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It may be summer, but school is back in session for those looking for a Homer refresher before watching Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
Nolan’s blockbuster is currently in theaters, and its star-studded cast alone is generating buzz. USA TODAY critic Brian Truitt called the film “the best work on the iconic director’s remarkable resume.”
Homer’s epic Greek poems have been translated countless times, but only one English translation by a woman has been published. Nolan has used several translations as inspiration, including that of Emily Wilson, and quoted her in an interview with Empire Magazine last year. Now Wilson’s translations are flying off the shelves.
Translations of Emily Wilson’s The Odyssey are in high demand
Even what is old can be new again. Sales of all translations of the 3,000-year-old epic are up 76% since the beginning of the year, according to Circana BookScan. Checkouts from e-book lender Libby are up 217% from this time last year, according to data shared with USA TODAY.
Some readers are looking for new formats to read classics. Gareth Hines’ graphic novel is one of the best-selling editions listed by BookScan. And global listening for “The Odyssey” audiobook on Spotify has increased by more than 300%, according to data provided exclusively to USA TODAY by Spotify.
But no edition has attracted more readers than Wilson’s 2017 edition, which is the best-selling edition of the year, according to BookScan.
Domestic sales of Wilson’s translations this year have already exceeded 1 million copies, said Emmy Wenstrup, a spokeswoman for WW Norton. Wilson’s publisher says the sales increase began after the film was announced in December 2024.
And be sure to check it out at your local library. Connor Goodwin, senior manager of public relations at the New York Public Library, said demand for Wilson’s translations “outweighs any other.” In the NYPL system, the largest in the country, Wilson’s editions account for 90% of the print holdings and 57% of the e-book and audiobook holdings.
What is different about Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey?
Wilson’s translation is decidedly modern, using plain, familiar language that includes words like “daddy,” “crazy,” and “tote bag.” This also applies to Nolan’s The Odyssey. The trailer in which Telemachus, played by Tom Holland, says “father” caused a stir.
Both Holland and Nolan defended the term, saying that the more traditional “father” was also inaccurate, as was the ancient Greek source material.
“English, all the registers, all the dialects of the English language, is a modern language. You can’t have that level of authenticity unless you compose the script entirely in Homeric Greek. That would be a lot of fun, but I don’t expect it to be a box office success,” Wilson told LADbible.
Wilson’s translation has been praised and criticized as a feminist translation of the Odyssey. In a 2017 New Yorker essay, Wilson wrote that he decided to translate the book so that readers could feel Penelope’s sadness over her marriage, rather than “glorifying or trivializing” it, as other versions had done.
In other instances, she avoids misogynistic expressions like “slut” and uses “girl” instead. Remarkably, this occurs after Odysseus orders Telemachus to slaughter Penelope’s suitors and kill the female slaves who slept with them.
“Modern translators and commentators often present the slaughter of these women as if it were commonplace and entirely justified,” Wilson wrote in The New Yorker. “In modern American English translations, murdered slaves are routinely described as ‘disobedient maids’ and labeled as ‘sluts’ or ‘prostitutes’. This is a level of verbal abuse that has no parallel in the Greek language.”
Claire Mulroy is USA TODAY’s books reporter, covering hot releases, chatting with authors, and diving into reading culture. please find her on instagramsubscribe weekly book newsletter Or tell her what you’re reading cmulroy@usatoday.com.
