
The Odyssey
Audible Iliad & Odyssey, Book 2
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Narrated by:
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Claire Danes
Acclaimed actress Claire Danes burnishes an epic story of heroes, gods, and monsters in a groundbreaking translation of The Odyssey, the first great adventure story in the Western literary tradition. When the wily warrior-king Odysseus sets off for home after the Trojan War, he doesn’t realize this simple undertaking will become a perilous journey of 10 years. Beset at every turn, he encounters obstacles, detours, and temptations—both supernatural and human—while his wife Penelope fends off would-be suitors desperate to take the throne.
Emily Wilson is the first woman to take on the daunting task of translating over 100,000 lines of a three-millennium-old poem from Ancient Greek to modern-day English. Her breathtaking rendition captures the poetic immediacy of the original text, while allowing listeners to experience The Odyssey with an honesty and directness few other versions have achieved. The result is a lean, fleet-footed translation that recaptures Homer’s “nimble gallop” and brings an ancient epic to new life. A fascinating introduction provides an informative overview of the Bronze Age milieu that produced the epic, the major themes of the poem, the controversies about its origins, and the unparalleled scope of its impact and influence.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2018 Emily Wilson (translation), Adrian Kitzinger (maps copyright) (P)2018 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















Go Behind the Scenes with Claire Danes
Our favorite moments from The Odyssey

About the Performer
Claire Danes is an Audie and Emmy Award-winning actress and star of the TV series Homeland, the 2010 HBO movie Temple Grandin, and much more. In 2013, Danes received the Audie Award for best spoken-word performance in Fiction. Danes is also the recipient of four Golden Globes and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

About the Author
The Iliad and the Odyssey were not invented from scratch by any individual. These great written poems make artful use of a long oral tradition, developed over centuries by many illiterate singer-songwriters. The two epics were composed perhaps in the seventh century BC, by one person or several people, about whom we know nothing. Whoever she, he, or they were, Homer was the most popular poet of antiquity, known simply as The Poet. These metrical, musical, dramatic, thrilling, fast-moving, multi-vocal poems were often performed orally by professional poetry-actors (rhapsodes), and were well-known to everybody in the ancient world: old, young, female, male, rich, poor, educated, illiterate, slave, and free.—Emily Wilson

About the Translator
Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies and chair of the program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania. She received a BA in Classics and an MPhil. in English Renaissance Literature from Oxford, and earned her PhD. from Yale in Classics and Comparative Literature. Wilson is the author of three books, and has translated works by Seneca and Euripides. Her acclaimed line-for-line verse translation of The Odyssey, in regular iambic pentameter, aims to capture the poetic magic and rich, complex characterization of the original poem. Wilson has been reading Homer in Greek for over thirty years, and was first exposed to the story of The Odyssey at the age of eight, when she appeared as Athena in her elementary school play.
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excellent translation, warm narration
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Note that there are about three hours worth of authors notes before the story itself begins. I found them worthwhile to listen to, but some may not.
Modernised successfully
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Highly enjoyable, but lacking
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Good Translation, monotonous performance.
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The best I’ve heard or read so far!
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Anthony
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awesome modern translation great reading.
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Very enjoyable translation and Narrator
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Well Done Contemporary Translation of the Odyssey
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Awesome and would recommend
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