Emily Wilson, the classical scholar whose 2017 translation of Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’ became a bestseller, is undertaking a new translation of the ancient Greek epic from scratch.

Wilson announced the project on Friday (28 August), less than a decade after her original translation made her the first woman to translate the entire poem into English. Her new version is expected to take several years to complete, reports The Associated Press.

The decision comes shortly after Wilson attracted widespread attention for her harsh criticism of Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of ‘The Odyssey’. Nolan had previously cited Wilson’s translation as one of the influences behind his film.

Wilson said the new translation would follow an approach closer to the one she used for her translation of ‘The Iliad’. She plans to use somewhat more lines than the original poem, allowing greater flexibility in word length and rhythm, while also adding substantially more endnotes.

Despite starting over, Wilson said she remained proud of her 2017 version, particularly its attempt to capture the speed, rhythm and freshness of Homer’s poetry in English.

Her first translation has sold more than one million copies, according to Peter Simon, her editor and editor-in-chief of Liveright Publishing, an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company. Sales reportedly increased significantly after Nolan’s film was announced and surged further around its release.

Katrine Øgaard Jensen, executive director of the American Literary Translators Association, said Wilson’s decision was unusual. While translators commonly revise previous editions, completely retranslating one’s own published work from the beginning is relatively rare.

She pointed to Ros Schwartz’s 2019 retranslation of Jacqueline Harpman’s ‘I Who Have Never Known Men’ as a comparable example. Schwartz had originally translated the novel in 1997.

Jensen said she expected considerable interest in Wilson’s new interpretation, noting that the original translation had already made a major impact among readers and scholars.

The commercial potential of the project may also be significant. ‘The Odyssey’ is among the world’s most frequently translated books, giving any major new translation the potential to reach a large international readership.

Wilson, who chairs the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, had initially welcomed the renewed interest in Homer generated by Nolan’s film.

Before seeing the movie, she said she hoped its popularity would encourage audiences who considered ancient literature inaccessible to discover the original epic.

Her view changed sharply after watching the film. In a widely discussed review for The London Review of Books, Wilson accused Nolan’s adaptation of sacrificing the poem’s psychological, political and emotional complexity for spectacle.

She argued that the film failed to meaningfully explore themes central to Homer’s work, including war, memory, history and the consequences of a warrior’s return for those around him.

Wilson’s review sparked a wider debate over Nolan’s interpretation of the ancient epic and literary fidelity, while also bringing renewed attention to her own translation.

Now, Wilson is returning to Homer herself, seeking to produce a new English version of ‘The Odyssey’ that reflects nearly a decade of further scholarship, experience and reflection.