The Odyssey Audiobook, Free

The Gutenberg catalog identifies Samuel Butler as translator and describes the edition as English prose. This is a useful distinction for listening: sentences in a prose translation do not reproduce the line breaks and verse choices of a different edition.

For study, use the translator your teacher specifies. For a first personal reading, compare the opening in a few editions you can lawfully access and pick the language you want to spend time with. Do not assume that a free text and a recording with the same title use the same translation. A recent translation may have separate rights even though the ancient work is old.

The opening focuses on the household in Ithaca and Telemachus, rather than immediately starting with the Cyclops. Let that opening establish the problem at home before expecting the better-known adventures. A chapter list helps you keep your place without reading summaries that reveal the outcome.

Butler’s prose lets you follow the action in continuous English sentences. If poetic rhythm is what interests you most, compare it with a verse translation before choosing your listening edition.

Try a passage containing names and speech, not only a descriptive opening. Check whether you can distinguish the narration from quoted dialogue and whether unfamiliar names are understandable. Speech synthesis can mispronounce names; keep the text available when something sounds unclear.

LoudReader’s catalog sample demonstrates a synthetic reading, while a performed audiobook offers a narrator’s interpretation. If you want a verse performance, choose a recorded verse translation deliberately; changing the app’s voice cannot turn Butler’s prose into another translator’s poem.

LoudReader is an iPhone and iPad app; its iPad build also runs on compatible Apple Silicon Macs.

1. Install LoudReader and search for The Odyssey in its Gutenberg catalog.
2. Confirm that the ebook is the Butler translation, or import a permitted DRM-free EPUB of the edition you prefer.
3. Download the book and required voice resources. For travel, check downloaded playback before leaving a connection.
4. Start with one section. Runtime varies with the translation, voice and speed; use the selected edition’s estimate as a starting point for planning sessions.

Try every available voice for your first 8 hours of listening. Afterwards, keep a free English voice selection and unlimited book listening. No LoudReader account or word quota.

Premium adds playback speed control. See the available voices and the guide to Gutenberg listening for the app and file options. Project Gutenberg’s permissions guidance explains its US copyright scope.