42 THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER, WITH THE HYMNS, EPIGRAMS, AND BATTLE OF THE FROGS HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCLI: PREFACE TO THE ODYSSEY. THE present translation of the Odyssey has been executed on the same plan as that of the Iliad, to which it forms the companion-volume. The Hymns and Minor Poems are now, for the first time, literally translated, completing all that has been attributed to Homer. For these, the editions of Ruhnken, Ernesti, and Hermann have been principally followed. Had the limits of the volume permitted, a more critical investigation of the various readings and conjectures of scholars would have been given; but the editor trusts that what has been done will be found sufficient for the wants of the student. The frequent quotations from the brilliant paraphrases of Chapman, Congreve, and Shelley, cannot, he thinks, fail to prove interesting to the general reader. For the translation of the Pseudo-Herodotean Life of Homer, the reader is indebted to the industry of Kenneth Mackenzie, Esq. It is the earliest memoir of the supposed author of the Iliad we possess, and, as such, merits translation. T. A. B. |