The Odyssey

What Translator Emily Wilson Thinks of Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey'

Plain English with Derek Thompson, 22 July 2026. The book comes up at 29 min 0 sec in.

The E.V. Rue (Rieu) translation is introduced and briefly analyzed. Emily Wilson argues that Rieu massages the original by translating 'polytropon' as 'resourceful,' keeping Odysseus safely on-brand rather than conveying the word's genuine strangeness. She contrasts this with what she sees as the more accurate defamiliarizing impulse, noting polytropon is an unusual and ethically ambiguous term.

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