The Odyssey (Wilson translation)

↻ 2026-07-27

I read this because I hadn’t read this translation yet, and because I was going to see the Nolan movie.

Fitzgerald is the translation I read before, both for the purpose of reading the work itself and for the purpose of reading Ulysses, where the correspondences aren’t literal but are buried well enough to be independent of translation anyway.

Wilson is less beautiful than Fitzgerald. There’s no doubt in that for me. It is also far more readable: vernacular, less flowery, less interested in being grand. Frankly, the average student who’s being made to read Homer should be handed the Wilson, since it makes the story accessible without, to my memory, messing with anything important.

If you’re the kind who has to read it again, or wants to, Fitzgerald is worth a try as well. The language is beautiful and you’ll already know the plot.

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