Philobiblon

Dr Dalby, whose study, Rediscovering Homer, will be published by W. W. Norton in September, said: “It is possible, even probable, that this poet was a woman. As a working hypothesis, this helps to explain certain features in which these epics are better — more subtle, more complex, more universal — than most others.”

Well, the short answer is of course that we’ll never know. Interesting thought though.

But I was amused by the “official” response:

Anthony Snodgrass, Emeritus Professor of Classical Archaeology at Cambridge University, said that the Odyssey could have been written by a woman because it is about “a world at peace in general terms, with domesticity, fidelity . . . endurance and determination rather than aggression”. But he added: “The idea of a woman writing the Iliad and not being bored out of her mind by the endless fighting and killings is a bit more far-fetched.”

… because of course a woman in the Greece of some 3,000 years ago, in a culture of which we know very little, had the same interests as a “proper” middle-class British woman of the 20th century, of a type with which he is acquainted.