The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation)
*Starred Review* Employing the five-beat, minimally iambic line he used for his translation of The Iliad (2011), Mitchell retells the first, still greatest adventure story in Western literature with the same clarity, sweep, and force. Those similarities in his translations contradict the two poems’ differences. The Iliad portrays a civilization engaged in its most significant activities; The Odyssey depicts the archetype of the Western civilized individual. Mitchell doesn’t draw that particular distinction but, first thing in the introduction, points out that most Homeric scholars believe one Homer wrote The Iliad, and another Homer, The Odyssey. The second quotes the first often but varies so in “vocabulary, grammar, geographical perspective, theology, and moral values” that it’s unlikely he’s the same poet. Many ordinary readers have found The Odyssey “more modern,” by which they mean more like a contemporary novel—more psychological, more “personal” because of the strong point-of-view characters, Odysseus and his son, Telemachus. The Odyssey is also scarier, a very au courant quality. There are many more violent deaths in The Iliad—there’s a war going on, after all—but nothing as ghoulishly terrifying (and starkly related by Mitchell) as what Polyphemus, the Laestrygonians, and Scylla do to Odysseus’ crew. Stephen King, eat your heart out. --Ray Olson