Odyssey Translator Emily Wilson on Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea

Emily Wilson on Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea

We are thrilled to welcome Odyssey Translator Emily Wilson to St Andrews to talk about the wonders of Greek and Roman literature.

"I adored reading these joyful, illuminating, and engrossing journeys through ancient literature. Wilson's interest is wide-ranging, moving with elegance and insight across genres and millennia." -- Madeline Miller

How do we give old words new voices? What must a translator lose - and what might she gain - when she moves between languages, bringing ancient stories to modern life? Emily Wilson has spent a lifetime wrestling with these questions: here, she invites us to consider the meaning and messages of translators from antiquity to today - and gives a wholly fresh insight into her own work on Homer. From shifting depictions of Helen of Troy to Cardi B and Athenian comedy, Han Kang's novels and Rome's love of Greek culture, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea is a playful and fascinating voyage into the promise, possibility and constant renewal of classical literature.

Emily Wilson is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad were critically acclaimed across the globe, and she is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, the New York Times, the New Statesman and the Nation.