I find Stanley Lombardo's version very approachable for most readers; it keeps the story but rephrases it in free verse, thus, without going through contortions to force the exact poetic style (dactylic hexameter) that you'd have if you heard it in classical Greek. A purist may argue that one is losing something by redacting that form - and I must give you: inherently, any translation is losing something... but Lombardo has done a good job of retaining the spirit of the story even across the ages and between languages and verse-forms.
Do you recommend any translations?
I find Stanley Lombardo's version very approachable for most readers; it keeps the story but rephrases it in free verse, thus, without going through contortions to force the exact poetic style (dactylic hexameter) that you'd have if you heard it in classical Greek. A purist may argue that one is losing something by redacting that form - and I must give you: inherently, any translation is losing something... but Lombardo has done a good job of retaining the spirit of the story even across the ages and between languages and verse-forms.