Feminism in Odysseus

I believe that there are different perspectives and opinions of people that could be said to support or refute the Odyssey as a text that diminishes or empowers women. Author Emily Wilson was the first woman ever to translate the Odyssey. There were some inherent difficulties and areas of the text where very major problems were merely glossed over then elaborated in a better light such prevaricating words like “chambermaids” instead of the precise terminology--slaves. From the Vox article, Wilson stated that her rendition is “not a feminist version of the Odyssey [but] a version of the Odyssey that lays bare the morals of its time and place, and invites us to consider how different they are from our own, and how similar.” Her translation, though I have not read (yet), is something that I agree with immensely. Her choice of “plain and contemporary language” gives the reader a straight-forward, seen-as-it-is look at the Odyssey. This allows the text itself, not to be equivocated by the vague or false wording. Regarding the Odyssey and the characters, the women were portrayed lesser than men. At the time of the conception of the poem, that was merely the social dynamic, a patriarchal hierarchy. However, the female gods have an innate sense of omnipotence, for example, both monsters of Charybdis and Scylla are females as well as the goddess Athena who ultimately was a mentor and savior to Odysseus. Wilson “ does not take any of the queen’s original power away by making descriptions of her conform to modern gender stereotypes.