regardless—I make no claim to consistency :-)

I find it clean, unassuming, and to read at a nice modern-feeling (but not too modern-feeling) clip without resorting to abridgment.

>>bamfly+sw
Thank you, I'll take a look.