Translating Homer’s Odyssey, with Daniel Mendelsohn and Jordan Jonansen

Daniel Mendelsohn discusses his new translation of Homer’s Odyssey (University of Chicago Press) with Jordan Johansen, Assistant Professor of Classics in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at the University of Utah. They discuss the musicality of translating Homer’s poetry for the human voice, the discovery of sarcastic swineherd personalities, and the 15-hour marathon reading of The Odyssey at University of Utah.  Links:  Homer, The Odyssey, translated by Daniel Mendelsohn, University of Chicago Press  Daniel Mendelsohn, An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic, Knopf  Cover image: Odysseus, about 25 BCE, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum  Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.