This summer, I’m taking a class in comparative translations of The Odyssey.
Okay, okay: To each his own.
But I’ve sure been amused about the controversy over whether Christopher Nolan’s film version of The Odyssey is woke.
Let me make just two points.
First, folks say that Nolan’s decision to cast Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy is an outrage. She’s black, for heaven’s sake! How can the most beautiful woman in ancient Greece be black?
Let’s think about this.
Zeus transformed himself into a swan. He descended from Mount Olympus and raped Leda. As a result of that union, Leda laid two eggs. Each egg contained twins. Helen of Troy was one of the four children hatched from Leda’s eggs.
Tell me again her race.
Hell, tell me her species.
Second, folks criticize Nolan’s decision to use contemporary language, including American accents and modern colloquialisms, in the film.
Got it.
The Odyssey was an epic poem written in ancient Greek in dactylic hexameter.
(Writing a column at Above the Law about a nonlegal subject is an odd challenge. If I do not explain the meaning of “dactylic hexameter,” some readers will complain that I’m asking too much of them. On the other hand, if I do explain the meaning of “dactylic hexameter,” a different group of readers will say that I’m being condescending. What’s an author to do?
Ah! Dactylic hexameter. Click through or not, as you like.)
Although a few poets have used dactyls through the years, ginning up 12,109 English-language lines of dactylic hexameter, as translating The Odyssey would require, would be an overwhelming challenge. As a result, translators have made a collection of choices over the centuries.
George Chapman, who translated The Odyssey into English around the year 1600, chose to write in rhymed iambic pentameter. (Iambic pentameter. Closer call for me, but I can’t be faulted for adding the link.) Alexander Pope and his assistants did the same in the early 1700s.
Modern translators have made their own choices. Some stick with hexameter, but abandon the dactyls. Some write in blank verse. Some make other choices.
All, of course, change the language from Greek to English and from ancient to modern.
But folks are complaining about Nolan’s decision to have a character refer to “father” as “dad” in an American accent?
Can’t we come up with something else to complain about?
The war in Iran, maybe? Deciding what to do there is really choosing between Scylla and Charybdis.
Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and later oversaw litigation, compliance and employment matters at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.
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