It turns out, the job of a translator is immensely difficult and we (readers) under-estimate how much latitude and art is in their work.
Scrivvium (a history game company) did a cool data project to gauge readers preferences on the various Odyssey translations. Their methodology in and of itself is worth the read.
I took the test (twice!) and my results were consistent both times (Emily Wilson).
We hid the translators’ names and asked readers to choose between eight English versions. As of July 26, 1,538 readers have completed this test making over 18,133 pairwise comparisons. The initial snapshot covers the first 685 completed tests and 8,043 head-to-heads.
I might have to read Nagles translation, based on this test.
Source: Fagles leads a blind Odyssey translation test | Scrivium