MN Readalong : Homer’s The Odyssey in 2026

For those of you enjoying the Emily Wilson Translation, would you recommend it more as an Audiobook or Paperback? I quite like the idea of having a proper hard copy to hold, maybe because its such an old story, and maybe vanity would like to see it on the bookshelf! But these stories would originally have been told aloud, so I like the idea of listening to someone telling me the tales. I am also not great at names and understanding how they should be said when I read them. If someone reads them to me then I wont have to keep looking up how to say them aloud!

Any recommendations, listen or read do you have a preference.

(I borrowed a copy from the library for the read along but it has holds so will have to return it at the weekend and so far haven't had a chance to get started, but am due a hospital stay next month so thought I could catch up then)

Thanks.

Ah, I do agree, what a wonderful book 🙌

Gosh the end of the month seemed to come quickly! Thanks for the reminder, @Stowickthevast .

I love Glorious Exploits! It was my top read of 2024

I've finally managed to jump into this but only read book one so far (Emily Wilson translation) and loving it.

For a very different book inspired by ancient Greek culture, I highly recommend Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon.

I had a lovely lunch break today sitting in the sun reading books 3 & 4. Feel like we're getting into the story properly now. I'm looking forward to discussing it this weekend.

Joining in a bit late as I got a bit bogged down in the Preface, but once I got to the text (Emily Wilson’s translation) it was fantastic. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I particularly liked the dialogue and the conflict between Telemachus and the suitors as this felt especially vivid.

On a side note, my Kindle version has some really cute drawings of owls between each book, which I very much appreciate. E-books have many advantages for me (don’t take up bookcase space, don’t require dusting, make it harder to skip ahead etc.) but I still miss the maps and pictures of real books.

I just had a library notification that the copy I ordered has arrived so I hope to join you all for discussion at the end of the month.

On Greek inspired stories, I just read Daughter of Darkness, which is not based on any story, but is set in the world. So a group of people are on a epic adventure through the underworld. I thought it was very good. Aimed at YA I believe.

Stone Blind I didn't really like that much, I did like Song of Achilles though.

Ds is reading a graphic novel of The Odyssey and I've asked to borrow it after he's finished 🤗
I promise to read the real thing as well but I feel it may help.

I will be on holiday on 28th but look forward to reading everyone’s thoughts, DD is buying me Emily Wilson’s translation of The Illyad for my birthday,

I too was
rrally disappointed with the last book of Pat Barker’s trilogy- I had saved it to read while I was in the Peloponnese and visited Mycenae which nearly made it more disappointing. The mythical retelling I enjoyed most was The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley from Cassandra’s point of view but I was about 20 when I read it and such horror stories have come out about the author since that I couldn’t recommend it.
I’m doing a buddy read of Ulysses this summer - not confident that I’ll get through it but I reckon this reread of the Odyssey can only help.
(Edited for autocorrect)

@BookEngine I have read quite a few modern novels relating to Homer and most of them are unconvincing (IMHO 🤓). However, I absolutely adored The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason. I don't know how to describe it really, it's little sections that play with the story.... Recommend!
I also adore Nobody by Alice Oswald -a book length poem based on the Odyssey.

Thank you so much for this post and the substack link. That article made me very happy!

I am loving The Odyssey, thank you. Have a mild obsession with Gk myths and Greece itself. As annoying as Telemachus is, he was a product of his time I think. I wonder why the other supposedly great men (Mentor, Nestor etc) didn’t step in sooner and at least offer advice,if not actual support.

@BookEngine I didn't like the last of the Pat Barker trilogy much either - being with a different character after Briseis worked less well IMO.

I was bored by Stone Blind and disappointed by the final Pat Barker but maybe Iwas a little distracted at the time. I thought maybe I'd burnt my way through and out of the niche.
I did find Natalie Haynes an engaging speaker, just didn't gel with that book.
Very excited about the original in such a thoughtful translation. I'm pretty certain the last version I looked through was Marcia Williams and the previous one was from 1980s Slough Borough councils library service.

I think A Thousand Ships is better than Stone Blind.

Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad is great imo! A feminist perspective.
I second Song of Achilles and Pat Barker. Also A Thousand Ships.

There's a section in her Translator 's Note which says she's tried to achieve "a stylistic simplicity that I hope echoes the original". She talks about the (in her eyes incorrect) idea that Homer should be "rendered in grand, ornate, rhetorically elevated English". I don't read Greek so I've no clue, but it sounds like a lot of previous translators took it upon themselves to "improve" the original!
The whole note is worth a read I think. I liked reading about her process.

Have you read The Song of Achilles @BookEngine ? Also very good and it's set at the time of the Iliad so before the Odyssey. I also think Pat Barker's Women Of Troy series is good and puts into context some of the characters.
I've found some of the others a mixed bag. Stone Blind was ok, read a little YA to me and my 13 year old loved it.

This is perfect, ordering the Wilson translation immediately.
Just alongside, I'd like to re read Circe which a few years ago I thought was marvellous. Have been a bit disappointed by some of the other re-tellings, anyone recommend anything?

Have you tried reading it aloud? You might hear and feel the rhythm more that way. It's not poetic in the sense of rhyme and wimsy, but in the rhythm used because they were originally for singing or reciting. Wilson has used an English equivalent of the rhythm used in the Greek (because it wouldn't work in English).

There are other translations that took a different approach and ditched any rhythm but tried to make it sound archaic/flowery/Shakespearean. You could perhaps try one of those if you think you would enjoy that more?

The epic part of "epic poem" comes more from the themes told, the poem part was just the rhythm.

It's the Wilson translation. I think I was expecting it to be a bit like Shakespeare! It just sounds like prose to my ear. I will keep going anyway.

Thanks for all the interesting comments so far! Especially the language analysis which I find fascinating. I like the natural, down-to-earth feel of the Wilson, I get the impression it makes the story more realistic and current than other, more flowery and archaic translations might do (not that I've read any others - only some bits in the original at uni).

I find it difficult to understand what we are meant to think of Telemachus - he's so incredibly immature for a 20-odd-year-old (at that time, when men would be married with kids and going to war at the same sort of age - things are a bit different now and we all definitely have a longer adolescence!). Are we supposed to think that being brought up by only women in the absence of his father has caused his childishness? Or is it the fact of having the suitors around all the time, treating him like a kid but without the usual parental support to get him to manhood? I'm sure we're definitely meant to be comparing him (unfavourably) with Odysseus at the same age.

And again, what are we supposed to think about his rudeness about, and dismissiveness of, his mother (suggesting Odysseus might not be his father, assuming she can be - and needs to be - unaware of his journey, ordering her about)? I would like to think these are actions which we are meant to judge negatively, but actually I get the impression that we are supposed to applaud them as glimpses of manliness and maturity - ordering women around and treating them like lesser beings is what being a man is all about!

Overall, I'm not a fan of the first two books due to their focus on Telemachus, though I do appreciate the filmic nature of starting towards the end of the story before jumping back.

@Dolamroth which translation are you reading? Some are more flowery than others. I think Wilson's is purposefully more plain speaking (personally I've enjoyed it for its clarity). If you've got hers you may prefer a different edition.
I think it does also start in a fairly domestic way with some bickering about who's eaten all the pigs 😅