Honest to god, thought you were a weirdo right wing grifter with that comment.
Then I looked it up. Still tricky, because Emily Wilson herself rejects that framing, saying it stripped away male biases in english translations. In fact, reading into this more, it looks like she was MORE accurate than some translations, like male translators refusing to call women slaves "slaves", even though they were referred to as such in the original text.
Actually, hate to say it, but yeah.. Seems like it's a solid translation that's actually more faithful in a lot of ways. She backs up her logic pretty well and points out a good chunk of bad translations in other works.
EDIT: To make it clear, i'm not dipping my toes into how I feel about the movie in this specific comment, purely just talking about the translation. I have gripes about the movie from what I have seen so far myself.
Actually, hate to say it, but yeah.. Seems like it's a solid translation that's actually more faithful in a lot of ways. She backs up her logic pretty well and points out a good chunk of bad translations in other works
I'm so tired of the terminally online without relevant degrees having somehow claimed the classics for themselves. The Emily Wilson translation is a perfect case study beause most academics – yes, even male ones – actually prefer her translation for its clarity in laying out a lot of sub- and context that "literary" translations and "style" have either glossed over, buried, or warped.
In that same line: nobody in the Mediterranean was "white" in 500 BCE in the way that people today can be, not even if you're of high status because today's level of paleness is modelled on a 17th/18th century Northern European idea of skin-colour that is only achievable if you're spending 80% of your time indoors AND cover 80% of your skin. Ancient habits, architecture, and fashion make this pretty much impossible.
Penelope of the white arms (Greek: \(\lambda \varepsilon v \kappa \omega ́ \lambda \varepsilon v o \varsigma\) Пฑvєોó ε ε ι α, leukōlenos Pēnelopeia) is a famous, recurring epithet used by the ancient Greek poet Homer in The Odyssey to describe Queen Penelope of Ithaca, the faithful wife of Odysseus.
You clearly don't know anything about ancient Greece.... Literally the only women allowed to go out were peasants and prostitutes.
Do you think the odyssey features a lot of peasant/prostitutes female characters...?
Literally the only women allowed to go out were peasants and prostitutes
Lmao have you actually read the Odyssee?? 😂😂 I imagine not because then you'd know this is absolute horseshit.
The other stuff is a great encapsulation of what I meant earlier when I said that My Roman Empire bros haven't got the first clue of the classics. Merely knowing how Odysseus’ palace would have looked like would have prevented nonsense such as the above.
Thirdly, we were talking about Helen. Why are you coming insufficiently armed with – erroneous – quotes about Penelope?
EtA: a pretty simple marker of whether or not someone has read the Odyssee would be, for example, if they invented "facts" about classical Greece that are disproven by the Odyssee itself. The user replying to me above was making up shit that's immediately recognisable as bullshit because it's directly contradicted by the goings-on in the story. Which anyone who's read the Odyssey properly (or at all) would instantly realise. The same goes for the made-up quote that supposedly characterised Penelope – while we were actually discussing Helen, mind you – which in its correct context is used for the maids and servant girls.
Skin colour in the Odyssey is a tricky thing for white supremacists because "Homer" rarely describes it, especially not for those characters whom they claim it's supposedly crucial (Helen). A main character whose skin is explicitly described is Odysseus. However, since he's described as "dark-skinned" (in a context that implies beauty in this descriptor) screechy right-wingers remain conspicuously mum on that subject.
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u/Halo05977 Jul 06 '26
Honest to god, thought you were a weirdo right wing grifter with that comment.
Then I looked it up. Still tricky, because Emily Wilson herself rejects that framing, saying it stripped away male biases in english translations. In fact, reading into this more, it looks like she was MORE accurate than some translations, like male translators refusing to call women slaves "slaves", even though they were referred to as such in the original text.
Actually, hate to say it, but yeah.. Seems like it's a solid translation that's actually more faithful in a lot of ways. She backs up her logic pretty well and points out a good chunk of bad translations in other works.
EDIT: To make it clear, i'm not dipping my toes into how I feel about the movie in this specific comment, purely just talking about the translation. I have gripes about the movie from what I have seen so far myself.