Odyssey Essay Rough Draft
Margaret Atwood a woman, shows the men to be fools and the women to be clever and manipulative while Homer and Fitzgerald are men and they depict the women to be caretakers who do what the men wish, and the men are exhausted from overcoming great challenges as heroes. The two poems are from very different times and, as a result, are very different. Margaret Atwood is a Canadian feminist, novelist, she wrote her version of the Siren song in 1973. Not much is known about the original writer of the Odyssey: Homer, whom is believed to have written it near the end of 8th century BC. Fitzgerald translated the Odyssey from its original Ancient Greek to English. Fitzgerald was an American translator and poet; he lived from…show more content… Homer/Fitzgerald portrays the Sirens as welcoming, caring and enchanting feminine creatures, while Margaret Atwood portrays the Sirens to be deceptive, confident, and arrogant characters that use manipulation to lure passing sailors to their demise.
Homer/Fitzgerald portrays the Sirens as welcoming, caring, enchanting, feminine and knowledgeable creatures. The diction in the poem supports the portrayal of the Sirens by proving they are welcoming, feminine, and captivating. The words that best show this are “Sweet coupled airs ... each purling note ... honey twining ... a-pining?” and the line “This way, oh turn your bows,” as well as “Moor and be merry”. To moor means to secure one’s boat to a certain place, in the case of the sirens this is them trying to get the sailors to come to them by being welcoming telling them when the sailors go to the sirens the sailors will be happy. The bow of a boat is the front of the boat, meaning the sirens are telling the sailors to turn their boat and go to the sirens. The wording of the first quote with sweet, purling, honey twining, and a-pining brings a reader in and is captivating and show the sirens as enchanting feminine creatures. The imagery in the poem supports the portrayal of the sirens by proving
