Archive · 31 Aug 2026
Emily Wilson Retranslates The Odyssey Nearly a Decade Later
Emily Wilson translated The Odyssey into English in 2017.
She was the first woman to translate this famous poem into English.
Now she is translating it again from the beginning.
The new version will not simply fix or edit the old one.
It will be longer and will show more clearly how different people lived in the poem’s world.
Wilson’s first version sold more than a million copies.
Sales increased after Christopher Nolan announced a movie inspired partly by her translation.
Wilson has criticized the movie and says her new translation is still a few years away.
Emily Wilson is retranslating Homer’s The Odyssey nearly 10 years after her first version.
Her new edition will not revise the 2017 translation and will be longer.
Wilson said it will better reflect the differing social worlds in Homer’s poem.
Her 2017 translation has sold more than one million copies and gained sales after Christopher Nolan announced his film.
Wilson is halfway through the new translation, which will again be published by W. W. Norton and may take several more years.
- Who
- Emily Wilson is retranslating Homer’s The Odyssey; W. W. Norton will publish the new edition.
- What
- Wilson is producing a new English translation rather than revising her 2017 version.
- When
- She announced the project nearly 10 years after her first translation and said she is currently halfway finished.
- Where
- The work concerns an English translation of Homer’s poem; the publisher is W. W. Norton.
- Why
- Wilson said the new edition will be longer and better reflect the differing social worlds of the poem.
Wilson’s criticism
Nolan’s adaptation
Approach to The Odyssey
Wilson’s criticism
Wilson said Nolan’s adaptation lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth, and called its narrative structure gimmicky and its writing abysmal.
Nolan’s adaptation
Nolan announced a film inspired by The Odyssey and cited Wilson’s translation, including its opening sentence, “Tell me about a complicated man.” The articles do not provide Nolan’s response to Wilson’s criticism.
- Original translation
- Published in 2017 by W. W. Norton.
- Sales
- The 2017 translation has sold more than one million copies.
- New edition
- It will be a new translation, not a revision of the 2017 version.
- Planned length
- Wilson said the new edition will be longer.
- Progress
- Wilson said she is halfway through the new translation.
- Timeline
- She said completion is still a few years away.
- Film connection
- Christopher Nolan cited Wilson’s translation and its opening sentence as inspiration for his film.