Emily Wilson's 'Odyssey' Scrapes The Barnacles Off Homer's Hull
Wilson — the first woman to translate The Odyssey — has created a fresh, authoritative and slyly humorous version of Homer's epic that scours away archaisms while preserving nuance and complexity.
by Annalisa Quinn
Dec 02, 2017
3 minutes
In the 17th century, the poet John Dryden satirized the deep anxiety around letting women learn the Classics:
But of all Plagues, the greatest is untold;
The Book-Learn'd Wife in Greek and Latin bold.
The Critick-Dame, who at her Table sits:
Homer and Virgil quotes, and weighs their Wits;
Alas! We Critick-Dames abound. But we were a long time coming. Because the classics were so closely associated with elite institutions, they came to symbolize a certain kind of cultural and political power, a power men were
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