{"id":3761,"date":"2026-07-11T16:47:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T11:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3761"},"modified":"2026-07-11T16:47:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T11:47:23","slug":"read-the-best-translation-of-homers-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3761","title":{"rendered":"Read the Best Translation of Homer&#8217;s Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-odyssey-book.jpg?quality=80\" \/><\/p>\n<div data-id=\"1610963\" data-title=\"Before Christopher Nolan\u2019s The Odyssey, Read the Best Translation of Homer\u2019s Epic Poem\" data-url=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/07\/the-odyssey-best-translation-homer-nolan\/\" data-page=\"1\" data-pages=\"1\">\n<p>Whenever a big-deal movie adaptation of a big-deal book comes out, there\u2019s always new interest in the original text, whether it be <i>Wuthering Heights<\/i> or <i>Watchmen<\/i>. In the case of <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/tag\/christopher-nolan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Christopher Nolan<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/tag\/the-odyssey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>The Odyssey<\/i><\/a>, though, we\u2019re talking about the millennia-old epic poem by Homer \u2014 12,109 lines, compiled into 24 \u201cbooks\u201d (read: chapters). That sounds like a daunting task for a reader, even when translated into English. At least that <i>was<\/i> the case, until translator Emily Wilson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Odyssey-Homer\/dp\/0393089053?&amp;linkCode=ll2&amp;tag=conseofsound-20&amp;linkId=8d966501e3dc57cfb6472e1d6aa2820e&amp;language=en_US&amp;ref_=as_li_ss_tl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">got her hands on it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Wilson\u2019s translation made waves upon its release in 2017 for the way it took the original language of Homer and made it extremely accessible. \u201cThe notion that Homeric epic must be rendered in grand, ornate, rhetorically elevated English has been with us since the time of Alexander Pope. It is past time, I believe, to reject this assumption,\u201d she writes in her introduction, a promise that what you\u2019re about to read is meant to be, well, readable.<\/p>\n<p>As a sample that proves my point, please enjoy this excerpt from Book 5, \u201cFrom the Goddess to the Storm.\u201d The nymph Calypso (played in Nolan\u2019s film by Charlize Theron) has just agreed to release Odysseus (Matt Damon) from captivity. She\u2019s feeling a little salty about it, though:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The goddess-queen began. \u201cOdysseus,<br \/>son of Laertes, blessed by Zeus-your plans<br \/>are always changing. Do you really want<br \/>to go back to that home you love so much?<br \/>Well then, good-bye! But if you understood<br \/>how glutted you will be with suffering<br \/>before you reach your home, you would stay here<br \/>with me and be immortal-though you might<br \/>still wish to see that wife you always pine for.<br \/>And anyway, I know my body is<br \/>better than hers is. I am taller too.<br \/>Mortals can never rival the immortals in beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Related Video<\/p>\n<p>Odysseus, seeing freedom within his grasp, is no dummy:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">So Odysseus, with tact,<br \/>said \u201cDo not be enraged at me, great goddess.<br \/>You are quite right. I know my modest wife<br \/>Penelope could never match your beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wilson and her work have been back in the spotlight because of the movie\u2019s pending release, as well as the <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/05\/lupita-nyongo-the-odyssey-mythology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">(pretty dumb)<\/a> culture war that may be erupting around it. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/article\/the-odyssey-translator-emily-wilson-christopher-nolan.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">In an interview with Vulture<\/a>, she explains that she finds that \u201cquite baffling. It\u2019s people who don\u2019t care about the poem, yet when it comes to this culture-war internet discourse, they perform anger about it and a protectiveness of it. It has to do with an idea of a totally stable notion of greatness and masculinity: <i>My identity as a man taps into this tradition, and the tradition has always been this way, and my imagined idea about ancient literature confirms that.<\/i> Anything that challenges that interpretation of what ancient history is threatens their identity in terms of their gender and racial identities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What hopefully defeats all of that malarky is the power of a great story \u2014 one that the centuries have proven is both constantly up for interpretation by the era in question, as well as infinitely relatable, as all tales about human struggle can be. The medium matters, of course, as books and movies both carry a different sort of influence; you lose the flow of the language with cinema, but gain the opportunity to see Charlize Theron glory in being a true bad bitch.<\/p>\n<p>Wilson\u2019s version of <i>The Odyssey<\/i> is both a time capsule of long-dead traditions (unless you currently make a habit of slaughtering livestock to welcome people to your home) as well as a reminder that throughout history, people are people, consumed by the same aching woes and petty jealousies and potential for joy. Skip the discourse, read ancient words made modern instead.<\/p>\n<p>The book is available now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Odyssey-Homer\/dp\/0393089053?&amp;linkCode=ll2&amp;tag=conseofsound-20&amp;linkId=8d966501e3dc57cfb6472e1d6aa2820e&amp;language=en_US&amp;ref_=as_li_ss_tl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">via Amazon<\/a>. You might not finish the whole thing before Nolan\u2019s version hits theaters on July 17th, but you\u2019ll still be able to get a taste of how the old and the new come together.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Odyssey | Official Countdown Trailer\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AyIZ9tiiN8I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever a big-deal movie adaptation of a big-deal book comes out, there\u2019s always new interest in the original text, whether it be Wuthering Heights or Watchmen. In the case of Christopher Nolan\u2019s The Odyssey, though, we\u2019re talking about the millennia-old epic poem by Homer \u2014 12,109 lines, compiled into 24 \u201cbooks\u201d (read: chapters). That sounds&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-odyssey-book.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}