Emily Wilson’s The Odyssey, part 1: Bronze age perversion

WOKE classics professor DESTROYED by three random guys who've never read homer before!!!

just kidding we love it.

Wilson translation discourse: is she really importing her feminist beliefs into the text? has she stripped the grandeur out to take 'complicated' Odysseus down a peg? what are the connotations of sluts and slaves? is the fancy language of other translators really just stylistic anachronism? who would win in a fight between the yass queens and the greek statue avatars?

Odysseus the hero: what's with all the false modesty? where is the line between seeking glory and outright hubris? did he do the Cyclops dirty or did the rude savage get what was coming to him? a comparison of the Greek heroic obsession with honour and social status vs Byronic heroes and modern superheroes.

Bronze age morality: which ethical framework does it correspond to? is the hospitality stuff a useful cultural adaptation? same for the tit-for-tat honour culture? do the greek gods enforce morality, or they more like regular capricious people who happen to have super powers? what are the other big differences to judeo-christian morality?

This episode is pretty light on actual plot and character stuff but I promise we will get into it much more next week: especially the ousting of the suitors, cunning Penelope, Telemachus arc, etc.

CHAPTERS

• (00:00:00) intro and initial reactions
• (00:04:52) does Wilson strip the majesty out of the poem?
• (00:19:50) wading into the woke and anti-woke accusations
• (00:36:32) Civilisation vs barbarism: sympathy for the Cyclops
• (00:47:57) Walking the line between fame and hubris
• (00:54:00) Bronze age morality: you gotta give respect to get respect

WRITE US:

We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our bad takes, add your own, or just say hi.

NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

• White Noise - Don DeLillo