The Odyssey

I just read Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey and it was a revelation. I highly recommend reading the author's note to fully appreciate all of the interesting decisions Wilson made. If you thought you knew The Odyssey but you haven't read Wilson's version, do yourself a favor and read it again.

This story has always struck me as a quest to identify and regain humanity, as its hero repeatedly faces strange and powerful obstacles to his voyage home. I first read it as a child and then again, but in Greek, as a student—a time in life when anyone is trying to find their feet as a human being!

Perhaps the most comforting thing is that amongst all the gods and monsters and cursing and fighting, eating habits often characterize the work’s characters. Odysseus is always looking for sitophagoi, bread eaters, i.e. civilized people who make their own food, rather than… show more.

It seems repetitive now to sing Wilson’s praises, but I have read many translations of Homer’s Odyssey, from Pope to Fagles, but it was not until I came to Emily Wilson’s rendition that I felt truly drawn, bodily, to Homer and I especially enjoyed her readings, one, in her Introduction to the poem in the book, and two, her performance of it on YouTube.

Also, Judith Thurman’s review/interview of her in the New Yorker is particularly revealing. Her article, “Mother Tongue,” about Wilson’s personal relationship with the poem and her “folk poetics,” spoke to me like a kindred spirit.… show more.

One book I try to read every year is Homer’s Odysseus, the story of crafty Odysseus’ ten-year journey home from Troy at the end of the Trojan War. Along the way, he bests a cyclops, has an affair with Circe and another with Calypso, visits the land of the dead, and makes his way successfully past the sirens who lure most men to watery deaths. Once home, he meets his son Telemachus again for the first time in two decades. The two men then kill the suitors who, believing Odysseus dead, want to marry his wife and take over… show more.

No list of Odyssey reworkings would be complete without Emily Wilson’s stunning translation. I first heard Emily give a talk on her translation at Harvard, and the clear, spare voice she brings to the poetry, as well as the thoughtful way she talked about her decision-making process and some of the major problems in giving a fresh new angle to the Odyssey – particularly the fact that it has always, up till now, been translated by men – makes her version my favourite translation of this wonderful, complicated text.

When we are talking about adventure books with morally grey characters, there is simply no way to bypass this one. The Odyssey can be considered the book that started it all - the epic sea adventure genre, as well as the morally grey protagonist theme. And, my being a lover of classics, this book is one of my favourites along with the Iliad, for various reasons. 

One of the major reasons is, of course, the protagonist - Odysseus the King of Ithaca - a mischievous hero who prefers to use his intelligence and wits to get through any situation,… show more.

I read this masterpiece about the Greek hero Odysseus´ adventurous and very troublesome journey back from victory over Troy, being damned to this by God Poseidon, to his beloved Penelope on his home island Ithaca, many times. I love it for its wonderful language and fantastic episodes in its essence describing the barriers one in life has to transcend for proving one's loyalty in love to one's chosen one. It gives a picture of the matching together of the eternal manly and female powers of earthly existence. Also, it became the inspiration for my seven-volume work, Bridges to the World… show more.

This quintessential journey from antiquity is truly an “adventure for the ages.” As a kid, I sailed the Greek Islands (on a cruise ship), retracing the hero Odysseus’s journey home after the Trojan War. This fantasy is all about the triumphant “Return” at the end after all the wanderings, dangers, and tests of character. Quiet highlights include Homer’s cut-aways to Odysseus’s faithful wife back home on Ithaca, fending off suitors as readers salivate at their eventual comeuppance. And who can forget his faithful dog Argos, who recognizes him after 20 years and thumps his weak tail one last time before… show more.

To be a sailor without The Odyssey is to be lost at sea. My copy, dogeared and salt-stained, goes with me everywhere. When you’re cruising, it becomes more than an epic poem: a world that you’re a part of. Anyone who’s seen the last light on the ocean waves knows what a wine-dark sea looks like, or the very real peril of Scylla and Charybdis. And how important it is not to anger, (or even draw the attention of) Poseidon, the last of the true gods. Mythical, perhaps, but as real as the sound of the surf breaking on the… show more.

Homer’s Odyssey is a huge treatise on the art of dealing with strangers. It tells you what to do (invite your guests to leave their spears at the door), what not to do (don’t eat your guests, if you can avoid it), and how to navigate the difficulties of dealing with people we don’t know. And it explores the blurred lines between hospitality and hostility, guests and hostages.

Wilson’s contemporary translation is fun, brilliantly readable, and makes Homer’s classic work feel both contemporary and profoundly relevant.