Popularising Homer: E. V. Rieu’s English prose translations

Abstract

This essay examines how Homer’s epics were transformed and (re)written through translation to provide access to the ‘general reader’ who did not know ancient Greek. The specific case under examination is that of two mid-twentieth-century translations by E. V. Rieu: The Odyssey (London: Penguin Books, 1946) and The Iliad (London: Penguin Books, 1950). Rieu criticises archaising translation for limiting access to a larger range of readers. I argue that he translated Homer in an egalitarian spirit, in line with a trend which was gaining ground in the aftermath of the Second World War. To bring Homer to the widest possible range of readers, Rieu chose to transform his epics into novels – a popular genre at the time – emphasising narratives and characters. As the first volume of the Penguin Classics series, of which Rieu was the founding editor, his Odyssey, in particular, was a major landmark in popularising the Classics: the huge success of Rieu’s Penguin edition proved that Homer could be made accessible to anyone.