Robert Graves excels at historical fiction, and this book does not disappoint. I was put off at first by the introduction, in which the author explains his reasons for writing this by saying that "The Iliad is a poem about and for men, the Odyssey (despite its male hero) is a poem about and for women." I don't at all share that view, but thankfully the story that follows is a very good one, especially because I've recently read an Odyssey and it was fresh in my mind. Reader, I loved this. ( )

What if The Odyssey had been written not by Homer but by an unknown woman? That is exactly the theory which inspired Robert Graves to write his charming novel Homer's Daughter.

The idea was not a new one. Samuel Butler, a noted translator of both epics, wrote The Authoress of The Odyssey in 1897 wherein he quoted others who had suggested The Odyssey was written from a woman's point of view. Not only that, Robert Graves points to an ancient Greek source suggesting that the version of "Odysseus' Return" upon which The Odyssey was based originated in Sicily. Without getting too much into the weeds here, let me just say that Graves saw the delight in this prospect and composed an entertaining story to show how this almost blasphemous concept — in the eyes of scholars at any rate — might have materialized.

The tale is told in the first person by a young Sicilian Princess who is unusually literate and who tells of a family episode which will seem very familiar to readers of The Odyssey. She is Homer's daughter only in the literary sense as the bards of ancient times called themselves "Sons of Homer" to identify themselves as members of an exclusive brotherhood. Since women were barred from any such undertaking as singing the lays of Homer — much less writing them — a certain amount of subterfuge was required to get the local minstrel to sing her epic poem at the palace, around Sicily and then convey it to Delos, the home of Homeric bards.

If you haven't actually read Homer, the pleasures of this novel may not be fully appreciated. They pretty much went sailing right over my own head the first time I read it without benefit of having the two epics under my belt. In effect, Homer's Daughter purports to give an inside look at how the adventures of Odysseus might have been created out of a few rather dramatic palace intrigues that found their way into the new poem about the return of Odysseus.

The mists of time have clouded our real understanding of who, when and where Homer was, so the basis for this novel may be criticized but cannot be absolutely refuted. The differences between the two Homeric epics are so striking that one can easily believe they came from different sources. And it would not be surprising if The Odyssey had indeed been written by a woman.

Homer's Daughter is a very clever novel by one of the prominent Greek scholars of the mid twentieth century. Readers who have enjoyed the ancient classics will also enjoy Graves' novel. ( )

La hija de Homero narra una historia de conspiraciones y rebeliones por el trono de una pequeña comunidad griega en la Sicilia de los siglos VIII o VII a.c. En esta ocasión Graves no se basa en la vida de un personaje histórico conocido, como Claudio o Belisario, sino que crea un argumento completamente imaginario, aunque basado en sus conocimientos de los orígenes de la era clásica. Sin embargo la historia que narra tiene el sabor del vino ya degustado, si bien enriquecido por una nueva cosecha que le aporta nuevos matices y sorpresas.

En la novela asistimos al abandono de un reino por su soberano, a la desventura de su casa y dinastía por causa de los malvados y jóvenes miembros de la nobleza que irrumpen en palacio para vivaquear a costa de su rey hasta que su hija acepte a uno como marido, al encuentro entre una joven Nausicaa y un náufrago vigoroso en las playas donde la tempestad ha arrojado al marino errante, a recitales de viejos aedos sobre las aventuras de los héroes de Troya en sus nostoi, a relatos sobre cíclopes que devoran hombres y brujas que los transforman en cerdos.

El lector avezado puede reconocer sin esfuerzo de donde proceden los elementos del relato y cobra entonces sentido, a su vista, el título de la novela. Pero la receta que propone Graves no es la de Homero, sino completamente distinta: los ingredientes son los mismos, pero su combinación y sazón son nuevos. O no tanto. La idea de que el autor de la Iliada y el de la Odisea no fueron el mismo es una viaje polémica filológica conocida como la cuestión homérica, que ha dado como frutos encendidos argumentos desde que se planteó en el siglo XVIII.

La Odisea, más moderna, más variable y variada, como las olas del mar que cruza su protagonista, ha gozado de mayor fervor que la narración de la cólera del pélida Aquiles (según Carlos García Gual, Borges adoraba la Odisea y detestaba o al menos, no gustaba, la Iliada. Yo recuerdo escritos de Borges ponderando el poema de Ulises pero no una descalificación de la épica sobre Ilión). También el protagonista del nostoi, Ulises u Odiseo, parece más cercano al lector moderno que el hijo cuasi-invulnerable de Tetis.

La novela tiene una estructura narrativa muy parecida a la de otras obras de Graves, en particular "Yo, Claudio": la narración en primera persona de los acontecimientos, los diálogos que hacen avanzar la acción referidos a hechos importantes de la trama, las conspiraciones relatadas por una tercera persona. A veces me parecía que era Claudio tratando con Póstumo las asechanzas de Livia, en lugar de Nausicaa, narrando las intrigas de los conspiradores contra su padre. ( )

Up there with I, Claudius in Graves' historical novels - a great story about the theoretical daughter of Homer who wrote the Odyssey. ( )

Not bad. An unexpected re-hash of The Odyssey, wherein Telemechus' sister proves the heroine. The less seriously you take it, the more enjoyable it should prove. ( )