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Article: From Nymph to Elder: Beyond the Viability of Seduction.(Critical Essay)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Literary Review
- Article date:
- September 22, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Fairleigh Dickinson University. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Calypso, Twilight" took shape around the time I read Robert Fagles's recent translation of The Odyssey, whose leading women possessed supple waists and golden braids and seemed to linger indefinitely in the prime of life. Their power to deter the course of warriors or appease the gods seemed inextricable from their enduring beauty and sexual appeal. Even Penelope, an apparent widow for two decades, was pursued by suitors who expected her to produce heirs.
Rereading the epic thirty years later, I recalled with amusement how unquestionable all this had seemed to the high school version of me who read the Fitzgerald translation the first time around--the ...