This essay explores how Morris’s archaising translation of Homer’s epic can be read as a critique of modernity. In The Odyssey (1887) the translator’s use of archaic forms is intended to create a medieval world and offer a vision of pre-modern values and qualities as a counter-point to nineteenth century equivalents. As part of a widespread movement of medieval revival in the Victorian age, Morris transforms the ancient Greek epic into a medieval romance through the use of archaic diction, romance-associated words and long rhyming couplets, and the thematic overlap: an idealised medieval world is contrasted with a modern society that is perceived as undermined by capitalism and commercialism.