The Odyssey
Books 9 & 10

From the glittering halls of the Phaeacians to the darkest enchanted forests, Odysseus recounts his most iconic trials in Books 9 and 10 of Homer’s Odyssey. In Samuel Butler’s lucid, fast-moving prose, performed with gripping clarity by William Johnston, hear the harrowing clash with Polyphemus the Cyclops and the audacious “Nobody” ruse; the dreamy peril of the Lotus-Eaters; Aeolus’s fateful gift of the winds and the crew’s disastrous curiosity; the cannibal Laestrygonians who shatter the fleet; and the sorceress Circe, whose spellbound isle turns men to swine—until Hermes’s moly and Odysseus’s iron will break the curse.

This vivid, self-contained segment brims with momentum, danger, wit, and heart—leadership tested, loyalty strained, and homecoming deferred. Johnston’s narration captures roaring seas, monstrous fury, and the intimate ache of loss, while Butler’s translation delivers the tale with modern immediacy and classical grandeur. Whether you’re discovering Homer for the first time or revisiting a cornerstone of world literature, this performance offers an unforgettable journey through cunning, temptation, and resilience—setting the stage for the voyage to the underworld to come.