Theorists of translation have persistently used a wide, at times bewildering, range of metaphors to describe the translation process. Despite a period of roughly forty years in the post WWII era (1945-85) in which such metaphoric language was downplayed or even denigrated, recent developments in metaphor theory have led to a resurgence in interest in how metaphors shape our basic understanding of the world and may in fact lead to breakthroughs in a wide variety of scientific fields. This paper first traces briefly the combination of factors (historic mistrust of metaphoric language in Western philosophy, the rise of logical positivism in the sciences, the linguistic basis of Translation Studies in the post-war period, and problems with the misuse of metaphors in Translation Studies) that led to the neglect of the study of metaphors in a wide variety of academic discourses in the 20th century, and Translation Studies in particular. Two developments in metaphor theory that led to its redeployment are then briefly explored: the work of Max Black and others on metaphor as cognitive instrument in the sciences, and the work of Lakoff and Johnson on the pervasive presence of conceptual metaphors in everyday language. Finally, the article situates the individual essays in the current volume and suggests ways in which the study of metaphors of translation may further enrich the field.