Why the Translation Matters
Homer composed the Odyssey in ancient Greek dactylic hexameter, a rhythmic pattern that does not exist in English. You cannot translate it directly. Every translator has to make choices: do I keep the line-by-line structure or let the sentences flow naturally? Do I use "the rosy-fingered dawn" every time Homer does, or do I vary it? Do I write in verse or prose? These choices shape the entire reading experience. Two people can read "the same book" in different translations and come away with very different feelings about it.
There is no single "best" translation. There is the best translation for you, depending on whether you want literary accuracy, poetic energy, modern clarity, or something you can listen to comfortably for hours. Here is how the major options compare.
Samuel Butler (1900): The Classic Prose Version
Butler's translation turns Homer's verse into straightforward English prose. It reads like a novel. There are no line breaks, no verse rhythms, just clear, flowing narrative that pulls you forward. Butler was a Victorian-era writer, so some of the phrasing has a slightly formal flavor ("methinks," "I pray you"), but the sentences are clean and the story moves.
The case for Butler: It is the most accessible prose translation ever produced. First-time readers who find verse intimidating can pick this up and follow the story without tripping over line breaks or poetic inversions. It is also in the public domain, which means it is freely available online and is the text used in many audiobook and digital editions, including ours.
The case against Butler: Because it is prose, you lose the rhythmic pulse that Homer's audience would have felt. The language, while clear, occasionally sounds like a product of 1900 rather than of ancient Greece or modern English. Scholars sometimes find it too smooth, arguing that it polishes away the rougher, stranger textures of the original.
Best for: First-time readers, listeners, anyone who wants to experience the story without wrestling with verse form. Butler's prose works especially well as an audiobook because the sentence rhythms translate naturally to spoken performance. The text flows the way a storyteller talks, which is appropriate for a poem that was originally performed by storytellers.
Robert Fagles (1996): The Dramatic Performer
Fagles wrote his translation in loose iambic pentameter, giving it a muscular, driving rhythm that feels like it was built for reading aloud. His language is vivid and physical. Battles hit hard. Speeches soar. The Cyclops scene in his version is genuinely terrifying. Fagles was a performer at heart, and his Odyssey sounds like a performance.
The case for Fagles: This is the translation that made the Odyssey feel exciting to a generation of readers. The energy is incredible. Fagles finds ways to make the ancient text feel urgent and alive without modernizing it into something it is not. His version is the one most often assigned in American college courses, and for good reason: it is the translation that students tend to finish.
The case against Fagles: He takes liberties. Fagles sometimes expands lines, adds intensity that is not in the Greek, and smooths over ambiguities that other translators preserve. Purists argue that his Homer is a little too Hollywood, a little too polished. Some of the quiet, strange, unsettling quality of the original gets lost in the drive to make everything dramatic.
Best for: Readers who want to feel the energy of the poem and do not mind sacrificing some literal accuracy for momentum. If you want the Odyssey to grab you by the collar and not let go, Fagles is the one.
Emily Wilson (2018): The Modern Reimagining
Wilson's translation was a landmark. She was the first woman to publish a complete English translation of the Odyssey, and she brought a fresh perspective to every line. Her language is plain, direct, and contemporary. Where other translators use elaborate phrasing, Wilson cuts to the bone. Her first line translates Homer's polytropos as "complicated man," which sparked debates in classics departments and bookstores alike.
The case for Wilson: She makes you see the poem with new eyes. Her translation challenges assumptions that readers have carried for centuries, particularly around how women and enslaved people are portrayed. She uses modern English without sounding anachronistic, and her sentences have a clarity that makes the Odyssey feel immediate. She also maintains a strict line count, matching Homer's roughly 12,110 lines, which is a remarkable technical achievement.
The case against Wilson: Some readers feel her plainness strips away the grandeur. Homer was writing elevated poetry, and Wilson's deliberate choice to avoid elevated language can make the text feel flatter than the original in places. Her interpretive choices, while fascinating, are also more visible than in other translations. You are always aware that a modern sensibility is mediating between you and Homer.
Best for: Readers who want a modern, accessible, and intellectually provocative version. If you have already read the Odyssey in another translation and want to see it differently, Wilson is essential. She is also a strong choice for book clubs and discussion groups because her choices generate conversation.
Richmond Lattimore (1967): The Scholar's Standard
Lattimore aimed for maximum fidelity to the Greek. He translated line by line, preserving Homer's word order, repeated epithets, and sentence structure as closely as English allows. His version feels the most "Greek" of any English Odyssey. When Homer repeats a formula, Lattimore repeats the formula. When Homer's syntax gets tangled, Lattimore's syntax gets tangled. He trusts the reader to meet the text on its own terms.
The case for Lattimore: If you want to know what Homer actually wrote, line by line, Lattimore gets you closest. His translation is the gold standard in university classics departments. The repeated epithets ("much-enduring great Odysseus," "gray-eyed Athena") give you the texture of oral poetry in a way that no other English version does. You can feel the bard's craft.
The case against Lattimore: It is the hardest English Odyssey to read. The sentence structure, modeled on Greek, can feel awkward and inverted. The commitment to literal fidelity means that passages that flow beautifully in Greek sometimes lumber in English. First-time readers often bounce off Lattimore because the prose demands more patience than other versions.
Best for: Serious students of the poem who want to understand Homer's technique and language as precisely as possible. If you are studying the Odyssey in a university course, reading the Greek alongside an English text, or writing a paper, Lattimore is the translation to have open on your desk.
Why Butler Works So Well for Listening
Our audiobook reader uses Samuel Butler's 1900 translation, and that choice was deliberate. Butler wrote prose that flows the way speech flows. His sentences are clear without being choppy. They have enough formality to sound ancient without becoming hard to follow at listening speed. When you hear Butler's Odyssey read aloud, with different voices for each character and each word lighting up on the screen, the text does exactly what Homer's original performance did: it tells you a story.
Verse translations, as beautiful as they are on the page, can fight against the listener. Line breaks create pauses where speech would not pause. Inverted word order that works on paper can confuse the ear. Butler's prose avoids both problems. The story simply moves, one sentence into the next, the way a storyteller tells it around a fire. That makes it the ideal text for an audiobook format, and it is why listeners consistently find it the easiest version to follow for hours at a time.
Butler's translation is also in the public domain, which means there are no licensing restrictions. You can follow along with our book-by-book guide while you listen. That is a practical detail, but it matters: it means we can present the full, unabridged text of all 24 books for free, with no paywalls on the text itself. The story of the Odyssey belongs to everyone, and Butler's version makes that literally true.
The Bottom Line
If you have never read the Odyssey before, start with Butler (clear, smooth, great for listening) or Fagles (energetic, dramatic, widely assigned). If you want a modern perspective that challenges tradition, read Wilson. If you want to study the poem seriously and get as close to the Greek as possible, read Lattimore. And if you have the time and the curiosity, read more than one. Each translation reveals something the others miss, and the Odyssey is the kind of poem that rewards coming back. See our collection of famous Odyssey quotes for a taste of how different passages land in Butler's prose.
Explore These Translations
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Hear Butler's Odyssey Read Aloud
All 24 books of Butler's translation, performed with a full cast of distinct voices. Every word highlights as it is spoken. The translation that reads like a novel, brought to life like a performance.
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