<p>Hi all! This is kind of a nerdy post...I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on what the best translation of Homer's The Odyssey is? I have to read it over the summer for Boston College's Honors Program. Thanks :)</p>
<p>Lattimore is the most accurate - my favourite. Fagles takes about twice as long to say things as Lattimore does. Pope is phenomenally inaccurate but does it in iambic pentameter.</p>
<p>Yeah, that's what I heard. But isn't Fagles' version more eloquent?</p>
<p>bump........................</p>
<p>FYI: I don't meander down to the Cafe often, so PM or email.</p>
<p>Hard for me to say. I don't have Lattimore with me (it's "at school," and I'm "at home") - but Lattimore is very accurate. I did translate some of the Oddysey, and found Lattimore to be very technically accurate. With Fagles, there is no way to get the translation and his words meshed together. He is more florid, I guess you could say. If you are reading it as a story, try Fagles. My own preference is for Lattimore, more for the accuracy of translation than the beauty of the words.</p>
<p>Try Robert Fitzgerald's version!...that's what we used in my Greek and Roman Myth class, and my professor annually rates the best translations of Greek works/textbooks on the subject...he also speaks/reads ancient Greek, which i always thought was cool.</p>