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Most of the translators of the Iliad into English went on to do Homer's second great epic as well, so you'll find some familiar names here.

First, another note about the original Greek poetry. In Homer's time the predominant meter was dactyllic hexameter, which places six beats in every line, each measure being a triplet of syllables with the beat on the first one. So the line goes: dum-da-da dum-da-da dum-da-da dum-da-da dum-da-da dum-da-da dum-da-da dum-da-da. It may sound wonderful in Greek, but in English it's been said to resemble "pumpkins rolling on a barn floor" (anonymous reviewer of a translation). Few translators, apart from Richmond Lattimore, attempt an English hexameter version, and Lattimore at least drops the dactyllic part. He manages to pull it off in his acclaimed translation of 1965-67. It is both majestic and very faithful to Homer, but perhaps more of a challenge for a reader who may be intimidated by long lines of poetry.

The first poetic translation of note was by Shakespeare's contemporary George Chapman in 1616. Chapman's verse is in rhymed iambic pentameter (da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum) typical of the Elizabethans, and is quite creative if not always faithful. Like his Iliad, it was the version for a long time but is seldom read today.

Alexander Pope also carried on from the Iliad to The Odyssey in 1725 with rhymed couplets, also in iambic pentameter. It's lovely and it's the version that you often find quoted, but the convolutions necessary to fit Homer into this form makes the story hard to follow. It's free for downloading or copying on numerous Internet sites.

A more recent attempt at pentameter was by Allen Mandelbaum in 1990, who doesn't try to match his lines exactly with Homer. His style is plain and almost as easy to read as prose.

In 1961 Robert Fitzgerald issued his prize-winning translation of the Odyssey into unrhymed poetry with lines of irregular length. It became the standard choice for many years.

Albert Cook's 1967 version uses verse with fewer than eight stresses to the line and has been widely used in schools. It matches Homer's verse line for line and is considered linguistically accurate but more readable than Lattimore's hexametric verse.

Robert Fagles repeated his success with the Iliad with his 1996 translation of the Odyssey into unrhymed verse with lines of uneven lengths. It seems to be the current critical favourite.

Stanley Lombardo is another old Homer hand with a translation in 2000 of the Odyssey into irregular lines organized into stanzas of irregular length.

Not every translator tried to meet the challenge of converting Homer's verse into modern poetry. Novelist Samuel Butler continued his Homer project with an easily read prose translation of the Odyssey in 1900. His translation is also all over the Internet. (Butler, by the way, had published an earlier book claiming the Odyssey was written by a young, headstrong, unmarried woman.)

Emil V. Rieu had an enormous hit with his easygoing translation of the Odyssey into prose that launched Penguin's book line in 1946. The version you're more likely to find has been revised by his son, D.C.H. Rieu, to retain its feeling while improving its literal accuracy.

There are dozens of other translations of the Odyssey available in all styles of prose and poetry.