The Complete Iliad & Odyssey — Deluxe Foiled Hardcover
The Complete Iliad & Odyssey — Deluxe Foiled Hardcover
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The Complete Iliad & Odyssey — Deluxe Foiled Hardcover
✨ Three-color metallic foil on a deep navy debossed cover — it catches the
light from across the room
📕 Two and a half pounds of proper hardcover, the kind that lies flat instead
of curling shut every time you set it down
🗺️ Foldout character map included — every god, hero and kingdom on one page,
so you stop losing the thread at Book Three
📜 Both epics complete in one volume, in Samuel Butler's 1898 translation —
the plain-English one people actually finish
"ordered it for the shelf honestly. my sister in law has a whole wall of
these pretty hardcovers and I told myself mine would be different but lets
be real it was mostly decoration.
then it showed up and the gold on the front does this thing in the
afternoon where it goes almost copper. I opened it just to look at the
paper and ended up reading forty pages standing up in the kitchen.
the fold out map is the part that got me. I have started this book twice
before and quit both times because I could not keep anyone straight,
theres two different guys called Ajax which nobody warns you about.
still not finished. book nine. but I pick it up, which I honestly did not
expect to."
▸ Is it hard to read?
▸ Is it hard to read?
Most people who say they failed at Homer failed at a translation, not at Homer.
The story itself moves fast — a ten-year siege, a rigged horse, a man who takes another ten years to get home and murders everyone waiting in his house when he does.
What trips people up is the cast. Forty-odd names, half of them gods, several of them the same name. That's why the character map is in the box. Open it flat beside you and the whole thing stops being work.
▸ Which translation is this, and why does it matter?
▸ Which translation is this, and why does it matter?
Samuel Butler's, from 1898.
Butler made a decision most translators of his era refused to make: he wrote Homer in plain prose instead of forcing it into verse. No inverted word order, no "thee" and "thou," no wrestling with meter to get to the meaning.
Scholars still argue about it. Readers finish it. Since you're here to read the thing rather than write a dissertation about it, that's the trade worth making.
▸ What's the character map?
▸ What's the character map?
A foldout sheet that ships inside the front cover.
One side has the mortals — the Greek kings, the Trojan royal family, who is fighting whom and over what. The other has the gods, which side each one picked, and which mortal they keep interfering with.
It exists because "who is this again" is the exact moment most people put the book down and never pick it back up.
▸ Shipping & Returns
▸ Shipping & Returns
Orders leave within 24–48 hours with free shipping. Delivery runs 5–10 business days depending on where you are.
If it turns up damaged, or doesn't turn up at all, contact us inside 30 days for a full refund. No forms, no photographs, no argument.
Why we are better
| Blue Ridge | Others | |
|---|---|---|
| Character map | ||
| 3-color foil, debossed cover | ||
| English translation |