Emily Wilson about Odyssey's translation by a woman
Film (1954. Starring Kirk Douglas. Minute 34 on)
Homer (according
to the tradition, a bind man from the 8th century BC) is considered to be the
author of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and some other works as the
comic epic, The Frogs-Mice War.
But scholars think that the poems follow different oral traditions and that only in the 8th they were written down; before that, they were transmitted by generation to generation orally; this is why these narratives are in verse, so this way they were easier to remember. Another curious thing about these epics it that they were composed in an artificial language, a kind of mixture of different Greek dialects belonging to different periods.
The Odyssey tells us the adventures of Odysseus
(Ulysses in Latin), after defeating the city of Troy, in his travels through the Mediterranean Sea to reach his home on the island of Ithaca, where his son
Telemachus and his wife Penelope had been waiting for him while rejecting a
crowd of suitors.
In his adventures he meets beautiful women who are almost witches, as Circe and Calypso, cannibals, lotus-eaters, giants, mermaids, dangerous straits, different gods, etc. Finally, he arrives alone home, only to have to deal with his wife suitors.
Our episode is well-known to everybody. Ulysses arrives in Thrinnacia (Greek name for Sicily) and wants to know about the cyclopes, the singular people that live there: what kind of life they lead and how they organize their society; and he discovers that they are brutal giants without law or civilization. He and his men get trapped in Polyphemus’s cave (whose gate is closed with a huge rock) where the one-eye monster makes a feast of them. However, the cunning Ulysses (who introduces himself to the cyclops as "Noman") devises a scheme to save the rest of his men and escape. They blind the giant and tied themselves under the bellies of the cyclops's lambs when he sends them out to graze. Safe and sound, and from a certain distance of the shore, Ulysses mocks the monster and tells him his real name. Polyphemus throws them a big rock that almost sinks their ship, and he curses him telling him he is going to lose all his men and that he will get home only after a lot of suffering, for he’s the Poseidon’s son and this god is going to make him have a rough time.
But scholars think that the poems follow different oral traditions and that only in the 8th they were written down; before that, they were transmitted by generation to generation orally; this is why these narratives are in verse, so this way they were easier to remember. Another curious thing about these epics it that they were composed in an artificial language, a kind of mixture of different Greek dialects belonging to different periods.
In his adventures he meets beautiful women who are almost witches, as Circe and Calypso, cannibals, lotus-eaters, giants, mermaids, dangerous straits, different gods, etc. Finally, he arrives alone home, only to have to deal with his wife suitors.
Our episode is well-known to everybody. Ulysses arrives in Thrinnacia (Greek name for Sicily) and wants to know about the cyclopes, the singular people that live there: what kind of life they lead and how they organize their society; and he discovers that they are brutal giants without law or civilization. He and his men get trapped in Polyphemus’s cave (whose gate is closed with a huge rock) where the one-eye monster makes a feast of them. However, the cunning Ulysses (who introduces himself to the cyclops as "Noman") devises a scheme to save the rest of his men and escape. They blind the giant and tied themselves under the bellies of the cyclops's lambs when he sends them out to graze. Safe and sound, and from a certain distance of the shore, Ulysses mocks the monster and tells him his real name. Polyphemus throws them a big rock that almost sinks their ship, and he curses him telling him he is going to lose all his men and that he will get home only after a lot of suffering, for he’s the Poseidon’s son and this god is going to make him have a rough time.
QUESTIONS
-Ulysses tells Polyphemus his name is "No man", or "Noman", as a way to deceive him. Some writers decide to write under a pseudonym, and, in spy novels and films, any agent has to have an alias. What is your favourite alias? What alias/pseudonym/nickname would you choose for you?
-Hospitality is generosity to strangers who come to one's home. It was something sacred for ancient cultures. Why do you think it was so important then, and now it isn't so?
-Polyphemus is a one-eyed monster. According to you, what can symbolize this singularity?
-Cyclopes lived without laws or government, and each one was independent or free, so they live in a kind of anarchy. For a lot of people, anarchy is a kind of utopian society, a paradise. We can see that, for Ulysses, it was a badly organized society. What is your opinion about the opposition "anarchy-civilization", as it appears in the story?
VOCABULARY
tillage, over-run, sportsmen, poplars, breakers, run out, stubble, hawsers, outlaw, crag, took stock, pens, whey, strainers, rovers, vouchsafed, vitals, quiver, club, dung, cast lots, ramping, raving, auger, fleece, withies, wont, jeer, rudder, weakling, plight