Emily Wilson to deliver 2025 Distinguished Lecture

A major university and community event, the annual Distinguished Lecture program brings to campus a prominent humanities scholar whose work highlights the importance of humanities research. While on campus, speakers discuss humanities trends and participate in informal sessions, allowing ASU colleagues and students to share related research interests.

This year, the Humanities Institute will welcome acclaimed epic poems translator Emily Wilson on March 25. Wilson’s 2017 translation of “The Odyssey,” in iambic pentameter, met widespread acclaim, as did her translation of “The Iliad,” published in fall 2023. The first woman to translate “The Odyssey,” Wilson is also a 2019 MacArthur Fellow and recipient of a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship.

In her powerful introduction to “The Iliad,” Wilson writes, “We are now in a period of crisis not for a specific nation but for humanity, inhabiting a planet that is becoming less and less habitable. A new kind of heartbreak can be felt in ‘The Iliad’’s representation of a city in its last days. . . You already know the story. You will die. Everyone you love will also die. . . This poem will make you understand this unfathomable truth again and again, as if for the very first time.”

At the event, Wilson will discuss the dynamic challenges of literary translation and the retranslation of ancient canonical texts, emphasizing the importance of form, sound, pacing and emotional effect as well as semantic sense, and explain why we need new re-translations of ancient texts.

Ron Broglio, director of the Humanities Institute, says, “Emily Wilson brings the epic poem into contemporary context with her translator’s choice of words and rhythm. Homer’s Odysseus and Achilles feel alive and real speaking across the ages. We are pleased to have Professor Wilson as our distinguished lecturer; her work is the best of what the humanities can do by preserving the past and passing it on to future generations.”

Guests may attend a pre-event reception and book signing at 4 p.m. before the lecture starts at 5 p.m. Copies of “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad” will be available for purchase. Attend in-person at ASU Main, or stream via ASU Live. Register on the Humanities Institute website.