Sidebar: Three Translations of “The Odyssey” by Homer

In preparing my review of Daniel Mendelsohn’s new translation of The Odyssey, I made a detailed comparison of how it matched against Emily Wilson’s 2018 version and the 1967 rendering of the epic by noted translator Richmond Lattimore.

I chose Wilson’s because Mendelsohn argued in his prefatory remarks that her translation was faulty since it employed iambic pentameter instead of the much longer hexameter version that he used.  I included Lattimore because, like Mendelsohn, he utilized a six-beat line.

Here are thirteen side-by-side versions of scenes from the epic.  You decide which one you like the best.

 

Book I – Athena’s spear

 

Mendelsohn: Book 1: 99-101

She took up her mighty spear. Tipped with a sharp point of bronze,

Heavy, huge, stout, she wields it to break the battalions

Of heroes with whom she is wroth — a mighty father’s true daughter.

 

Wilson: Book 1: 100-103

She took the heavy bronze-tipped spear she uses

to tame the ranks of warriors with whom

she is enraged….

 

Lattimore: Book 1: 99-101

Then she caught up a powerful spear, edged with sharp bronze,

heavy, huge, thick, wherewith she beats down the battalions of fighting

men, against whom she of the mighty father is angered,…

 

*

 

Book V – Hermes flying to Calypso

 

Mendelsohn: Book 5: 50-53

Swooping down, he set foot on Pieria; then he plunged into the sea

And skimmed along the breakers like nothing so much as a tern,

Which drenches its thick plumage in the brine as it hunts for fish

Down through the troughs of the breakers on the restless wastes of the sea.

 

Wilson: Book 5: 50-53

He touched Pieria, then from the sky

he plunged into the sea and swooped between

the waves, just like a seagull catching fish,

wetting its whirring wings in tireless brine.

 

Lattimore: Book 5: 55-53

He stood on Pieria and launched himself from the bright air

across the sea and sped the wave tops, like a shearwater

who along the deadly deep ways of the barren salt sea

goes hunting fish and sprays quick-beating wings in the salt brine.

 

*

 

Book V – Calypso bad-mouths Penelope

 

Mendelsohn: Book 5, 211-213

“This much I will say: I doubt I am lesser than she,

No, not when it comes to my figure, now in full bloom—it’s unthinkable

For mortals to vie with immortals in either their build or their looks.”

 

Wilson: Book 5, 211-214

“And anyway, I know my body is

better than hers is.  I am taller too.

Mortals can never rival the immortals

in beauty.”

 

Lattimore: Book 5, 210-3

“And yet

I think that I can claim that I am not her inferior

either in build or stature, since it is not likely that mortal

women can challenge the goddesses for build and beauty.”

 

*

 

Book VII – Odysseus wants to return home

 

Mendelsohn: Book 7, 151-152

“But to me, please grant an escort home to the land of my fathers —

Quickly, since far from my loved ones I have suffered great pain for so long.”

 

Wilson: Book 7, 151-153

“Now help me, please, to get back home, and quickly!

I miss my family.  I have been gone

so long it hurts.”

 

Lattimore: Book 7: 151-152

“But for me, urge that conveyance to be given quickly

to my country, since long now far from my people I suffer hardships.”

 

*

 

Book IX – The Cyclops Polyphemos starts to eat Odysseus’s men

 

Mendelsohn: Book 9: 288-293

No! Springing to his feet, he laid violent hands on my comrades.

Grabbing two of them at once, he dashed them down on the earth

Like pups, and their brains poured out on the ground, drenching the earth.

He tore them limb from limb, then went about making his supper.

He ate like a lion reared in the mountains — not a morsel left over,

Not the innards nor the flesh nor the bones bursting with marrow.

 

Wilson: Book 9: 287-292

…..Leaping

up high, he reached his hands toward my men,

seized two, and knocked them hard against the ground

like puppies, and the floor was wet with brains.

He ripped them limb by limb to make his meal,

then ate them like a lion on the mountains,

devouring flesh, entrails, and marrow bones.

 

Lattimore: Book 9: 288-293

…but sprang up and reached for my companions,

caught up two together and slapped them, like killing puppies,

against the ground, and the brains ran all over the floor, soaking

the ground. Then he cut them up limb by limb and got supper ready,

and like a lion reared in the hills, without leaving anything,

ate them, entrails, flesh and the marrowy bones alike….

 

*

 

Book XI – Achilles yearns to be alive

 

Mendelsohn: Book 11, 488-491

“Don’t you sweet-talk me about death, illustrious Odysseus!

I would far rather live off the earth as the serf of another man —

Some man with a pitiful portion who barely ekes out a living —

Than rule here as the lord of all those who are dead and gone.”

 

Wilson: Book 11, 488-491

“Odysseus, you must not comfort me

for death.  I would prefer to be a workman,

hired by a poor man on a peasant farm,

than rule as king of all the dead.”

 

Lattimore: Book 11, 488-91

“O shining Odysseus, never try to console me for dying.

I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another

man, one with no land allotted him and not much to live on,

than be a king over all the perished dead…”

 

*

 

Book XI – Orion hunting in Hades

 

Mendelsohn: Book 11, 572-575

After I had seen him I caught sight of gigantic Orion

Rounding up the wild beasts all through the asphodel meadow

That he himself had killed upon the lonely mountains.

He was holding a club in his hands — solid bronze, it had never been broken.

