About this episode

Mary and Charlotte discuss various translations of the Odyssey to help listeners choose the best one for their reading experience.

With the world gripped by Odyssey fever, Mary and Charlotte keep being asked the same question: which translation should I read? So here is a quick bonus episode to help you decide.  Mary and Charlotte cover the waterfront of the modern translations (Emily Wilson and Daniel Mendelsohn), but also celebrate some past classics, like E.V. Rieu’s. In the end, the simple answer is don’t worry - work with what you’ve got most easily at hand. Any translation that has been printed by a major publisher has its merits.  Further reading:  The two recent translations we discuss at the start are: Emily Wilson (translator), The Odyssey (W. W. Norton and co) Daniel Mendelsohn (translator), The Odyssey (Chicago UP and Penguin Classics) Both are available in paperback. Earlier translations which you might enjoy, and trust, include:: Richmond Lattimore (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics) Robert Fitzgerald (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Peter Green (University of California Press) E. V. Rieu (Penguin Classics) Charlotte referred to Matthew Arnold’s lectures from the 1860s, “On Translating Homer”  @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube…

People in this episode

Hosts: Mary, Charlotte

Topics covered

• translations of the Odyssey
• modern literature
• classical literature
• reading recommendations
• Homer
• literary analysis

Keywords

• Odyssey
• translation
• Emily Wilson
• Daniel Mendelsohn
• Homer
• literature
• reading
• classics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: W. W. Norton and co, Chicago UP and Penguin Classics, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, University of California Press, Penguin Classics, Instant Classics, Vespucci

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• BONUS Emily Wilson on translating the Odyssey · August 18, 2026 · 50 min
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