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.
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
