 I AM reading Dr. Emily Wilson's English translation of the Odyssey. It's the first time a woman has translated Homer's work into English. The fanfare has just begun and rightly so. I'll probably do a podcast about her work, because I love it so much. I've read several translations and used them in researching my work for the Homeric Chronicles, but NONE of them has touched me like Dr. Wilson's. For example, as everyone already points out, she begins with calling Odysseus a "complicated man." Brilliant, because Odysseus is complicated. He's not straight forward in anything he does. He's tender and loving with Penelope and Telemachus, but he's also a murderer and a man who "skirts" the boundaries of his marriage. He's vengeful, but with good reason. A trouble maker and a charmer. And stubborn. Let's not forget stubborn. Despite all this, we love to love Odysseus. Her word choices stand out for me, more than any other translation. Reading the scene where Odysseus is deciding when to kill the slave women (and mind you it's not a moral dilemma of IF he should, but a matter of WHEN he will kill them...this is one of the ways he's complicated: his ability to premeditate massive slaughter) builds such powerful imagery. I can see a mother dog guarding her puppies, teeth bared and growling at strangers. It's scrappy, fierce, and dangerous.  Dr. Wilson is equally descriptive with Penelope. I love the passage where Penelope has just been told that the suitors are plotting to kill her son, Telemachus. She's distraught because he left Ithaka without telling her and no one knows for sure where he is. So, she can't protect him. Her mind torments her like a trapped lion...What parent can't relate to that terrifying feeling?  If you enjoy Greek mythology, you're going to love this new translation.  
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Sometimes people think being an historian is all about names and dates and politics, but it’s so much more. My favorite thing about studying ancient Greece is getting to a museum and looking at all the pottery. You get to see these beautiful works of art close up. Pictures just don't do justice to the sheer size of some of the pottery. My favorite place on the west coast to gaze at antiquities is the Getty Museum in Malibu, California. If you get a chance to go, you should. It's amazing not only for its art work, but because it's an actual replica of wealthy Roman villa complete with gardens and a giant pool. While writing the Homeric Chronicles, I reference amphorae quite a bit because these vessels were commonly used to store wine, oil, and water much the way we use Tupperware. So, one vessel that intrigues me is the two handled amphora depicting Achilles and Ajax playing dice while trying to relax during the Trojan War. The vessel is from the Archaic Period (525-520 BCE). I love this scene and decided to reference it in Rise of Princes, book two of the Homeric Chronicles. Playing dice humanizes the Greek heroes, making them reachable characters because they too needed reprieve from stress and bad days, as well as the grinding hardships of war. Enjoy the video :) Start your journey with the Homeric Chronicles grab Song of Sacrifice today! One of the reasons I am drawn to Greek mythology again and again is because I see humanity reflected in those stories. Not perfection. Not simple heroes and villains. Humanity in all its contradictions. That is what keeps pulling me back. When I read or write about these myths, I always find myself asking the same question. What would drive a real person to make that choice? Not a statue of a hero, but a person with fears, scars, exhaustion, pride, and love. Myth gives us the events, but I am always interested in the reasons beneath those events. The human motivations that make the story feel alive instead of distant. Take Odysseus, for example. He is clever, dangerous, loyal, and deeply flawed. He is also a man shaped by war. Ten years at Troy would not leave anyone unchanged. War hardens people. It leaves marks that do not disappear when the fighting stops. So when I think about Odysseus with Circe or Calypso, I do not see a simple label like hero or cheater. I see a veteran who has lived in violence for years, who has lost friends, who has carried the weight of survival. That does not excuse every action, but it makes those actions feel human instead of symbolic. Then there is Penelope. She is often praised as the perfect model of patience and faithfulness. But I do not imagine her sitting quietly in sorrow for twenty years. I see a queen holding together a fragile kingdom. I see a woman managing resources, navigating threats, protecting her son, and dealing with men who are slowly tearing apart her household. She was not idle. She was strategic. She endured, not by waiting, but by working and thinking and holding the line when everything around her was breaking down. This is where mythology feels most real to me. Not in the polished ideals, but in the hard questions. Why would someone do this? What fear pushed them forward? What hope kept them going? What survival instinct shaped the decision that followed? Sometimes following those questions leads me to interpretations that step slightly outside familiar tradition. Not because I want to change myth, but because I want the characters to feel like people instead of symbols. I want their choices to come from something recognizable, something human. That is the reason I keep returning to these stories. Greek mythology is not just about gods and heroes. It is about people standing in impossible situations and making choices that shape everything that comes after. And when we look closely enough, we start to see ourselves in those choices. 2014, revised 2026 Janell Rhiannon. All rights reserved. |
Janell Rhiannon
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