Emily Wilson Is Translating ‘The Odyssey’ Again—and Treating a Classic as a Living Argument

A rare return to the same epic

Wilson's 2017 English translation of 'The Odyssey' has sold more than one million copies and became a central text in classrooms and public debate. She told the Associated Press she is now halfway through a complete retranslation, not a lightly revised edition.

Translators regularly correct errors or update introductions, but producing a wholly new version of the same ancient poem after a recent bestseller is unusual. Wilson says her understanding of Homer and her own translating practice have changed enough to justify beginning again.

The decision presents translation as interpretation rather than substitution. Ancient Greek words carry histories, social hierarchies and tonal possibilities that no single English phrase can preserve all at once.

The first translation changed the audience

Wilson used a regular English meter and direct language that many readers found accessible without treating the poem as simple. Her choices about enslaved women, power and the hero's conduct also drew intense attention, including criticism that the translation imposed modern politics.

Every translation makes choices shaped by language and time, including versions that readers have learned to consider traditional. Naming those choices openly can make the process more rigorous because readers can compare what is gained, softened or emphasized.

The success of Christopher Nolan's film adaptation and renewed public interest in Homer have expanded the potential audience. That attention can flatten the poem into adventure spectacle, but it can also send readers back to the competing meanings of the source.

A classic survives through disagreement

A new Wilson translation will not replace every earlier version. Students and general readers benefit from putting different renderings side by side and asking why a sentence changes character, blame or rhythm.

The project is news because a famous translator is willing to challenge her own celebrated work. Its larger cultural argument is that fidelity is not achieved once and sealed forever; it is tested through renewed attention to language, history and readers.

Limits and what to watch

Wilson is about halfway through the new translation; it is not a published book yet, and describing it as a correction of a failed first version would misrepresent her stated purpose.

The next development to watch is completion, publication details and close comparison of how the new text handles voice, meter, gender, violence and ambiguity.