American Achilles in the War on Terror
A. J. Church, Wikimedia Commons
This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire
By John J. Waters
Real Clear Wire
Professor Emily Wilson has achieved celebrity status … for translating Homer.
University students use her work, and it draws leisure readers as well. Beginning with her translation of the Odyssey in 2018 and continuing with the Iliad earlier this year, Wilson has presented as fresh and vivid material that is, admittedly, old and foreign.
For years, the English translations of poets Robert Fagles and Robert Fitzgerald were responsible for passing Homer’s stories into the dreams and imaginations of modern Americans. So successful were the two Roberts that many readers reserved no space on their bookshelves for another scholar’s reading.
