LyrArc Article Gist
Christopher Nolan's Odyssey film now in theaters in the US was inspired by Emily Wilson's recent translation of the Greek writer Homer's epic poem of the ten years of struggle getting back home to Ithaca from the Trojan War. Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Here she reads passages from her translation and answers questions about her version of the epic poem. She is the first woman to translate Homer's epic. Wilson brings a unique perspective to the translation from a woman's viewpoint- she expresses views on the women in the epic poem and slaves. She sees a different Odysseus from the brave adventurer who overcome years of adventures and hardship to get back home. She starts with the line - "He is a complicated individual" and says in the interview and remarks here that she wanted to put everything in the modern style of simple prose, something that can be clearly understood and not need to be guessed at as in a poem.