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Share a BookRecommendations for lovers of greek literature
I'm sure everyone who has had an interest in The odyssey or read greek myths after growing up with the Percy Jackson series noticed how misogynistic the english translations are.
I only noticed after I re-read the odyssey but instead of using the copy I still have from high school days, I picked up the translation by Emily Wilson.
It's a night and day difference.
In interviews Emily has spoken about how description of women were altered in translations by male writers to better fit the current beauty ideals and how child slaves were simply referred to as prostitutes or servant. Emily changed things like this for a clearer picture of how the greek saw women and how powerful women in the story were truly portrayed.
I can also recommend "Pandora's jar" by Natalie Haynes for a better picture of women in greek myths, it was moving and interesting and I experienced many of the most well known stories in a completely new way.
Please let me know how you like Emily Wilson's work and Pandora's jar should you ever pick them up!
Anne Carson's translation of what fragments of Sappho's poetry we have left, If Not, Winter... is very good too, and it includes a long fragment that gives this amazing glimpse of a completely different part of the story tradition around the Trojan War.
Hmm. Marcus Aurelius is famously intellectually connected to philosophies of this time because his stoicism, which never truly caught on for whatever reason, is the bastard cousin to rhetoric, the communication technique, which is better than most things from that time period.
Stoicism, to me, is a type of feminism, an unshakable version if I do say so myself.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations book is pretty good.
I haven't done much adult reading on this subject but I definitely want to read Emily Wilson. Song of Achilles and Circe by Madeline Miller seem to be very popular and are on my list too. Ariadne by Jennifer Saint came out recently and looks pretty promising.
Song of Achilles and Circe are on my list too. I've heard both are very good.
I can only recommend sticking with Emily Wilson, I also loved Seneca by her. She seems super cool in her interviews and I am glad that the world of translation has a woman like her to redeem what male translators have done to these stories.
I loved Song of Achilles but didn't like Circe as much. Maybe I was expecting too much of a feminist main character/story after all the hype around it but to me it wasn't that compelling. I hope you will enjoy it a lot more than me, I'm kind of picky when it comes to books.
And thank you for the recommendation! I immediately downloaded Ariadne, I can't believe I didn't hear anything about it until now.
That's great, let me know how you like Ariadne! I have finals coming up so I'm going to wait until the summer to get it.
I also recommend A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes! It’s the Iliad from the perspective of the women.