Emily Wilson is retranslating The Odyssey from scratch
Emily Wilson is retranslating The Odyssey from scratch, not revising her celebrated 2017 edition. The University of Pennsylvania classicist told the Associated Press she is about halfway through the wholesale redo, which comes weeks after she called Christopher Nolan's summer blockbuster adaptation "abysmal" in the London Review of Books.
Key Takeaways
- Wilson is doing a complete retranslation and says she is already about halfway through.
- Her 2017 Odyssey was the first major English version by a woman and has sold more than a million copies.
- The new edition will be longer, with more endnotes and refined language around enslavement.
- Wilson sparked a cultural firestorm by panning Nolan's film after he cited her opening line as inspiration.
- Translators rarely restart a bestselling work within a decade, experts say.
Why is Emily Wilson retranslating The Odyssey?
Nine years after publishing the first complete English translation of Homer's epic by a woman, Wilson says her methods have grown more sophisticated. In a statement reported by the New York Times, she explained she wants an approach closer to her 2023 Iliad translation, using somewhat more lines than the original to allow more varied word length and pacing.
She also told the AP that enough time has passed for her to see flaws in her earlier work. As one example, she believes she overused the word "slave" when ancient Greek had different terms for different categories of enslaved people. The new edition will better reflect the differing social worlds of Homer's poem.
How will the new translation differ from the 2017 version?
Wilson has been clear this is not a touch-up. "It's a complete retranslation. It's not a revision of the old version," she told the AP during a recent Zoom interview from her home in Philadelphia.
She says the new book will be longer and include much more extensive endnotes. Critics noted stylistic differences between her effervescent Odyssey and the denser Iliad; Wilson now aims to bridge that gap. Her famous opening line, "Tell me about a complicated man," which Nolan specifically cited, will "probably" remain unchanged.
What did Wilson say about Christopher Nolan's Odyssey film?
Wilson's film criticism drew as much attention as her translation news. After Nolan named her 2017 book as an inspiration for his adaptation, sales surged. But in late July, Wilson wrote in the London Review of Books that she would be "ashamed to have written any part of this script," calling the writing "abysmal" and criticizing its lack of psychological and emotional depth.
The backlash was fierce. Joyce Carol Oates faulted her "haughty superiority," while Nolan, without naming Wilson, told podcaster Zhong Shu he opposes "amateur criticism" from those lacking cinematic expertise. The controversy landed squarely in Celebrity Breaking News, where Wilson has become one of the rare classical scholars with a very public life.
When will Wilson's new Odyssey be published?
Few details are confirmed. Wilson told the AP the project is still a few years from completion, with no publication date announced. Her editor at Liveright Publishing, Peter Simon, said her new approach is "bound to be thrilling," though Wilson acknowledged the decision was "very controversial" and may frustrate teachers juggling two recent editions.
Kate Deimling of the American Translators Association told the AP she cannot recall a comparable case of a translator restarting a full-length bestseller so soon. For more on the announcement, see the Associated Press report.