Name: The Odyssey
Rating: 3.91304347826087 (23 reviews)
ISBN: 9780393356250

Homero,

Emily Wilson

“THIS TRANSLATION WILL CHANGE THE WAY THE POEM IS READ IN ENGLISH.” — CHARLOTTE HIGGINS, THE GUARDIAN

Written in iambic pentameter verse, Emily Wilson's Odyssey is a lean, fleet-footed translation that recaptures Homer’s “nimble gallop” and brings an ancient epic to new life.  The New York Times named Wilson’s translation as one of its 100 notable books of 2018. 

The Odyssey

Despite the idea that you may have that classics tend to be heavier and much harder reads, I found myself pleasantly surprised by the Odyssey. The battles are thrilling, many moments are humorous, and you realize quickly that this story is timeless. 

Nicole C

Reading this translation started a bit slow to me, but once I got into the groove I enjoyed the story and the prose. I thought I had read the Odyssey before, but I had only read excerpts - specifically the book that details the encounter with the cyclops. It was surprising to me how many of the iconic parts of the Odyssey that most people talk about take up maybe like 3-5 pages on average? The sirens are only about 5 pages, the voyage by scylla and charybis is about 3 pages, Circe has a bigger role but she's bested pretty fast and is in the story for about one book. It's interesting those are remembered in popular culture despite being an extremely small part of the journey.

I was also surprised that for about one third of the book Odysseus wasn't in the narrative, and it focused on his son, Telemachus, trying to have some sort of heroic endeavor. This part for me felt a bit slow, but it was interesting to analyze why this part was so big in the narrative. In ancient Greece, did people just really think that was riveting? Is it because many in the crowd listening could relate to not having a chance to prove their heroism? Or simply is it because the journey was the most compelling part of any story told?

Some reoccuring elements that popped up in my book annotations in no particular order:

- The characters seem to weep and sob uncontrollably all the time. It was surprising to see many men and women do this. To openly show emotions like this in front of anyone wasn't painted as weird or inappropriate. Also whenever characters were weeping at a feast it was emphasized they were always drinking wine - maybe allow them to try and forget their suffering? Helen even explicitly does this when making a potion for some of the warriors in her house to feel good despite their lamentations about the war. Additionally, people explicitly stated their emotions and thoughts. I did laugh at loud when the suitors basically admitted in front of everyone that they would be insecure if a homeless guy beat them in a bow contest.

- People didn't seem to take ownership for their actions, except Odysseus in some instances. Their choices and fates were all willed by the gods and their temperaments. One funny instance of this is when Penelope says that Aphrodite caused Helen to run off with Paris and cause suffering for all of Greece. My annotation was "girlies really do stick together #godsfault". The implication of that is further reinforces that one's status or fortune is just as it is. Societal hierarchies and perceived stereotypes are just the way things are. This is further emphasized by the "good" slaves, loving their master and loving serving his house's needs despite not being free to improve their own well-being.

- There was a "right" way to live. Monsters are described as backwards and the cyclops as wasting resources despite the fact their islands seemed kinda lit and preserved nature. The farmers of Ithaca and elsewhere were shown as hard working, but honestly exhausted. So maybe the ancient greeks shoulda checked themselves.

- Odysseus's lying is front and center, and he even consistently lies to his family to test them before he truly announces he is home. It made me wonder if this was praised in society if it could help you get the upper hand in some sort of scheme or what you were after. It seems to be a little at odds with the value of xenia. This was particularly funny during the siren part because Circe says "if you want to listen to the sirens...," and then the next page Odysseus goes "Circe said I need to listen to the sirens." Um dude what. Either way, it illustrated that his desires came before his men, and though I don't think he wanted them to die, they were treated as a means to an end for Odysseus's quest for home and greatness.

- "Their aggression touches the iron sky" pg 405. Iron sky was a phrase that stopped me in my tracks. Is it referencing that there is a battle on the horizon? Is it suggesting these men think they are battle ready. Either way, this line kinda goes hard.

- Everyone immediately wants to know everyone's life story the second they walk into someone's house. I thought it was quite funny and even annotated in one part like, "why does everyone immediately want to dox each other?" We could learn a bit from this custom in modern times. We could all be a bit more curious about the people we find ourselves occupying the same space with and learn a bit more about how they have come to navigate and view the world.

