The Odyssey

Homer’s great epic of a hero’s journey home―inspiration for the major motion picture by Christopher Nolan―in a bold, contemporary, and refreshingly readable translation.

"Wilson’s language is fresh, unpretentious and lean. . . . It is rare to find a translation that is at once so effortlessly easy to read and so rigorously considered." ―Madeline Miller, author of Circe

Composed at the rosy-fingered dawn of world literature almost three millennia ago, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home.

This fresh, authoritative translation captures the beauty of this ancient poem as well as the drama of its narrative. Its characters are unforgettable, none more so than the “complicated” hero himself, a man of many disguises, many tricks, and many moods, who emerges in this version as a more fully rounded human being than ever before.

Written in iambic pentameter verse and a vivid, contemporary idiom, Emily Wilson’s Odyssey sings with a voice that echoes the epic’s music, sailing along at Homer’s swift, smooth pace.

A fascinating, informative introduction explores the Bronze Age milieu that produced the epic, the poem’s major themes, the controversies about its origins, and the unparalleled scope of its impact and influence. Maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, and extensive notes and summaries of each book make this an Odyssey that will be treasured by a new generation of readers.

3 maps

Homer was probably born around 725BC on the Coast of Asia Minor, now the coast of Turkey, but then really a part of Greece. Homer was the first Greek writer whose work survives.

He was one of a long line of bards, or poets, who worked in the oral tradition. Homer and other bards of the time could recite, or chant, long epic poems. Both works attributed to Homer - The Iliad and The Odyssey - are over ten thousand lines long in the original. Homer must have had an amazing memory but was helped by the formulaic poetry style of the time.

In The Iliad Homer sang of death and glory, of a few days in the struggle between the Greeks and the Trojans. Mortal men played out their fate under the gaze of the gods. The Odyssey is the original collection of tall traveller's tales. Odysseus, on his way home from the Trojan War, encounters all kinds of marvels from one-eyed giants to witches and beautiful temptresses. His adventures are many and memorable before he gets back to Ithaca and his faithful wife Penelope.

We can never be certain that both these stories belonged to Homer. In fact 'Homer' may not be a real name but a kind of nickname meaning perhaps 'the hostage' or 'the blind one'. Whatever the truth of their origin, the two stories, developed around three thousand years ago, may well still be read in three thousand years' time.

"A masterpiece of translation."
― Rowan Williams, University of Cambridge

"A revelation. Never have I been so aware at once of the beauty of the poetry, the physicality of Homer’s world, and the moral ambiguity of those who inhabit it."
― Susan Chira, New York Times Book Review

"Emily Wilson’s crisp and musical version is a cultural landmark.… This translation will change the way the poem is read in English."
― Charlotte Higgins, Guardian

"In the history of Odyssey translations, few have exerted such a cultural influence that they become ‘classics’ in their own right.… I predict that Emily Wilson will win a place in this roll-call of the most significant translations of the poem in history. She certainly deserves the honour."
― Edith Hall, Daily Telegraph

"Emily Wilson has given us a staggeringly superior translation―true, poetic, lively and readable, and always closely engaged with the original Greek―that brings to life the fascinating variety of voices in Homer’s great epic."
― Richard F. Thomas, Harvard University

"When I first read these lines…, I was floored. I’d never read an Odyssey that sounded like this. It had such directness, the lines feeling not as if they were being fed into iambic pentameter because of some strategic decision but because the meter was a natural mode for its speaker."
― Wyatt Mason, New York Times Magazine

"In her powerful new translation, Emily Wilson… has chosen immediacy and naturalism over majestic formality. She preserves the musicality of Homer’s poetry, opting for an iambic pentameter whose approachable storytelling tone invites us in, only to startle us with eruptions of beauty.… Wilson’s transformation of such a familiar and foundational work is… astonishing."
― Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Atlantic

"Wilson’s translation is a superb achievement and a striking departure from the tradition of Homeric translation into English.… There is no elaborate or antiquated diction, just a crispness and clear-headedness that will seem quite alien to anyone familiar with earlier versions.… Wilson has produced a wonderfully distinctive―and modern―version of the poem."
― Henry Power, Evening Standard

"Irresistibly readable, Wilson’s Odyssey turns Homeric epic into a poetic feast."
― Froma Zeitlin, Princeton University

"This translation is a marvel! Bold and timely and ever so exciting.… As majestic as literature gets."
― Max Porter, author of Grief Is the Thing With Feathers