first of all, the oldest copy thing has to be a joke, right? Who in all world gave it to someone as ignorant as Nolan on ancient manuscripts and their care in an uncontrollable environment full of flashing cameras?
But, the idea that they're "fixing" Homer's "misogyny" by...taking a complicated, three dimensional female character and removing her rough edges, her flaws, what made her so compelling and real in the first place, all so she can be more in line with female stereotypes... ARE we kidding? Isn't that the number 1 criticism in American and British Greek myth "retellings"? That they remove all the agency and the interest and the imperfections out of the women? And instead present us the same "character" whose only ability is to bemoan her fate passively, while men walk all over her? When in the original myths she was an active participant in her own life, even if to certain modern audiences this makes her less palatable because she makes hard choices, questionable choices, even morally wrong choices? But in Greek myth she plays her own tune. Modern day anglophones just reduce her to a man's accessory in her own story.
Sure, I guess I'll have to wait and see (the detailed reviews and analyses, of course, ain't giving nolan a cent for that atrocity), but the way they speak of Circe etc has me feeling like I've seen this film play out before, albeit in a different medium...
But, the idea that they're "fixing" Homer's "misogyny" by...taking a complicated, three dimensional female character and removing her rough edges, her flaws, what made her so compelling and real in the first place, all so she can be more in line with female stereotypes... ARE we kidding? Isn't that the number 1 criticism in American and British Greek myth "retellings"? That they remove all the agency and the interest and the imperfections out of the women? And instead present us the same "character" whose only ability is to bemoan her fate passively, while men walk all over her? When in the original myths she was an active participant in her own life, even if to certain modern audiences this makes her less palatable because she makes hard choices, questionable choices, even morally wrong choices? But in Greek myth she plays her own tune. Modern day anglophones just reduce her to a man's accessory in her own story.
That, precisely, is why I can't stand "modern feminist retellings" - they just recycle the same old sexist stereotypes about us women and then blame the 'patriarchy' for these authors presenting us as nothing but cry-babies.
However, the claim that Homer didn't give the women in his epics agency becomes even more ridiculous if you compare Lupita's own idea of what Homer wrote to what he actually wrote. In random order:
Andromache gives one of the most - if not the most - striking anti-war monologues in world literature (and she's the wife of Troy's greatest hero and future King) - her name literally means "battle of men" in Greece and is produced by the words 'andras' (man) and 'mache' (battle)
Hecuba is the human personification of an empire that has fallen to ruins
Helen symbolizes Greece itself, a girl/land blessed by the gods with incredible beauty yet falling victim to the ambitions of the many (Greek history ironically ended up proving that myth) as well as the uselessness of war (she, Andromache and Hecuba are basically the three strongest anti-war female heroes)
Penelope is a smart woman who's protecting the honour of the Oikos and the honour of her husband's name against parasites who invaded her own home and consume her livelihood whilst she keeps holding on to hope that her husband will come back. Not because she's "weak" or a "victim to patriarchy" but because she takes on her husband's place while Telemachus grows up from baby to man (if you see the movie Mikra Anglia, you'll notice how 'Penelope' still exists in Greece).
Calypso is the one who's in (unrequited) love and who uses her power to keep her lover from leaving her side
Circe is the great seductress, the witch that won't hesitate to kill you if you spite her, the mistress of her own land (but even she has a soft side - cue the son she's had with Odysseus)
Nausicaa (a teen girl) advises Odysseus to beg her mother for help instead of his father, so that his father would be much more easily convinced to help Odysseus.
Athena - well, she's technically the shadow-protagonist of the Odyssey
Odysseus himself isn't a womanizer or a cheating prick, as modern-day "feminist" scholars would have you believe. He was technically Calypso and Circe's prisoner (I read the term 'sex slave' somewhere, but I think it's a wee too far-fetched), a man dealing with an impossible situation and his longing to go home. He was Athena's favorite mortal and she even faced up to Zeus in order to protect him. It's thanks to Athena that Zeus was convinced to send Hermes over to Calypso's island and convince Calypso to let Odysseus go. (Quite frankly, how many times have we seen - in modern literature - a man falling victim to a woman's abuse?)
All of them are different women, different characters, different storylines, and different personalities. Yes, some of them are morally grey characters (i.e. Circe and Calypso), but they're also shown as independent women in their own kingdoms. What modern "feminist" retellings do is take Andromache, Penelope, Helen, Circe and Nausicaa, have them whine all the time, blame everything on the patriarchy and turn their "greyness" into either black or white.
