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Which Odyssey translation wins a blind reading test?

homer.scrivium.com

1–10 of 82 posts

Re: Which Odyssey translation wins a blind reading test?

#3
At this point I don't think I'll see the movie because I don't want it to ruin the good memories/scenes I have in my mind from the book I read a few years ago. Maybe someday but I think I'll reread the book before then.

Also, there was too much data n the linked article. :)

Re: Which Odyssey translation wins a blind reading test?

#8
post #7

“How much you enjoy the prose” doesn’t really seem like the metric by which we should rank these? I’d prefer to read whatever’s most faithful to the original, which isn’t measured here.

Is there such thing as an original for a 3000 year old tale? The ancient Greek versions will be heavily edited and modified

Re: Which Odyssey translation wins a blind reading test?

#10

Sorry this could be offensive didn't mean to be.. Any Greek speakers who studied Homer in school here can share what are your favourite English translations? Prefer Lattimore or Fitzgerald as being closer to original?

Derek Thompson's Plain English podcast just had Emily Wilson on talking about comparisons between the translations, and quite a bit of the iconic lines of the Odyssey from the midcentury translations are kind of just made up. Like, "skilled in all ways of contending" from "man of many turns"; "the wanderer, harried for years on end" --- find that in the Greek?
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