The Odyssey

Before I even start reading this, I need to know if the uneven pages are a 'feature' or a fault ! I certainly don't like it, if you riffle through the pages, they fall in clumps, its hard to stop at a specific page. It feels like I have a faulty one that someone cut with scissors; if this is a deliberate design choice it's a poor one. Anyone else got the paperback who can comment - should I start reading or return this copy ? The star rating is for the format of the book only, I haven't read it yet and will amend in future for content.

I have read both the original and the Modern Greek translation in school. I 've never imagined I would ever read a translated epic, and actually enjoy it more than the original. Some people are criticising this on grounds of linguistic accuracy, but I am no expert to judge that. But this FEELS and "SOUNDS" closer to the original, than clunky, φιλολογικές μεταφράσεις του χαμού. In short this is more than well made, it is actually fun - and I actually bought it to have it my hands rather than reading it in a pdf.

This is the third translation of the Odyssey I have read. When I first discovered Homer in my teens, it was E.V. Rieu's spare prose that I reached for on the parental bookshelf. At university, we were encouraged to use the award-winning verse translation by the late American poet Robert Fagles. And now, there is this; this stunning accomplishment. I am no classicist, although I have read and studied a good number of classical works in translation. However, I know good poetry when I encounter it, and Wilson's modern, rushing iambic pentameter treatment of the original Archaic Greek dactylic hexameter feels fresh, lyrical, exciting and emotionally tense. Put simply, this is the best translation of the Odyssey I have read. I don't say this as a Greek scholar, because I am not; I'm just someone who loves good literature. So if you are new to Homer, or haven't picked him up in a while, I recommend buying this translation. I do hope Emily Wilson has plans to translate the Iliad. I suspect it will be marvellous.

As I read glowing after glowing review I am at a loss. I'm 60% through the Odyssey reading Wilson's and Lombardo's translation side by side and where Lombardo flows, Watson lags, where Lombardo leaps, Wilson stays stuck to the page. One translator offers poetry - the other offers too often produces mostly just lines on the page. Wilson can produce a beautiful line for sure - she's much better than Lattimore - but too often her sentences are clunky. Every once in a while she uses a weird word choice - like scalawag - which comes out of the deep South. (???) Maybe it's because Lombardo focuses on the Odyssey as a piece of spoken text that he seems so much more lively. Compare these:: Wilson I heard the desperate voice of Priam's daughter, poor Cassandra, whom deceitful Cassandra killed beside me. As I lay dying, struck through by the sword, I tried to lift my arms up from the ground. That she-dog turned away. Lombardo But the most piteous cry I ever heard Came from Cassandra, Prima's daughter. She had her arms around me down on the floor When Clymenestra ran her through from behnd I lifted my hands and beat the ground As I lay dying with a sword in my chest But that bitch, my wife turned her back on me.... Seeing the dread Heracles Wilson Around his ghost, the dead souls shrieked like birds, all panic struck. He walked like gloomy night, holding his bow uncased and with an arrow held on the string. He glowered terribly, poised for a shot.. (He glowered terribly....Really?) This Heracles at once knew who I was, and full of grief he cried, 'Odysseus!, Master of every circumstance, so you are also tortured by the weight of fortune... Lombardo A clamor arose from the dead around him, As if they were birds flying off in terror. He looked like midnight itself. He held his bow With an arrow on the string, and he glared around him As if he were about to shoot... Heracles recognized me at once, And his words beat down on me like dark wings: 'Son of Laertes in the line of Zeus, Crafty Odysseus - poor man, do you to Drag out a wretched destiny... I rest my case! Coming back to this - reading on as I go through the translations: Wilson Phaecians, famous for their navigation, brought me here. They always help their guests travel onwards. I slept as their ship sped across the ocean; they set me down on Ithaca, still sleeping They brought me marvelous gifts of gold and bronze and clothing with are lying in a cave, since the gods have willed it so. Athena told me to come here and make plans with you to kill our enemies. How many suitors are there? What kind of men are they? I am well-known for my intelligence..... They always...

Emily Wilson's new translation of Homer's Odyssey is extraordinary in so many ways. Among its many attributes is clear, and finely-tuned language set in iambic pentameter that puts the poetry back in one of the Western cannon's greatest poems. Readers need not wade through purple and overblown blank verse, twice the length of the original text to finally arrive, with Odysseus in Ithaca. His story and character, as well as those of Penelope and Telemachus are fashioned in direct, active language that lets the hero's deeds and trials, as well as those of his wife and son, impress or disappoint the reader. Reading Wilson's version was like reading The Odyssey for the first time. There has been much fuss about her choice of a few words--"complicated, canapes, tote". Those complaining can't possibly have read the work or at least not her introduction where she explains quite convincingly the choices she made and purpose in providing yet another interpretation. Wilson is equally fearless in wading into the politics of translation arguing it is chauvinism to translate the slave women/concubines as "maids or servants". More than inaccurate it distorts the unpleasant truth about Greek civilization: it was a culture sustained by slave labor (as were nearly all others at the time). She ratchets things up another notch when she takes on Robert Fagles translation of the slave girls as "sluts" and "whores" who deserve to be slain. Why she wonders if they had no agency in life can they be responsible for the deeds of men who are at best coercing sex, at worst raping them? Wilson says flat out his attitude and translation are misogynistic. She also makes convincing arguments in her introduction that Penelope is more dimensional than credited and Helen of Troy refreshingly free of guilt for deeds committed in her name. The introduction, translator's notes, maps and glossary all enhance the reader's enjoyment, making it a truly epic experience.