- "So live and spread the word that doing good is far superior to wickedness" pg 489. #wordstoliveby. Reminds me of a quote I like: "We must cheerfully refuse the apocalypse in all forms." in I cheerfully refuse by Leif Enger.

- I thought it was kinda crazy that the "traitor" slave girls were brought out to clean the blood and bodies of the suitors before themselves being hanged (as it was emphasized they shouldn't have a quick death). In the passage describing their cleaning and looming death, it's said "they will forget the things the suitors made them do with them in secret, through Aphrodite." Not only is this saying that Aphrodite might be the cause of this (which then ok maybe we could do a lesser sentence because this "crime" goes two ways), but is it also suggesting they will now be beautiful and forgiven by paying the ultimate price for their actions: surrendering their lives?

Odysseus and the Odyssey are truly "complicated" as Wilson puts in the first line of the poem. War and death cause suffering, but they bring legacy and heroism. Lying is deceitful, yet praised several times even by Athena the goddess of wisdom herself. The poem repeats the plot points of journey, shipwreck, and supernatural encounter several times over in a way that should be boring. Though this likely stems from its oral traditions (and thus likely made it easy to memorize and retell), this format must have resonated with the people who first heard it. And it still does because I had fun reading it, and I'm going to see the movie adaptation in a couple weeks. Its been a muse inspiring many stories thereafter. I even annotated passages to use as inspiration for my siren DND character. I think if you ask me to pick between the Odyssey and Illiad, I'd choose the Illiad since a wider cast of Gods seemed to be more directly involved in the narrative a bit more. However, I cannot deny that Wilson's translation was a piece of art worth experiencing. I highly recommend this book, and hope you read it before seeing the upcoming Nolan adaptation.

Ashley Denktas

Reading this translation started a bit slow to me, but once I got into the groove I enjoyed the story and the prose. I thought I had read the Odyssey before, but I had only read excerpts - specifically the book that details the encounter with the cyclops. It was surprising to me how many of the iconic parts of the Odyssey that most people talk about take up maybe like 3-5 pages on average? The sirens are only about 5 pages, the voyage by scylla and charybis is about 3 pages, Circe has a bigger role but she's bested pretty fast and is in the story for about one book. It's interesting those are remembered in popular culture despite being an extremely small part of the journey.

I was also surprised that for about one third of the book Odysseus wasn't in the narrative, and it focused on his son, Telemachus, trying to have some sort of heroic endeavor. This part for me felt a bit slow, but it was interesting to analyze why this part was so big in the narrative. In ancient Greece, did people just really think that was riveting? Is it because many in the crowd listening could relate to not having a chance to prove their heroism? Or simply is it because the journey was the most compelling part of any story told?

Some reoccuring elements that popped up in my book annotations in no particular order:

- The characters seem to weep and sob uncontrollably all the time. It was surprising to see many men and women do this. To openly show emotions like this in front of anyone wasn't painted as weird or inappropriate. Also whenever characters were weeping at a feast it was emphasized they were always drinking wine - maybe allow them to try and forget their suffering? Helen even explicitly does this when making a potion for some of the warriors in her house to feel good despite their lamentations about the war. Additionally, people explicitly stated their emotions and thoughts. I did laugh at loud when the suitors basically admitted in front of everyone that they would be insecure if a homeless guy beat them in a bow contest.
- People didn't seem to take ownership for their actions, except Odysseus in some instances. Their choices and fates were all willed by the gods and their temperaments. One funny instance of this is when Penelope says that Aphrodite caused Helen to run off with Paris and cause suffering for all of Greece. My annotation was "girlies really do stick together #godsfault". The implication of that is further reinforces that one's status or fortune is just as it is. Societal hierarchies and perceived stereotypes are just the way things are. This is further emphasized by the "good" slaves, loving their master and loving serving his house's needs despite not being free to improve their own well-being.
- There was a "right" way to live. Monsters are described as backwards and the cyclops as wasting resources despite the fact their islands seemed kinda lit and preserved nature. The farmers of Ithaca and elsewhere were shown as hard working, but honestly exhausted. So maybe the ancient greeks shoulda checked themselves.
- Odysseus's lying is front and center, and he even consistently lies to his family to test them before he truly announces he is home. It made me wonder if this was praised in society if it could help you get the upper hand in some sort of scheme or what you were after. It seems to be a little at odds with the value of xenia. This was particularly funny during the siren part because Circe says "if you want to listen to the sirens...," and then the next page Odysseus goes "Circe said I need to listen to the sirens." Um dude what. Either way, it illustrated that his desires came before his men, and though I don't think he wanted them to die, they were treated as a means to an end for Odysseus's quest for home and greatness.
- "Their aggression touches the iron sky" pg 405. Iron sky was a phrase that stopped me in my tracks. Is it referencing that there is a battle on the horizon? Is it suggesting these men think they are battle ready. Either way, this line kinda goes hard.
- Everyone immediately wants to know everyone's life story the second they walk into someone's house. I thought it was quite funny and even annotated in one part like, "why does everyone immediately want to dox each other?" We could learn a bit from this custom in modern times. We could all be a bit more curious about the people we find ourselves occupying the same space with and learn a bit more about how they have come to navigate and view the world.
- "So live and spread the word that doing good is far superior to wickedness" pg 489. #wordstoliveby. Reminds me of a quote I like: "We must cheerfully refuse the apocalypse in all forms." in I cheerfully refuse by Leif Enger.
- I thought it was kinda crazy that the "traitor" slave girls were brought out to clean the blood and bodies of the suitors before themselves being hanged (as it was emphasized they shouldn't have a quick death). In the passage describing their cleaning and looming death, it's said "they will forget the things the suitors made them do with them in secret, through Aphrodite." Not only is this saying that Aphrodite might be the cause of this (which then ok maybe we could do a lesser sentence because this "crime" goes two ways), but is it also suggesting they will now be beautiful and forgiven by paying the ultimate price for their actions: surrendering their lives?

