“Simone Weil’s Iliad : Misunderstanding Homer ?”

Abstract

This article focuses on Simone Weil’s translation and reception of Homer’s Iliad. Some criitics have called it a misreading, but I contend that translation and reception comes in many forms and that it is a mistake to label non-literal translations as “misreadings.” My analysis of Weil’s Homer also focuses on how Weil’s writing about war is marked by her identity as a woman and a woman who is drawn to epic poetry. The article focuses on two episodes in the Iliad: Priam and Achilles in Book 24 and Lycaon and Achilles in Book 21.