What's the definitive translation of the odyssey? It seems the fagles translation is the highest rated on goodreads...

What's the definitive translation of the odyssey? It seems the fagles translation is the highest rated on goodreads, but the penguin classics has a beautiful and inexpensive hardcover edition, and there doesn't seem to be a nice hardcover of the fagles edition. If it really comes down to it, I would be happy to sacrifice getting a beautiful hardcover copy for a better translation, but if it doesn't make a difference then I'll go for the hard cover.

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Merrill's
You can find the whole thing here
press.umich.edu/17212/odyssey/?s=look_inside

It's in dactylic hexameter and is the most faithful translation along with Lattimore's

That is beautiful

A lot of people like Pope but I can't find a physical copy anywhere. Not a fan of digital versions of ancient stuff due to lack of notes etc

>A lot of people like Pope but I can't find a physical copy anywhere
what are you talking about? amazon.

I agree, it's the only English version I know of that actually shows you why the Greek is a masterpiece of literature for the ages.

I read the reviews of the Merrill edition on Amazon. I found one for 6 dollars (that's including shipping), Hopefully it doesn't arrive to me in ugly shape, thank you for the suggestion.

none from respected publishers though

Why would that matter if it's the same translation? It's the same text, I assume.

Probably would have poor notes and formatting. Bought something published with createspace once and it was like a booklet

My pleasure.

Fagles is the definitive translation but Veeky Forums likes to be contrarian so they pick others.

Lattimore is the definitive Homer for all scholars. If you are not in high school, you will not encounter Fagles.

this

POPE

Get the Murray translation from the Loeb Library

>Lattimore is the definitive Homer for all scholars
Scholars who study Homer are generally the sort that can actually read Greek. Lattimore is used by college students and so on, but not for serious scholarship.

let me just end the thread right here:

bagles, f scott fitzgerald, lettucemore, chapstick, edgar allan pope -- those are the best. there, agrument over, idiots

Lattimore

Fagles is fine, but is a bit more everyman.

I have the hardcovers, they're prose translations by E.V. Rieu

Is it a good translation?

I like them a lot, personally. Much like Fagles, Rieu translated Il/Od to be accessible, so hardcover vs. deluxe is pretty much just a matter of prose vs verse. I'd say it isn't a bad idea to start with the hardcover and then maybe move on to Lattimore or Merill or whomever you'd like down the road.

>dactylic hexameter
what does this mean?

google it my childe

That's not how goodreads works, every edition of the same book is attached to the same page and all funneled into the same rating pool. You can choose to review a specific edition and it'll show though.