#post-patriarchy

Emily Wilson is the first woman to translate Homer's Odyssey. Her perspective infuses new vitality into the ancient text, where she tells the story of a man's journey from a woman's perspective. In the epic's first line, its hero Odysseus is called polytropos, a word that cannot definitively be translated from Greek. Stanley Lombardo went with "the cunning hero" and Robert Fagles chose "the man of twists and turns." Wilson verbally winks: "Tell me about a complicated man." It is a distinctly feminine choice, and a subtle laugh at the literary trope of the brooding, complex male protagonist. She does away with euphemisms, referring to the handmaidens in the poem much more directly; she calls them, accurately, "slaves." ⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ According to E.V. Rieu's translation, Odysseus' father cries out, "What a day this is to warm my heart! My son and grandson competing in valor!" Wilson goes with "Ah gods!/ A happy day for me! My son and grandson/ are arguing about how tough they are!" Her female perspective enlivens the text, using comedy to shed light on the human condition, and a man's writing provides the framework. I wonder what our world would look like if this sense of cooperation and harmony between man and woman didn't stop with ancient translations. Well, it's a start. ⠀⠀⠀⠀

‘In a post-patriarchy world, I would think about what was behind the picture and not how I’m displayed in front.’ ‘In a post-patriarchy world, I would think about way more when I see these pictures than “back when I was beautiful”. ‘I can only imagine what all women, all beings, could do in a post-patriarchal world.’ 

Repost @debbiemillman // thank you for sharing @aminatou brilliance: 

We asked @pocomaspepe how he envisions a post-patriarchal world. He responded with this photo and an anecdote from that same day in Morocco:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

“So there’s this 6yr old girl here and her 8yr old brother. She took the chips away as he tried to eat, so he expressed his urgent disapproval, to which she scornfully imitated his words and added that the chips were to wait to be shared once everybody came to the table ..