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.
A Penguin Classics Hardcover
So begins Robert Fagles's magnificent translation of
The Odyssey, literature's grandest evocation of an everyman's journey through life. Odysseus's reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival against divine and natural forces on his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.
Robert Fagles's translation of
The Odyssey, enhanced with maps, genealogy tables, and pronunciation guides, has been the touchstone translation of Homer's epic for millions of readers. With an introduction and textual commentary by renowned classicist Bernard Knox, the Fagles translation of
The Odyssey will continue to captivate the general reader and scholar alike.
Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Homer was the poet who the Greeks believed singularly composed The Iliad and The Odyssey. Nothing is known of his life. While seven Greek cities claim the honor of being his birthplace, ancient tradition places him in Ionia, located in the eastern Aegean coast. His birthdate is undocumented as well, though most modern scholars place the composition of The Iliad and The Odyssey in the late eighth or early seventh century B.C.
Robert Fagles (1933-2008) was the Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He received a National Humanities Medal in 2006 and won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from The Academy of American Poets twice, once for Homer's
The Iliad in 1991 and then again in 2007 for
The Aeneid. His translations of Sophocles's
The Three Theban Plays, Aeschylus's
The Oresteia (nominated for a National Book Award),
The Iliad (which also won an award from The Translation Center of Columbia University), and Homer's
The Odyssey are all published in Penguin Classics.
Bernard Knox (1914-2010) was Director Emeritus of Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He won the 1976-77 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism and the 1990 PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award for
Essays Ancient and Modern. Knox fought in the Spanish Civil War and World War II; France decorated him with the Croix de Guerre for special operations behind German lines in 1944, and the US Army awarded him two Bronze Stars for combat in Italy. He also edited
The Norton Book of Classical Literature, and collaborated with Robert Fagles on
The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, and
The Three Theban Plays.
