Fresh Air · 2026-07-29 · 50 min · 8,972 words

‘Odyssey’ translator Emily Wilson: Nolan should've hired a screenwriter

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Christopher Nolan's new film, The Odyssey, has earned critical praise and big box office returns. This retelling of the classic story from ancient Greece features plenty of recognized stars, and it's also burnished the reputation of an established star in the world of classical scholarship. That's our guest today, Emily Wilson. In 2017, Wilson published her own translation of the Odyssey, a task that took six years to complete and had quite an impact. Wilson was the first woman to translate the Odyssey into English, though that's not the first thing she'd want you to know about her work.

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