Ancient Greece: The Iliad

We've haven't started Koine Greek, but as our son was asked to memorize the opening stanza of the Iliad, we've been talking about translations. If you know Greek, the opening stanza is this:



But look at the dramatic differences in translation.

From Lattimore, assigned by his teacher:

Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilleus
and its devastation, which put pains thousand-fold upon the
Achaians,
hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls
of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting
of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished...

And from Fagles:

Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.

Good translators need to have a deep understanding of both languages, the importance of word order, the associations of particular words in the language and culture, a good understanding of the rhythm and music of different languages (especially for literary and poetical works), as well as over-arching themes.

For interesting practice, check out the first link below which addresses the two translations side-by-side, including worksheet-type practice at word choice and ideas for writing assignments.

The second link shows how high tech is allowing more people to access antiquity - The oldest most complete Iliad (645 page parchment manuscript), only photographed in 1901 because of its delicate condition, is now being scanned in at high resolution in digital form.



The Iliad in Translation - What Difference Does It Make?
Robot Arm Scans Ancient Iliad Manuscript
The Iliad at Wikipedia