Why We Keep Returning to The Odyssey

“One of the most fascinating questions at the center of the poem is this: Is there a part of you that remains the same despite the changes we undergo in life?”

—Daniel Mendelsohn, an Odyssey translator and 2025 Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center Speaker

When Hollywood heads to the Aegean Sea this summer with a blockbuster retelling of The Odyssey, audiences will watch a story nearly 3,000 years old sweep across IMAX screens. At the U, the epic recently surfaced in a quieter, more intimate way: through the voices of students, faculty, and neighbors who gathered for a 15-hour marathon reading hosted by the Tanner Humanities Center. Participants read Daniel Mendelsohn’s new translation aloud, letting Homer’s lines unfold the way they were first meant to be experienced: in community, spoken into the air.

Mendelsohn visited campus for a Tanner Humanities Center conversation and podcast, reflecting on the musicality of the poem and the discoveries that come only from speaking it.

Before heading to theaters, Jordan Johansen, assistant professor of Classics, suggests holding onto the heart of the poem—not the monsters or storms, but the questions that linger beneath them. “The Odyssey grows up with you. At 18, it’s a story about adventure,” Johansen notes. “At 35, it becomes a story about responsibility. Later in life, it becomes a meditation on memory, loss, and the longing for home. Its relevance comes from how generously it meets us—wherever we are in our own journey.”

For more than 35 years, the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the U has brought scholars, writers, and the public together. Visit tanner.utah.edu for more about programs and events.