Transliteration method

Ancient Greek is usually printed in a Greek alphabet. Many readers know the sounds but not every letter-shape. This site therefore writes a second line in Latin letters, using a scholarly transcription rather than a phonetic respelling of modern Greek.

The conversion runs in your browser. Nothing you paste is sent to a server. The same rules are used for the paste tool and for the full Iliad and Odyssey.

Vowels

Short epsilon and omicron stay e and o. Long eta and omega are marked ē and ō so that metre remains visible. The line marks length. ē is a long open e, the vowel of “bed” held on. ō is a long open o, the vowel of “law” or “more” held on. It is not the a of alpha. Ἀπόλλωνα is Apollōna: say the ō as the o in the English name Apollo, only longer. Writing it as a would make omega and alpha the same letter and would hide a long syllable. A lone upsilon is u, the vowel of “food”. That is the Homeric sound. Latin later spelled the Attic vowel as y, and English readers often turn that y into an i, so this site does not use it: Ὄλυμπος is Olumpos and Χρύσην is Chrusēn. Inside a diphthong the same letter keeps the familiar shapes au, eu, ou, ui. οὐλομένην is oulomenēn, and the u in ou is the second half of that diphthong, not a separate upsilon. Iota subscript is written as a trailing i.

Breathings and diaeresis

A rough breathing becomes a leading h: Ἕκτωρ is Hektōr, ῥοδοδάκτυλος is rhododaktulos. Smooth breathing is silent. Diaeresis is kept as ï or ü so that the vowel is not swallowed into a diphthong: Πηληϊάδεω is Pēlēïadeō.

Consonants

Aspirated stops are th, ph, ch (theta, phi, chi). Xi and psi are x and ps. Gamma before another velar is treated as a nasal, so ἄγγελος is angelos. Final sigma and lunate sigma are both s.

Layout

Printed Homer is often set in paragraphs of five verses. The reader follows that habit. On a wide screen the English sits in a third column beside each group; on a phone the same English paragraph appears under the five Greek lines and their letters, so a wrapped sentence cannot drift onto the previous verse.

Butler’s prose is packed by whole sentences into those five-line groups. Murray’s facing English, marked every five lines in the Perseus text, usually follows the Greek more closely. Gnedich’s Iliad and Veresaev’s Odyssey stand line by line beside the Greek. At the top of each book you can switch between them; the choice stays in your browser so you can compare at any time.

Paste your own Greek on the home page, or open a book from the catalogues. For who runs the site, see About.