 

Wilson: Book 11, 573-5

…….  I saw great Orion, chasing

across the fields of asphodel the beasts

he killed when living high in lonely mountains,

holding his indestructible bronze club.

 

Lattimore: Book 11, 572-5

After him I was aware of gigantic Orion

in the meadow of asphodel rounding up and driving together

wild animals he himself had killed in the lonely mountains,

holding in his hands a brazen club, forever unbroken.

 

*

 

Book XII – Eurylochus argues to eat the Sun God’s cattle

 

Mendelsohn: Book 12: 350-351

“Well, I’d rather lose my life at once by gagging on a wave

Than waste away, drop by drop, here on this desert island!”

 

Wilson: Book 12: 350-352

“I would prefer to drink the sea and die

at once, than perish slowly, shriveled up

here on this desert island.”…

 

Lattimore: Book 12: 350-351

“I would far rather gulp the waves and lose my life in them

once for all, than be pinched to death on this desolate island.”

 

*

 

Book XVII – Argos dies

 

Mendelsohn: Book 17: 326-7

And Argos? His fate — black death — took him in its grip

The moment he saw Odysseus, after twenty years had passed.

 

Wilson: Book 17: 325-328

…..Twenty years

had passed since Argos saw Odysseus,

and now he saw him for the final time —

then suddenly, black death took hold of him.

 

Lattimore: Book 17: 326-327

But the doom of dark death now closed over the dog, Argos,

when, after nineteen years had gone by, he had seen Odysseus.

 

*

 

Book XXI – Penelope cries over Odysseus’s bow

 

Mendelsohn: Book 21: 53-56

Reaching up as she stood on tiptoe, she took the bow from its peg

Along with the bow-case, which gleamed as it cradled the bow inside.

She sat right down on the ground, placing the case on her knees

As she wept, keening shrilly; then she took out the bow of her lord.

 

Wilson: Book 21: 51-55

…..and reached to lift the bow

down from its hook, still in its shining case.

She sat down on the floor to take it out,

resting it on her lap, and started sobbing

and wailing as she saw her husband’s bow.

 

Lattimore: Book 21: 53-57

From there she reached, and took the bow from its peg, where it hung,

in its own case, a shining thing that covered it. Thereupon

she sat down, and laid the bow on her dear knees, while she

took her lord’s bow out of tis case, all the while weeping

aloud…

 

*

 

Book XXII – Odysseus reveals himself to the Suitors

 

Mendelsohn: Book 22, 1-7

But, stripping off his rags, Odysseus, that man of great cunning,

Leapt up upon the great threshold, holding the bow and the quiver

Which was filled to the brim with arrows.  He poured the swift arrows out

Right there by his feet, then spoke a word to the Suitors:

“So this fateful contest of yours is well and truly over!

Now I’ll find another target which no one has ever shot at

Before — and if I hit it, may Apollo grant me glory.”

 

Wilson: Book 22, 1-7

Odysseus ripped off his rags.  Now naked,

he leapt upon the threshold with his bow

and quiverfull of arrows, which he tipped

out in a rush before his feet, and spoke,

“Playtime is over.  I will shoot again,

towards another mark no man his hit.

Apollo, may I manage it!”

 

Lattimore: Book 22: 1-7

Now resourceful Odysseus stripped his rags from him, and sprang

up atop the great threshold, holding his bow and the quiver

filled with arrows, and scattered out the swift shafts before him

on the ground next to his feet, and spoke his word to the suitors:

“Here is a task that has been achieved, without any deception.

Now I shall shoot at another mark, one that no man yet

has struck, if I can hit it and Apollo grants me glory.

 

*

 

Book XXII – The slaying of Leiodes

 

Mendelsohn: Book 22, 326-329

And so, having spoken these words, his sturdy hand grasped the sword

That was lying there — Agelaos had dropped it one the ground

When he was killed — and with that sword he drove straight through the neck.

Leiodes was still talking when his head mixed in with the dust.

 

Wilson: Book 22, 326-330

Agelaus had dropped

his sword when he was killed.  With his strong arm

Odysseus swung, slashed down and sliced right through

the priest’s neck, and his head, still framing words,

rolled in the dust.

 

Lattimore: Book 22: 326-329

So he spoke, and in his heavy hand caught up a sword

that was lying there on the ground where Agelaos had dropped it

when he was killed. With this he cut through the neck at the middle,

and the head of Leodes dropped in the dust while he was still speaking.

 

*

 

Book XXII – The hanging of the female servants

 

Mendelsohn: Book 22, 468-473

Just as when some thrushes with their slender wings, or some doves,

Go crashing into a snare that’s been set inside a bush

As they’re heading to their nests — but a loathsome bed welcomes them:

So did the women hold their heads all in a row, and the nooses

Went round the necks of them all so they’d die a most piteous death.

For a time, their feet went on twitching; but not for very long.

 

Wilson: Book 22, 468-474

As doves or thrushes spread their wings to fly

home to their nests, but someone sets a trap —

they crash into a net, a bitter bedtime;

just so the girls, their heads all in a row,

were strung up with the noose around their necks

to make their death an agony.  They gasped,

feet twitching for a while, but not for long.

 

Lattimore: Book 22: 467-472

….and like thrushes, who spread their wings, or pigeons, who have

flown into a snare set up for them in a thicket, trying

to find a resting place, but the sleep given them was hateful;

so their heads were all in a line, and each had her neck caught

fast in a noose, so that their death would be most pitiful.

They struggled with their feet for a little, not for very long.