Bluestocking Oxford

By Sophie Davidson

The Iliad and the Odyssey are regarded as foundational works of Western storytelling, relaying the tale of the Trojan War and the attempts of its hero, Odysseus, to return home in its aftermath. Communicating these works in translation, however, often yields different results from each translator. Emily Wilson, an author and Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, is the latest to tackle this challenge, with translations of the Odyssey (2017)  and the Iliad (2023). Both these works have made significant ripples in the practice of Homeric translation due to the significance they afford to the positions of women, as well as their reevaluation of traditional notions of masculinity and heroism in the ancient world. 

The Homeric epics are notoriously unkind to women. The women of Troy, including queen Hecuba, Hector’s wife Andromache, Briseis, and Cassandra, are central to the Iliad, and all meet terrible fates of death or enslavement by the end of the Trojan War. The Odyssey’s female figures do not fare better, and women such as Penelope, Circe, and Calypso are depicted as either devious or heartbroken. In one way or another, they all fall victim to Odysseus’ whims and plots on his journey home. By taking a direct approach to the text, Wilson offers new descriptions of women in the Homeric cycle. In her translation of the Odyssey, she describes the twelve young women killed by Odysseus as “house girls” and “slaves” (Wilson 2017, 491), where previous translations have used other descriptors, such as “whores” or “sluts” (Thurman 2023). Wilson translates directly from the ancient Greek rather than consulting other translated versions, and claims that sexist language, including “whores”, has no equivalent, despite being used frequently in descriptions of women in epic. For example, in Richard Lattimore’s translation of the Iliad, Helen points out Agamemnon to the Trojan king Priam by stating, “[He was] once my kinsman, slut that I am” (3.180). By returning to the original source material, Wilson’s translation holds modern scholars and translators accountable for their depictions of women in antiquity. Wilson’s new version subtly highlights occasions in which previous male translators chose words associated with sexual violence when they were not necessarily used in the original epic. 

In recent years, attention to the Homeric myths has been recaptured through fictional retellings, many of which afford women new perspectives and roles than in the original poems. In The Song of Achilles (2011), Madeline Miller offers a version of the Trojan War in which Briseis finds unlikely friendship in Patroclus during her captivity. Alternatively, Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls (2018) and The Women of Troy (2021) voice the fury and despair of Trojan women as they are taken prisoner by the Greeks. Both Miller and Barker’s approaches shed light on the everyday experiences of women in the ancient past. By capturing instances of joy and love, or acknowledging the pain and suffering women experienced at the hands of men, both authors accomplish a more complete and human view of women in epic. Wilson demonstrates that the same empathy conveyed in fiction can be found in the original source, forcing audiences and scholars alike to reevaluate conceptions of gender in the ancient world. 

 In her pursuit of a straightforward and direct translation, Wilson also accomplishes a fairer depiction of men in the Homeric cycle. Her translation of the Odyssey begins with “Tell me about a complicated man” (Wilson 2017). Odysseus is nothing if not complicated, a cunning figure who works to return home for twenty years only to trick his wife before finally revealing himself to her. His dealings with Circe and Calypso also make him fundamentally flawed in his appearance of dishonesty to Penelope. Judith Thurman states that the word “complicated”, translated from polytropos, or “of many turns”, conveys both complexity and wariness of the titular figure and his choices. Madeline Miller describes Odysseus’ flaws in the context of PTSD, similar to a returning veteran who continues to pursue danger and action in the absence of the stressful environment to which he is accustomed. Wilson’s description encompasses all these qualities, describing a man who is subject to terrible difficulties but also creates suffering for himself. Similar nuance is conveyed in the character of Hector. In Wilson’s translation of a scene between Hector and Andromache, Hector bids his wife not to cry, and ends his farewell by saying, “War is a task for men — for every man / born here in Troy, but most especially, me.” Through his words, Wilson conveys that Hector is also trapped by the rigid masculinity and violence of ancient heroism, ultimately leading his wife and child to watch him die. 

Wilson refuses to take credit for being the “first woman” to translate the entirety of the Odyssey and the Iliad alone, a mark of respect for the many other women who worked to translate Homer’s tales. Instead, she has stated the first five lines of her Odyssey were intended to mark her translation as “different” (Mason 2017). Indeed, Wilson earns her status as a pivotal force in Homeric scholarship for her unique translation rather than simply her identity as a woman. Wilson’s meticulous reading of the original ancient Greek reveals that translation reflects modern views as much as it communicates ancient stories. Although women in the ancient world were often placed in subordinate and vulnerable roles, Wilson’s versions of the Homeric epics indicate that some of the sexism we come to expect from ancient myth was in fact embedded by translators and scholars. Therefore, although her work does not drastically alter the roles of women in the original epics, Wilson offers both women and men of Homeric myth more nuanced characterisation through simple word choices and subtle shifts in tone and atmosphere. Her works encourage us to question the norms of the ancient past as well as the limitations of modern scholarship, allowing us to challenge conventional narratives on historical balances of gender and power.

References

Pat Barker (2018). The Silence of the Girls (London: Penguin)

—. Barker (2022). The Women of Troy (London: Penguin)

Homer, The Odyssey (2017). Translated by Emily Wilson (W. W. Norton)

Miller, Madeline (2011). The Song of Achilles (London: Bloomsbury)

Miller, Madeline and Krishnan Patel (2019). “Madeline Miller on making the Classics feminist, modern America and writing Circe”. Interview for Channel 4 News. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UpxTOT2VRQ&t=954s&gt;
Mason, Wyatt (2017). “The First Woman to Translate the ‘Odyssey’ Into English”. The New York Times Magazine. <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/magazine/the-first-woman-to-translate-the-odyssey-into-english.html&gt;

Thurman, Judith (2023). “Mother Tongue: Emily Wilson makes Homer modern”. The New Yorker. <https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/09/18/emily-wilson-profile&gt;

Wilson, Emily (2023). “Exit Hector, Again and Again: How Different Translators Reveal the ‘Iliad’ Anew”. The New York Times. <https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/books/review/iliad-translations.html&gt;