The Odyssey
by Homer
rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read theoriginal
Contents
AL PROFESSORE
CAV. BIAGIO INGROIA,
PREZIOSO ALLEATO
L’AUTORE RICONOSCENTE.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
This translation is intended to supplement a work entitled “The Authoress ofthe Odyssey”, which I published in 1897. I could not give the whole “Odyssey”in that book without making it unwieldy, I therefore epitomised my translation,which was already completed and which I now publish in full.
I shall not here argue the two main points dealt with in the work justmentioned; I have nothing either to add to, or to withdraw from, what I havethere written. The points in question are:
(1) that the “Odyssey” was written entirely at, and drawn entirely from, theplace now called Trapani on the West Coast of Sicily, alike as regards thePhaeacian and the Ithaca scenes; while the voyages of Ulysses, when once he iswithin easy reach of Sicily, solve themselves into a periplus of the island,practically from Trapani back to Trapani, via the Lipari islands, the Straitsof Messina, and the island of Pantellaria.
(2) That the poem was entirely written by a very young woman, who lived at theplace now called Trapani, and introduced herself into her work unde