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The ‘Odyssey,’ One of the World’s Oldest Stories, Gets a Modern Spin With A.I.-Generated Audiobook Narration by the Voice Clone of an Oscar Winner
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The ‘Odyssey,’ One of the World’s Oldest Stories, Gets a Modern Spin With A.I.-Generated Audiobook Narration by the Voice Clone of an Oscar Winner

Smithsonian · Jun 24, 2026, 6:56 PM

Key takeaways

  • Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent
  • This month, a new entry was added to the ever-expanding library of Odyssey remakes.
  • It combines human creativity and taste with A.I. audio tools that turn an ancient story into an immersive audiobook for today’s readers.”

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

Add as preferred source A 1488 edition of the Odyssey, photographed by Naomi Wenger Alpra Araze L via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 Homer’s Odyssey, the nearly 3,000-year-old epic poem chronicling Odysseus as he tries to return home to Ithaca following the Trojan War, is among the world’s best-known and most-replicated stories. It’s an early example of the hero’s journey archetype, perhaps the most common storytelling device in Western literature.

This month, a new entry was added to the ever-expanding library of Odyssey remakes. Production company ElevenLabs released a 13-hour audiobook adaptation of the epic poem, read by what sounds like the voice of actor Michael Caine. But there’s a twist. The narration, along with 20 other voices plus music and sound effects, was produced using artificial intelligence.

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