The Essential HomerMy rating: 1 of 5 stars

I love Homer, and I love reading translations of Homer. This is the first one I think I ever gave so low a rating. I do feel kind of bad about it, and initially changed it to two stars, but then dropped it back to one. It’s primarily about the translator’s choices. First, he chose to eliminate or spice up the many repetitive items in the original Greek text, things like epithets for people and adjectives for events (e.g. rosy-fingered dawn). I think that the repetition of epithets and phrases work. Indeed, they are likely due to the poems originally being oral works as the introduction states, but they continue to add value in a written work, especially one of this length. They provide markers for the reader/listener and I think help build excitement and drama. I recently read Caroline Alexander’s translation of the Iliad and her use of repetition that is in the original text was beautiful. I highly recommend her Iliad.

Another choice the narrator made, and one that might be useful for some, is to bring colloquial American language to the text. Curses, slang, etc. pop up. Now, I don’t want crazy archaic words and seriously twisted Miltonian phrasing, but the contemporary slang just doesn’t work for me. Perhaps it would be useful to get young people excited by a text that can be daunting, overwhelming and at times boring. For whatever reason, I took to Homer when I read the Odyssey in high school and I’ve been with him ever since. Maybe some of these words will hook new people who then might explore the text deeper through other translators and the original text.