Emily Wilson: Portland Arts & Lectures 2024–25
$115–$450 (five-part series)
This event is part of our 40th anniversary season of Portland Arts & Lectures. A subscription to the five-part series is required to attend this event.
Emily Wilson is a classicist, translator, professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and the author of the bestselling translations of Homer’s The Odyssey and The Iliad (winner of the 2024 Audie Award for Best Literary Fiction and Classics). In addition to Wilson’s translated works, her other books include The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca, The Death of Socrates: Hero, Villain, Chatterbox, Saint, and Mocked with Death: Tragic Overliving from Sophocles to Milton. Wilson is a professor of classical studies and chair of the program in comparative literature and literary theory at the University of Pennsylvania.
Praise:
For The Iliad:
“Wilson’s command of ancient Greek vocabulary, dialects, and metres lends authority to every aesthetic decision she’s made.” —The Guardian
“The effect [of Wilson’s translation] is not so much to bring the characters of the Iliad into the contemporary sphere, as to bring us into theirs. . . . A poem you read with your heart in your throat.” —The Spectator
“No other translation communicates the oral nature of the poem so brilliantly.” —The Washington Post
For The Odyssey:
“A revelation. Never have I been so aware at once of the beauty of the poetry, the physicality of Homer’s world, and the moral ambiguity of those who inhabit it. . . . [Wilson’s] decisions to discard flowery conventions, and to limit herself to the number of lines in the original poem, produce a version both fleet and vivid.” —The New York Times
“Emily Wilson’s crisp and musical version is a cultural landmark . . . This translation will change the way the poem is read in English.” —The Guardian
