The Odyssey

Get in the xigxag app
Already purchased

Click to open directly in the xigxag app.

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book. Pre-order Buy Now €{{ price }} Send as a gift

Listen to a sample

What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.


With his Odyssey, bestselling author and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn has created a momentous new work, hailed by classicists and poets alike—a translation to stand with those of E. V. Rieu and Robert Fagles.

Setting aside the streamlining, modernizing approach of many recent translations, Mendelsohn artfully reproduces the epic’s formal qualities – meter, enjambment, alliteration, assonance – and in so doing restores to Homer’s masterwork its archaic grandeur. His expansive six-beat line, far closer to the original than that of other recent translations, allows him to capture each of Homer’s verses line for line, without sacrificing the amplitude and shadings of the original.The result is the richest, most precise, and most musical Odyssey in English, one that fully conveys its oral poetics while bringing to vivid life the gripping adventure, profound human insight and powerful themes that make Homer’s work resonate some twenty-eight centuries after its composition. Supported by an extensive introduction and the fullest notes and commentary currently available, Mendelsohn’s Odyssey is poised to become the authoritative English-language version of this magnificent, endlessly enjoyable masterpiece.

‘This superb translation ... feels like the original’ Richard P. Martin, Stanford University

© Daniel Mendelsohn 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

Mendelsohn steers an impeccable course between sounding contemporary and preserving the melancholy and grandeur of the Greeku2026 Mendelsohn brilliantly conveys how Homeric lines roll forward hypnotically... The highest compliment I can pay Mendelsohn is that his translation of my favourite episode, Odysseusu2019s heroic swim to Phaeacia, is the most excitingly energetic Iu2019ve ever read
The Telegraph
Daniel Mendelsohn has accomplished something that no recent translator has done so well: a translation that shows a striking fidelity not only to the poemu2019s language and thought but also to its formal properties
Deborah Roberts, Haverford College
Daniel Mendelsohnu2019s Odyssey is a majestic living poem, keenly responsive to the surge and subtlety of Homeru2019s Greek ... A momentous achievement
Rosanna Warren
The expertly crafted work of a true scholar-poet, Mendelsohnu2019s rich and rhythmical version hews closely to the Homeric verse-line u2013 it feels like the original u2026 this superb translation will entice new audiences to delight in the ancient epic
Richard P. Martin, Stanford University
Here is the timeless Homeric river remade with timely majesty, molecule by glistening molecule
Sebastian Barry
His knowledge as a renowned classicist, his ear and eye for sound and image, his acuity in rendering the circuitous yet also self-arresting syntax, and his ingeniously faithful line-by-hexameter-line rendering, make for what will surely be the edition for our time and beyond u2026 [a] triumph
Jorie Graham
Daniel Mendelsohn's Odyssey is a vividly rendered experience that feels inward and mesmerizing u2026 take[s] us deeply into the experience itself through an intense focus on speech and sounds, which are the essence of poetr
Joyce Carol Oates
Mendelsohn is gifted with a wonderful surefootedness of imagination, an almost mystic insight into both the homely and the terrible beauties of antiquity... He has given us a lithe, deft, psychologically nuanced Odyssey. Timeless, cadenced, thrilling, and humane
Michael Chabon
Neither jarringly contemporary nor distractingly archaic, Daniel Mendelsohn's brilliant and necessary translation of The Odyssey is a testament to the enduring power and grace and beauty of Homer's narrative
Francine Prose
History's greatest adventure story brought to us anew by America's greatest living classicistu2014this is fast, fluent, thrilling, and a hugely impressive accomplishment
Lee Child

More from the same

Narrator

About xigxag

Experience the best audiobooks with xigxag, an innovative and user-friendly audiobook platform designed for seamless discovery, purchase, and enjoyment of your favorite titles. Our flexible pricing model offers bestselling audiobooks for less, providing affordable prices and the best audiobook deals without requiring a subscription. Perfect for gifting, xigxag also features convenient audiobook gift cards and in-app audiobook gifting options.

 

Beyond the listening experience, xigxag stands as an exciting alternative to big tech, embodying a strong commitment to sustainability and ethical practices. As the only B Corp certified UK audiobook service, we ensure a guilt-free listening experience from a leader in audiobook innovation.

 

Effortlessly search audiobooks, access honest audiobook reviews that evaluate both the content and narration, and easily discover hidden gems. Whether you prefer to download or stream top audiobook titles, xigxag provides the best possible listening experience anytime, anywhere, on the UK’s best independent audiobook app. Discover the future of audiobooks today.