Odysseus and the Odyssey are truly "complicated" as Wilson puts in the first line of the poem. War and death cause suffering, but they bring legacy and heroism. Lying is deceitful, yet praised several times even by Athena the goddess of wisdom herself. The poem repeats the plot points of journey, shipwreck, and supernatural encounter several times over in a way that should be boring. Though this likely stems from its oral traditions (and thus likely made it easy to memorize and retell), this format must have resonated with the people who first heard it. And it still does because I had fun reading it, and I'm going to see the movie adaptation in a couple weeks. Its been a muse inspiring many stories thereafter. I even annotated passages to use as inspiration for my siren DND character. I think if you ask me to pick between the Odyssey and Illiad, I'd choose the Illiad since a wider cast of Gods seemed to be more directly involved in the narrative a bit more. However, I cannot deny that Wilson's translation was a piece of art worth experiencing. I highly recommend this book, and hope you read it before seeing the upcoming Nolan adaptation.

Gabe Cortez

It feels too weird to give this a star rating but I just found all these guys sooooo frustrating, Odysseus can kinda get wrecked

Regan Martin

Really not an odyssey though, innit? Odyssey pretty much happens outside the time frame of this book, don’t it?

Margo Koss

Really not an odyssey though, innit? Odyssey pretty much happens outside the time frame of this book, don’t it?

Emily, thank you for your service!!!!

They talked about Odysseus like he was Batman 

Zachary Roberts

Jacque

« now goddess, child of zeus, tell the old story for our modern times. find the beginning. »

i have always been a homeric child, i have been passionate about homer's works for as long as i can remember and while i loved the odyssey i was always an iliad girl at heart and forever will be.

i have read a few odyssey translations both in english and french and having read her iliad i really wanted to finally tackle emily wilson's. which i thoroughly enjoyed (so easy to enjoy when you don't have random twitter users screaming kicking and crying in your ear about her translations).

my guy odysseus just wanted to get home to his wife and son and honestly i relate to him as someone who is very notoriously cursed with public transport. i just want to get home to my wife (my bed) and son (my stuffed animals) but the gods (belgian train services) have other plans in store for me. truly, i get odysseus.

florine

« now goddess, child of zeus, tell the old story for our modern times. find the beginning. »

i have always been a homeric child, i have been passionate about homer's works for as long as i can remember and while i loved the odyssey i was always an iliad girl at heart and forever will be.

i have read a few odyssey translations both in english and french and having read her iliad i really wanted to finally tackle emily wilson's. which i thoroughly enjoyed (so easy to enjoy when you don't have random twitter users screaming kicking and crying in your ear about her translations).

my guy odysseus just wanted to get home to his wife and son and honestly i relate to him as someone who is very notoriously cursed with public transport. i just want to get home to my wife (my bed) and son (my stuffed animals) but the gods (belgian train services) have other plans in store for me. truly, i get odysseus.

The Odyssey

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