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NOTE: This review is for Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey. A computer glitch seems to be including reviews for other translations and the Iliad on this page. Review: A good intro if you haven't read the Odyssey before. It's clear and direct, more than other translations. It has a pounding, unapologetic simplicity, like that of Greek architecture and sculpture. More than in other translations, the Odyssey comes across here as a historical document, the product of a time and place. For a document written 3,000 years ago, this is no small task. But the Odyssey is also a poem; and in that regard, this is weaker than other translations. It has some of the muscularity of ancient Greece, with a solid rhythm and a steady flow of English monosyllables. Although many lines are smooth, they feel pedestrian. Its opening lines: "Tell me about a complicated man. Muse, tell me how he wandered and was lost when he had wrecked the holy town of Troy, and where he went, and who he met, the pain he suffered in the storms at sea, and how he worked to save his life and bring his men back home. He failed to keep them safe; poor fools," The first line may be a fine translation, but it's a poor line of poetry. (And almost interchangeable with "He's a complicated man, but no one understands him but his woman.") The other lines are stronger, especially the final line ("He failed to keep them safe; poor fools"), which has no counterpart in other translations. Should a translation of an ancient Greek poem be a great modern English poem in itself? Maybe not, and maybe trying too hard will take us too far from the original. Homer has been translated by major English poets back to Alexander Pope, whose version was called a major English poem in itself. If that's what you're expecting, you may feel let down by many of the word choices here. Compare Wilson's language with that of the opening of Robert Fitzgerald's translation: "Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy. He saw the townlands and learned the minds of many distant men, and weathered many bitter nights and days in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only to save his life, to bring his shipmates home. But not by will nor valor could he save them," Wilson's translation is clear and economical. She renders Homer's "polytropos" (in the first line) as "complicated." Fitzgerald translates it as "skilled in all ways of contending," and Fagles as "the man of twists and turns." Both are less clear, but strike me as a more interesting grouping of words and syllables. Some other nice things about this version: it comes with a long, thoughtful introduction. At 100 pages in the hardback version, it's almost a book by itself. The typesetting is new and beautiful, and a pleasure to read.