Daniel Mendelsohn – Translating Homer's Odyssey
Summary
Host Vas Christodoulou interviews classicist Daniel Mendelsohn about his new translation of Homer’s Odyssey. They explore the poem’s focus on identity, female agency, and survival, contrasting it with the Iliad’s themes of glory. Mendelsohn discusses translation challenges, such as rendering dactylic hexameter and the complex term polytropos, while highlighting the epic’s psychological depth and modern relevance.
Topics discussed
Introduction: Classicist Lucy Sutherland on The Odyssey
Iliad vs. Odyssey: Prejudice and Female Characters
Reciting Homer: Dactylic Hexameter and Oral Performance
Translation Choices: Meter, Rhyme, and Alexander Pope
Line-for-Line Translation and the Loom/Mast Metaphor
Sponsor Message: Shopify
Translating 'Polytropos': The Man of Many Turns
Odysseus's Identity and the Theme of Change
Avoiding Names and the Meta-Narrative of Storytelling
Character Depth: Penelope, Helen, and Menelaus
Odysseus as a Proto-Modernist Hero
Achilles in the Underworld and Sponsor Message
Q&A: Word Usage, Joyce's Ulysses, and Literary Influence
The Odyssey as Proto-Picaresque and Rom-Com
Q&A: Oral Tradition, Textual Versions, and Helen
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