I have borrowed Emily Wilson's new translation of Homer's "The Odyssey" from the Sidney Public Library. I am a long-time devotee of Homer. Her book begins with a substantial foreword that really illustrates the breadth of her concern in translating from the Greek. It is filled with scholarship about the hurdles of history and culture, and the overlaps in both that challenge her work. That she questions the some long-held assumptions about several characters' motivation and the general thrust of the story, really has my interest peaked as I move into the poem.
As a side note, I was listening to Radiolab as I was doing the dishes last night and they hooked me with a program investigating why Homer NEVER mentions the color blue in his work (always "the wine-dark sea"). It was fascinating. They spoke with an author who had investigated the advent of words for color in ancient writings. Some nifty similarities and theories!
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