MN Readalong : Homer’s The Odyssey in 2026

[EineReiseDurchDieZeit]

Proposing 2 chapters a month so for January

1. Athene Visits Telemachus
2. The Debate In Ithaca

Convening at the end of each month

Everyone welcome!

@BuffysBigSisteryou're good we aren’t discussing the chapters until the end of the month

I’m in, please! Had the Penguin Classics edition on my kindle for ages but never started it!

Welcome @PurpleLass1234

Made my way here via the film thread. I'm in, but I have big reading ambitions this year so I'm a bit nervous I'll fail miserably.
Just started W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz yesterday, which has been on my TBR list for a looooooooong time. 😂
Thanks for the thread @EineReiseDurchDieZeit !

I have the Robert Fagles Folio Society version, not sure where it is though! I'm going to dig it out and join if I may. Where are you going up to for the first month's reading?

Hi, it sounded like the first two chapters initially touted have similar names to this version, so I was going to aim to read the two by the end of the month... But no way will that work will it? There will be too much book left over at the end of the year! I don't know, I'm still going to try! What do you think?

@dudsville Aren't there 24 'books' in the epic? I thought we were doing 2 'books' a month.

The Emily Wilson version calls the first two books 'The Boy and the Goddess' and 'The Dangerous Journey'

@destiEosand @dudsville just do the first two chapters to start and if there’s an issue come Jan 31st, we’ll sort it then, maybe add some more chapters in. My copy has 24 chapters, hence 2 a month

Yes that’s what I mean @SheilaFentiman

Rejoined Audible to get the Claire Danes narration for 99p. This comes with some PDF maps which may well be helpful!

I just checked, mine also has 24 chapters, so they must be aligned.

Perfect @dudsvilleI can’t see the maps @SheilaFentiman

My copy has 3 maps, places in the 1st chapter. Is that similar to yours @SheilaFentiman ? I just saw I also have a pronunciation guide also imbeded in the 1st chapter. I won't be able to start reading for a few days as I need to finish something else first, but it will be fun to read along. I never enjoyed book groups because of having to read things I wasn't interested in or enjoying, this is a much better way, really looking forward ard to it.

Screenshots might help..?

I’ve made a start. Enjoying it so far but think I’m going to struggle to keep track of who is who.

Just saw your later post, mine has 24 "books" too, I think we'll be fine 🙂 Not sure how I'll hoist the big heavy tome up to read in bed, but at least I have pictures 😆

That is very pretty

Claire D has read me the first book - about 22 mins long 😀

I’m in, I bought the penguin Clothbound classics one as part of my collection, I hope it’s digestible! I’m conservatively aiming to read 6 classics this year so this will tick one!

@hmdxm1 I also collect the Clothbound Classics

@EineReiseDurchDieZeitbeautiful aren’t they!

I put preorders in. I don’t know what they are planning for 2026

Appreciate this is a read-a-long thread but just to say if any of you have kids still at home (or just enjoy a greek mythology podcast as tbh I think DH and I like it as much as the kids) I can highly recommend National Geographic's Greeking Out!

mine has just turned up, Emily Wilson translation also has 24 chapters.

i love the penguin classics cloth bound and have just started a collection, alongside Harper Muse classics with painted covers

I don't think I'll join this read-along, tempted as I am, because I've read the Odyssey several times already over the years, and I'm a bit overcommitted already this year to various read-alongs and book groups.

I will lurk though if that's all right because it's one of my favourite books ever!

All the translations will have 24 books (as the chapters of the epic are conventionally called) because the poem has been divided into 24 books since classical antiquity. If the books have titles, those are added by the modern translator (so the titles will differ from translator to translator). Although Books 1-4 have traditionally been called 'the Telemachy' due to their focus on Odysseus' son Telemachus.

The biggest choice to make when reading in translation is whether to read a prose version (more literal) or a verse translation. E.V. Rieu's translation is in prose. My favourite verse translations are the ones by Fagles, Lattimore and Wilson. Richmond Lattimore's is the one I know best, and I like it partly because there is one line of English for every one line of Greek, so it's quite close to the original in that regard. Wilson's translation is amazing, however: so clear and modern, but in iambic pentameter, so it sounds like poetry. Her introduction to her translation is fantastic as well. Incidentally, our paths crossed at uni, and she's a genuinely lovely person as well as an amazing scholar and translator.