"English Translators of Homer": A Review

For those unaware, Christopher Nolan is making a movie of Odyssey:

> An adaptation of the ancient Greek epic poem the Odyssey attributed to Homer, the film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, and chronicles his long and perilous journey home following the Trojan War as he attempts to reunite with his wife, Penelope. The ensemble cast also features Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong'o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and Jon Bernthal, among others.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Odyssey_(2026_film)

Logue's War Music is easily the finest poetic work of the late 20th century, but it's not a full translation -- it only covers a few books, a fraction of the total Iliad -- and I think that it's better understood as a supplement to Homer. It works as a thing in itself, but it works 100x better if you're already familiar with the Iliad and are ready for a fresh perspective on a few select scenes.

Finishing the job would be a tremendous undertaking, on par with Ezra Pound's Cantos. It should eventually be attempted by somebody, though.

This kind of link always makes me want to plug a 25 year-old episode of C-SPAN’s Book Notes, featuring Stanley Lombardo—beating a drum in rhythm with a reading of his then-recent Odyssey translation—and Christopher Hitchens, among others.

https://www.c-span.org/program/book-tv/discussion-of-homers-...

Literati YouTube before it was cool.

I honestly wonder, what kind of person writes a book that compares translations without thinking to include ample examples? Are they intentionally trying to limit their audience?

> I’m serious, read Knox’s review, and tell me if it doesn’t make you want to read Logue

Yeah it makes me want to read him like a clickbait title and thumbnail make me click on a youtube video. It works, but it's not healthy.

I've never read Christopher Logue, but the examples shown here and in a quoted article show that it's not a translation, so I don't see the point to use it in an article about translation and translator. For the work itself, I don't see the interest and the point in 2025, but maybe it was different in the period's zeitgest

Daniel Mendelsohn's new translation of Odyssey came out in April this year. He claims to have taken a more litteral approach following on the footsteps of Lattimore.

Did anyone here read it?

I'd so much rather see a top-shelf adaptation of _The Song of Achilles_

In the age of AI, Butler deserves more recognition.

Fitzgerald and Green are the top two in my opinion.