The Odyssey

I've definitely read The Odyssey before. It was an assignment in the Classical Mythology class I took in college. But I think I fought my way through it in high school, too. I think it might have been half the reason I signed up for that course. But even in taking that course I had a hard time keeping all the different gods and heroes and stories straight, and over the years it's all become a muddled mess in my brain. I knew the key points: Calypso, Cyclops, the shroud Penelope was pretending to weave. Most of it had fallen out of my memory, though.

And then Emily Wilson released a new translation last year that everyone got really excited about. The first translation to English by a woman! A newly readable version! I had to give this epic poem another try.

I'm glad I read it. Particularly because I had forgotten over half of what happened. All the exciting bits of Odysseus' journey are confined to about 4 chapters. The remaining 21 chapters are taken up by lots of feasting and scheming and testing everyone's loyalty. It was a whole lot of stuff I didn't remember. I read Wilson's ~100 page introduction before I dove into the text, which really helped contextualize a lot of what happened and prepared me for what would otherwise have been a massive disappointment. Seriously, this poem needs like 200% more mythical monsters.

But it was definitely easy to read in a way that no other translation I've attempted has been. Wilson uses plain English as much as she can to make it more accessible. And having an actual meter allowed me to clip right through sections that would have otherwise bored me.

As far as I'm concerned, this is now the definitive translation. Which is good news for my brother. We've spent the last few years arguing over which one of us will inherit my grandfather's copy of The Odyssey. Now I'm more than happy to let him have it, so long as I can hang on to this version.

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