The Odyssey

Praise for Robert Fagles Translation of The Odyssey

“Wonderfully readable… Just the right blend of roughness and sophistication.”—Ted Hughes

“Robert Fagles is the best living translator of ancient Greek drama, lyric poetry, and epic into modern English.”—Garry Wills, The New Yorker

“Mr. Fagles has been remarkably successful in finding a style that is of our time and yet timeless.”—Richard Jenkyns, The New York Times Book Review

Homer

Homer was the poet who the Greeks believed singularly composed The Iliad and The Odyssey. Nothing is known of his life. While seven Greek cities claim the honor of being his birthplace, ancient tradition places him in Ionia, located in the eastern Aegean coast. His birthdate is undocumented as well, though most modern scholars place the composition of The Iliad and The Odyssey in the late eighth or early seventh century B.C.

Robert Fagles (1933-2008)

Robert Fagles was the Arthur W. Marks ‘19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He received a National Humanities Medal in 2006 and won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from The Academy of American Poets twice, once for Homer’s The Iliad in 1991 and then again in 2007 for The Aeneid. His translations of Sophocles’s The Three Theban Plays, Aeschylus’s The Oresteia (nominated for a National Book Award), The Iliad (which also won an award from The Translation Center of Columbia University), and Homer’s The Odyssey are all published in Penguin Classics.

Bernard Knox (1914-2010)

Bernard Knox was Director Emeritus of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He won the 1976-77 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism and the 1990 PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award for Essays Ancient and Modern. Knox fought in the Spanish Civil War and World War II; France decorated him with the Croix de Guerre for special operations behind German lines in 1944, and the US Army awarded him two Bronze Stars for combat in Italy. He also edited The Norton Book of Classical Literature, and collaborated with Robert Fagles on The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, and The Three Theban Plays.

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