Robert Fagles vs Richmond Lattimore Odyssey Translation

Where the translations differ

TraitRobert FaglesRichmond Lattimore

Translation year19961965

VoiceSweeping, muscular, and ceremonialFormal, exacting, and deliberately repetitive

FormVerse · Expansive free verseVerse · Long, Greek-conscious line

RegisterGrand, muscular, and ceremonialFormal, repetitive, and close to the text

TradeoffWe get sweep and scale, but less line-for-line closeness than in Wilson or LattimoreWe stay close to the Greek structure, but the syntax and long line ask more patience of us

Fagles and Lattimore both sound epic, but they get their scale in different ways. Fagles’s free verse opens out toward performance. Clauses gather, speeches swell, and emotional turns receive more explanation. Lattimore uses his long line to make room for Greek syntax and formula, even when the English sounds less smooth.

The opening shows us the difference between interpretive momentum and keeping the Greek words visible. Both translators use “Nobody” in the Cyclops scene, so we have to listen to the rhythm around it. Fagles stages the exchange, while Lattimore leaves its structure more exposed. At the reunion, Lattimore keeps the paired physical formula with less psychological rewriting. Fagles builds a larger moment of proof and surrender. Choose Fagles for an absorbing read or for reading aloud. Choose Lattimore when repeated language, line structure, and comparison with Greek matter more than fluency. Here, “closest” describes a method, not a victory in every category.

Three passages, side by side

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Showing Fagles and Lattimore. Select more to add them to the comparison.

Book 1, opening invocation

The opening lines and polytropos

Robert Fagles 1996 · Verse

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds, many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea, fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home. But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove — the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all, the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun and the Sungod wiped from sight the day of their return. Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus, start from where you will —sing for our time too.

Penguin Books electronic edition (2002; translation first published 1996) · Book 1, opening invocation Text checked Jul 15, 2026

Richmond Lattimore 1965 · Verse

Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was driven far journeys, after he had sacked Troy's sacred citadel. Many were they whose cities he saw, whose minds he learned of, many the pains he suffered in his spirit on the wide sea, struggling for his own life and the homecoming of his companions. Even so he could not save his companions, hard though he strove to; they were destroyed by their own wild recklessness, fools, who devoured the oxen of Helios, the Sun God, and he took away the day of their homecoming. From some point here, goddess, daughter of Zeus, speak, and begin our story.

What to notice

The poem begins by asking us what kind of man Odysseus is. Wilson calls him “complicated,” Fagles gives him “twists and turns,” Lattimore “many ways,” Mendelsohn “roundabout ways,” and Green and Rieu “resourceful.” Each choice makes a different promise about the hero. Fitzgerald brings the invocation inside the poet with “Sing in me.” Lombardo, Butler, the Pope collaboration, and Chapman lean instead toward cunning, ingenuity, or wisdom. We should listen to the line length too. Before the plot begins, we can already hear compression, swing, and ceremony.

Book 9, the name given to Polyphemus

The Cyclops and the “Nobody” wordplay

Robert Fagles 1996 · Verse

‘So, you ask me the name I’m known by, Cyclops? I will tell you. But you must give me a guest-gift as you’ve promised. Nobody —that’s my name. Nobody — so my mother and father call me, all my friends.’ But he boomed back at me from his ruthless heart, ‘Nobody? I’ll eat Nobody last of all his friends — I’ll eat the others first! That’s my gift to you!’ With that he toppled over, sprawled full-length, flat on his back and lay there, his massive neck slumping to one side, and sleep that conquers all overwhelmed him now as wine came spurting, flooding up from his gullet with chunks of human flesh —he vomited, blind drunk.

Penguin Books electronic edition (2002; translation first published 1996) · Book 9, false-name exchange and aftermath Text checked Jul 15, 2026

Richmond Lattimore 1965 · Verse

“Cyclops, you ask me for my famous name. I will tell you then, but you must give me a guest gift as you have promised. Nobody is my name. My father and mother call me Nobody, as do all the others who are my companions.” So I spoke, and he answered me in pitiless spirit: “Then I will eat Nobody after his friends, and the others I will eat first, and that shall be my guest present to you.” He spoke and slumped away and fell on his back, and lay there with his thick neck crooked over on one side, and sleep who subdues all came on and captured him, and the wine gurgled up from his gullet with gobs of human meat. This was his drunken vomiting.

What to notice

The joke works only if a translator finds an English non-name that holds up in dialogue. Wilson, Lombardo, Butler, and the Pope text give us “Noman.” Fagles, Lattimore, Green, and the revised Rieu use “Nobody.” Fitzgerald makes the disguise visible as “Nohbdy,” Mendelsohn hyphenates “No-One,” and Chapman chooses “No-Man.” Before Polyphemus's neighbors even answer, that one choice tells us whether the trick will feel conversational, antique, conspicuous, or immediate.

Book 23, Penelope's recognition after the bed test

The olive-tree bed reunion

Robert Fagles 1996 · Verse

Penelope felt her knees go slack, her heart surrender, recognizing the strong clear signs Odysseus offered. She dissolved in tears, rushed to Odysseus, flung her arms around his neck and kissed his head and cried out, “Odysseus —don’t flare up at me now, not you, always the most understanding man alive! The gods, it was the gods who sent us sorrow — they grudged us both a life in each other’s arms from the heady zest of youth to the stoop of old age.

Penguin Books electronic edition (2002; translation first published 1996) · Book 23, recognition and reunion after the bed test Text checked Jul 15, 2026

Richmond Lattimore 1965 · Verse

So he spoke, and her knees and the heart within her went slack as she recognized the clear proofs that Odysseus had given; but then she burst into tears and ran straight to him, throwing her arms around the neck of Odysseus, and kissed his head, saying: ‘Do not be angry with me, Odysseus, since, beyond other men, you have the most understanding. The gods granted us misery, in jealousy over the thought that we two, always together, should enjoy our youth, and then come to the threshold of old age.

What to notice

In the Greek, Penelope's knees and heart give way together when she recognizes Odysseus. Each translator decides how literally to keep those two bodily signs and how much psychology to add. Lattimore, Mendelsohn, Green, and Chapman keep both signs close to the surface. Wilson gives us a sudden relaxation, Fagles adds surrender, Fitzgerald says her heart fails, Lombardo says she “finally let go,” and the prose versions describe a breakdown or melting. Pope takes us furthest into eighteenth-century melodrama, with trembling and fainting.

Which one should you read?

Choose Fagles

Readers who want momentum, powerful speech, and epic theater.

Fagles expands the poem for dramatic force. His scenes have a public voice and strong forward motion. Choose him when you want the poem to live in performance rather than guide you through its structure.

Choose Lattimore

Readers who want to stay close to the Greek and study how the poem is built.

Lattimore keeps formulas, repeated terms, and Greek-shaped syntax in view. His English asks for patience, but it lets us study more of the original poem's construction.