2017-12-01 21:51:31 -0500 EST
Symmetry of the Iliad and Odyssey
I haven’t made it past the introduction yet, but I’m already digging the new Emily Wilson translation of Homer’s Odyssey. Wilson observes the symmetry between the start of the Odyssey and the Iliad:
Much-courted Penelope resembles Helen, the woman to whom all the Greek heroes came as suitors (Menelaus, her husband, eventually won her hand by log), and who Paris, Prince of Troy, later stole away. Like Paris, Penelope’s suitors threaten to steal away a married woman as if she were a bride. Penelope’s house also echoes the besieged town of troy, when the Greeks were fighting to take Helen back home—but there is here no strong Hector to defend the inhabitants.
#homer #odyssey #iliad