πλέων ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον ἐπ' ἀλλοθρόους ἀνθρώπους, - 1.183 "sailing on the wine-dark sea to men of another language",   (Odyssey)

I recently watched Christopher Nolan’s new film version of ‘The Odyssey’ , which is an entire topic of its own (do go and watch it in an IMAX theatre if you possibly can). But the experience sent me back to my own bookshelves, to see which translations I had available of Homer’s original poem - a work which I first read almost 60 years ago as a young schoolboy, during a summer holiday heatwave rather like the present one.

By chance I stumbled across a recent YT video by EJ Borg called “Which Translation of Homer’s Odyssey Should you Read?”, and this provides a handy roundup of seven of the most popular English translations currently available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJD3PFlhFUI

For illustrative purposes, the video offers the same two sample passages (Book 1: 1-9 and Book 9: 473-482)  from each translation presented anonymously, and in random chronological order - and invites the viewer to grade them according to taste. The first passage contains the opening lines of the poem, and the second is the scene where Odysseus taunts the Cyclops as his men escape aboard their ships from the monster’s’ island.

The oldest translation on offer is by Alexander Pope (1721) which renders Homer’s dactylic hexameters in heroic couplets - rhyming pairs of lines in iambic pentameter English verse. The newest translations include  the one by Emily Wilson (2018) which is said to have inspired Christopher Nolan’s reading of the film, and the very latest one by Daniel Mendelsohn (2025) which like Emily Wilson’s translation offers a line-by line rendering of Homer’s original poem.

Honourable mentions include E.V Rieu’s lucid prose version (1946) which was the very first ever ‘Penguin Classic’ - a labour of love carried out during long nights spent in air-raid shelters during WW2, and that by American poet Robert Fagles (1996) who also translated ‘The Iliad’.

My own personal favourite English translation of ‘The Odyssey’ however is not mentioned in this video at all. It is one credited to T.E Shaw (1932) ‘Who he?” you may ask - well…  that translator is a pseudonym for T.E. Lawrence aka ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. Back in the early 1930s after publishing ’Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ (1926) a monumental first-hand account of his military experiences fighting in the Hejaz during WW1, Lawrence sought refuge from the public spotlight by secretly re-enlisting in the RAF under a false name as Aircraftman T.E. Shaw. He then spent four years translating ‘The Odyssey’ from the original Greek during his spare time from his RAF duties.

Lawrence’s translation fascinates me because of the remarkable background, he brings to the task as an archaeologist, scholar, linguist, traveller and war hero which perfectly complements a work he describes in a translator’s afterword as “the oldest book in the world worth reading for its story, and the first novel of Europe”.

First time I ever ran across a copy of it, I was maybe 5-6 years old, and it was in a foreign language that I assumed was Latin, but it may have been Greek. I was already familiar with the Iliad, the Odyssey and Aeneid, courtesy of a classical Italian education system ( those were our 'fairy' tales ).

I later watched a serialized black/white version on Italian TV ( about 1967 ), and to this day, I vividly recall the Cyclops ( Polyphemus ) eating Ulysses' men, blinding him after he was drunk, sneaking out under the bellies of the sheep, and the trickery with the 'nessuno' name ( Italian for 'nobody' ).
Being 7-8 years old, I couldn't sleep for weeks.

4 hours ago, toucana said:

It is one credited to T.E Shaw (1932) ‘Who he?” you may ask - well…  that translator is a pseudonym for T.E. Lawrence aka ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. Back in the early 1930s after publishing ’Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ (1926) a monumental first-hand account of his military experiences fighting in the Hejaz during WW1, Lawrence sought refuge from the public spotlight by secretly re-enlisting in the RAF under a false name as Aircraftman T.E. Shaw.

Apparently not his first alias. He previously enlisted under the name John Hume Ross, according to his Wikipedia article. I had no idea.

2 hours ago, MigL said:

First time I ever ran across a copy of it, I was maybe 5-6 years old, and it was in a foreign language that I assumed was Latin, but it may have been Greek. I was already familiar with the Iliad, the Odyssey and Aeneid, courtesy of a classical Italian education system ( those were our 'fairy' tales ).

I later watched a serialized black/white version on Italian TV ( about 1967 ), and to this day, I vividly recall the Cyclops ( Polyphemus ) eating Ulysses' men, blinding him after he was drunk, sneaking out under the bellies of the sheep, and the trickery with the 'nessuno' name ( Italian for 'nobody' ).
Being 7-8 years old, I couldn't sleep for weeks.

We had the E V Rieu translation read to us when we were kids. But I'm intrigued by the T E Lawrence version. Maybe I should look for it. I did read the 7 Pillars of Wisdom while I was working in the Middle East - thought it would be a good idea to see how an Englishman adapted to the Arab world.