An epic battle on Homer's gender

The Australian ^ | July 03, 2006 | Dalya Alberge (The London Times)

[SunkenCiv]

Historian and linguist Andrew Dalby is challenging the accepted gender of one of the most influential writers of all time -- the poet who created the Greek epics The Iliad and The Odyssey in the seventh century BC. Dr Dalby said: "There is no direct evidence of the poet's identity and therefore no justification for the customary assumption that the two epics were composed by a man." Women have a long tradition worldwide as makers of oral literature, he said, citing Sappho, the best-known female poet of ancient Greece, and Enheduanna, the woman mentioned on a Sumerian tablet who thus became the first named poet in the world. Dr Dalby, whose study Rediscovering Homer will be published in September, said: "It is possible, even probable, that this poet was a woman. As a working hypothesis, this helps to explain certain features in which these epics are better -- more subtle, more complex, more universal -- than most others." ...Anthony Snodgrass, emeritus professor of classical archaeology at Cambridge University, said The Odyssey could have been written by a woman because it is about "a world at peace in general terms, with domesticity, fidelity ... endurance and determination rather than aggression". But he added: "The idea of a woman writing The Iliad and not being bored out of her mind by the endless fighting and killings is a bit more far-fetched." The issue, he said, lay in whether the same person wrote both poems. "Most of us now believe the same person did."

[SunkenCiv]

[BipolarBob]

Homer is a gentle and misunderstood man who happens to drink Duff beer.

[SunkenCiv]

The very late Samuel Butler was of the opinion that the Odyssey was written by a woman. Since it is really just a romance novel from ancient times, I find that plausible. So did the late (and probably better known) Robert Graves. Butler's view was that a princess living on or near Sicily (in one of the "Greater Greece" colonies wrote the Odyssey and used various sites and sights familiar to her from her surroundings to cook up the various trials and tribulations of Odysseus.

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[SunkenCiv]

the Odyssey was written by a woman:

Google

the authoress of the Odyssey:

Google

[SunkenCiv]

The Odyssey of Homer
translated by Samuel Butler
(Preface)

This translation is intended to supplement a work entitled "The Authoress of the Odyssey", which I published in 1897. I could not give the whole "Odyssey" in that book without making it unwieldy, I therefore epitomised my translation, which was already completed and which I now publish in full.

[ASA Vet]

The articles title should have been, "An epic battle on Homer's sex?"

[nopardons]

THE ILLIAD really is a man's book and yes, THE ODYSSEY is more of a romantic adventure book; however, many male authors, throughout recorded history, HAVE written such books. Robert Graves IS such a one. LOL

[shamusotoole]

Homer knew too much about ships and their workings to have been female. The only way to win this argument is not to argue.

[Question_Assumptions]

Well, we already know that Homer was supposed to be handicapped (blind) so why not just claim that he was black and lesbian and hit all the bases at once?

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Ain't no woman romance writer going to conceive of the grand epic battle at the end of the Oddyssey....IMHO

But I love how the shooting contest turns into the slaughter of all the bad guys....

[SunkenCiv]

"Homer is a gentle and misunderstood man who happens to drink Duff beer."

Heh...

[Celtjew Libertarian]

The very late Samuel Butler was of the opinion that the Odyssey was written by a woman. Since it is really just a romance novel from ancient times, I find that plausible. So did the late (and probably better known) Robert Graves. Butler's view was that a princess living on or near Sicily (in one of the "Greater Greece" colonies wrote the Odyssey and used various sites and sights familiar to her from her surroundings to cook up the various trials and tribulations of Odysseus.

Graves's wrote a novel, Homer's Daughter, that proposes that Nausicaa was the author of The Odyssey, basing it on events from her life.

When I reviewed it for a website, seven years ago, I give is a middling review. "This a well-crafted novel, but weak characterizations and lack of any real surprise keep it from being anything special," was how I summarized it. I'm wondering now, how much that was just that it didn't quite measure up to I, Claudius.

[SunkenCiv]

So, I guess this idea is a boner?

[rimshot!]

[Pharmboy]

Uhhh...let's make everybody happy: maybe Homer was gay. /sarcasm

[nopardons]

Probably not. :-)

I've always LOVED THE ODYSSEY and the ending is spectacular.

Have you read Graves' HOMER'S DAUGHTER? It's his "take" on a part of THE ODDYSSEY.

[nopardons]

Yes.........LOL

[ASA Vet]

What's wrong with being happy and light hearted?

[nopardons]

Oh my goodness...someone else that book? :-)

I read many decades ago, when I was a preteen and had bought it for 19 cents, in a remainder bin. It's a first edition and I loved it; however, I was all of 11 or 12 when I read it. LOL

[Pharmboy]

LOL! Well, he WAS Greek, dontcha know...

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

many male authors, throughout recorded history, HAVE written such books.

"Pamela" by Richardson being a prime example.