Through English class or Greek history, we all have heard of The Odyssey. We all have read some parts of it at some point in our lives. The Odyssey was originally in Greek and has been translated by men. However, Emily Wilson was the first woman to translate it. We have never paid close attention to the translations or considered the gender and culture differences within them. The three articles convey to us that translations can be different from one another because of the culture and gender the translator is a part of.
In Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey, the first two articles make it clear that she translates things differently than the previous translators. For example, the articles state that she translates the word “polytropos” to “tell me about a complicated man”. The word literally means “many turned” or “many turning”. It could be because of her gender or how our culture is today that she perceives the word “polytropos” as “complicated”. To most women, they perceive men as complicated and men perceive women as complicated. Also, in our culture today, women tend to speak freely on how they feel about men. For example, in the past women were supposed to respect men and obey them. In our culture today, women have no problem sticking up to men and calling them out on their actions.
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She uses the word “girls” because she stated that it is more neutral and it makes the text more scary. When she uses the word “girls”, she makes it more scary as if young girls were going through brutality. Also, in our culture today, being sexist and disrespectful towards women is problematic and through her translation, you can see that she applies this