Ted Hughes: The Storm

Length / Form Written in the style if not the form of Greek epic.

Allusion to Classical figure Odysseus; Zeus; Athene

Comment Hughes earliest known ‘translation’ from Greek epic.  Compare Michael Longley's ‘Homer’s Octopus’ (The Ghost Orchid, 1995 and CP p.222) and 'A Bed of Leaves' (The Ghost Orchid, CP p.222).

Unpublished, written for and first broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as part of a series on Homer's The Odysse , which was translated in 12 parts by different poets. 'The Storm', based on Book V was broadcast 10 November 1960. Series produced by Louis MacNeice.

Further Reading

Gillespie, Stuart. 'Hughes's First Translation: "The Storm" from Homer, Odyssey, Book V'.

Rees, Roger (ed.). Ted Hughes and the Classics. Classical Presences. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, 25-38.