The Second Edition of this Norton Critical Edition continues to be based on Albert Cook’s masterful translation, widely acclaimed for its poetic phrasing and linguistic accuracy. The English translation of Homer’s masterpiece matches the Greek line for line; no other translation is as faithful to the original. The result is a melodic version that preserves Homer’s style. A glossary and map accompany the text.

The Odyssey in Antiquity provides contextual materials and commentary to increase readers’ appreciation for literature and life in the Homeric age. A collection of nine assessments of The Odyssey by ancient and medieval writers, including Pindar, Aristotle, Seneca, and Scholia, is featured. Essays by G. S. Kirk and Martin P. Nilsson, respectively, discuss poetic conventions and the socio-religious order Homer depicts.

'Criticism' provides sixteen wide-ranging interpretations of The Odyssey, four of them new. Twelve seminal essays retained from the first edition include those by Jean Racine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ezra Pound, Cedric H. Whitman, and A. C. Goodson. Albert Cook, Elizabeth Storz, Norman Austin, and John Peradotto provide new perspectives on the poem.

The selected bibliography has been thoroughly updated.