The Odyssey

By: Homer, Daniel Mendelsohn - translator

Narrated by: Daniel Mendelsohn

This is an audiobook version of this book.

A landmark new translation of Homer’s most popular epic by distinguished author and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn.

In 1961, the University of Chicago Press published Richmond Lattimore's translation of Homer’s The Iliad. For more than sixty years, it has served to introduce readers to the ancient Greek world of gods and heroes and has been one of the most popular and respected versions of the work. Yet through all those decades, Chicago never published a companion translation of the best-known epic in the Western canon, The Odyssey—until now.

With his new Odyssey, celebrated author, critic, classicist, and translator Daniel Mendelsohn has created a rendering worthy of Chicago’s unparalleled reputation in classical literature. Widely known for his essays bringing classical literature and culture to mainstream audiences in the New Yorker and many other publications, Mendelsohn eschews the streamlining and modernizing approach of many recent translations, focusing instead on the epic’s formal qualities—meter, enjambment, alliteration, assonance—in order to bring it to life in all its archaic grandeur. In this line-for-line rendering, the long, six-beat line he uses, closer to the original than that of other recent translations, allows him to capture each Greek line without sacrificing the amplitude and shadings of the original.

The result is a magnificent feat of translation, one that conveys the poetics of the original while bringing to vivid life the gripping adventure, profound human insight, and powerful themes that make Homer’s work continue to resonate today. Supported by an extensive introduction, notes, and commentary, Mendelsohn’s Odyssey is poised to become the authoritative English-language version of this magnificent and enduringly influential masterpiece.

Public Domain (P)2025 University of Chicago Press

Critic reviews

“Daniel Mendelsohn has accomplished something that no recent translator has done so well: a translation that shows a striking fidelity not only to the poem’s language and thought but also to its formal properties. His approach makes this translation ideal for any class in which an instructor wants the students to have a full sense of the poetics of Homeric epic and other orally based literature.”—Deborah Roberts, Haverford College

"The expertly crafted work of a true scholar-poet, Mendelsohn’s rich and rhythmical version hews closely to the Homeric verse-line—it feels like the original. He brings into contemporary English not just the precise meaning of the Greek at every turn, but also fine-grained variations in the poem’s soundscape, diction, pace, and speech-styles. Sharply focused on narrative nuance, lucid, vivid, and smart, this superb translation will entice new audiences to delight in the ancient epic."—Richard P. Martin, Isabelle and Antony Raubitschek Professor in Classics, Stanford University

"Daniel Mendelsohn’s Odyssey is a majestic living poem, keenly responsive to the surge and subtlety of Homer’s Greek. He conveys the dignity of an ancient aristocratic world as well as the timeless drama of homecoming, monstrous encounters, fidelity, and self-revelation. A momentous achievement."—Rosanna Warren, author of So Forth: Poems

An Odyssey for our time

Very approachable translation. Beautiful to listen to. This is how the Homeric bards would have passed on such oral epic narratives, and we are their latest audience. The introduction sets the stage and puts the epic in context. A truly great foundational work of literature and art.

Delightful and brave

A new translation by the scholar and writer Daniel Mendelssohn, an excellent way to follow up his memoir An Odyssey about his own journey to Ithaca with his father. A fluid and clear translation.

Incredible New Translation!

I’ve read the Odyssey multiple times, but this one is a cut above the others in terms of cadence, translation, and the wonderful and enriching context set forth in the introduction. Absolutely worth the read/listen - even if you have read the story before. Bravo to the author for all his work and scholarship!

Beautifully translated and narrated

This translation made the Odyssey come alive for me, and having it narrated by the translator made it truly memorable. I still hear phrases like “her words flew towards him like arrows” ringing in my head. Just beautiful.

Fantastic, Essential and Wonderful

This was my 5th translation and absolutely my favorite. This translation is closest to Homer in its manifestations of Homers poetic rhythms (ie Telemachus is always described as “sensible lad”). These repetitions give the book a wonderful musicality when listened to and I felt I was getting closer to what Homers own audience would have experienced listening to this masterful story. Mr Mendelsohn also brings great clarity to the shifting time frames of the story. Beautifully read by the translator, who does not try to act it out but makes subtle changes in his sonorous voice to indicate who is speaking.
Special mention has to be made of the intro. One of the best things you will ever read on The Odyssey I think I listened to it 3 or 4 times, absolutely masterful