Are there any famous critics that have written something about the Odyssey? If so, who are they?

Many Homeric scholars have spent their entire careers studying and writing about the Odyssey. Some of these critics have also used their knowledge of the poem to complete new translations of Homer's Ancient Greek epic as well. Criticism of the text has occurred in three main phases: classical scholarship, eighteenth and nineteenth-century scholarship, and modern scholarship.
Classical scholarship regarding the Odyssey goes back to ancient times. The earliest Homeric scholars aimed to ensure that written versions of the epic poem were consistent in Greek language use and poetic rhythm. Even well-known ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle wrote frequently about Homer and quoted his works.
Criticism of the Odyssey changed in the eighteenth and nineteenth century to focus on what we now call the Homeric Question: did Homer write every book of the Odyssey (and his other famous work the Iliad)? These critics aimed to fact-check the epic and find inconsistencies with historical references and language use. Famous critics of this time period include the Scottish scholar Thomas Blackwell and the German scholars Johann Hermann and Karl Lachmann.
Modern scholars have focused on many different aspects of the epic, including appropriate translation from Ancient Greek to modern English and the social issues addressed in the poem. Two notable women have written extensively about the gender bias present in both the original story and in male translators' versions of the story. The first female scholar, Mary Beard, has critiqued how the Odyssey is one the earliest examples of misogyny (defined as a hate and/or distrust in women) in literature. Beard says the poem's focus on Odysseus's and Telemachus's journeys often comes at the expense of all the female characters they silence and take advantage of. The second female scholar, Emily Wilson, recently completed the first modern English translation of the Odyssey by a woman. Wilson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has written about the ways that previous translations by men were full of biases in language use that made male characters in the epic appear to be more important than female characters, even in scenes that did not require this unequal power dynamic. Her translation of the Odyssey aimed to fix these instances of gender bias and make the language more accessible for modern readers.
https://muse.jhu.edu/book/2875

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/02/woman-scholars-take-on-the-odyssey/

https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-women-and-power-20171228-story.html

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