—”What’s “racist” about The Odyssey?”
NOTHING!
Long ago I read (skimmed?) The Odyssey for a class.
My son recommended the Emily Wilson translation, OH MY!
Some of the best fiction, ever.
I knew the ending but about a third of the way in, I could not stop reading! I read all night!
And Tennyson’s Ulysses is a nice denouement, Odysseus was not born to sit around... So he puts the band back together for a world tour.
“Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.”
“We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
“There’s nothing nobler than a man and wife, of one heart and mind in a house:
A bane to their enemies; and to their friends, great joy.
But their own hearts know it best.”
Aha! Kinda sexist and un-inclusive? /s
Loved The Odyssey. Shared it with my daughters whom I home-schooled, and I did get a bit misty when we read the above. We all got a great education. The quote above hung in our home thereafter.