#greek translation

[lionofchaeronea]

Human beings exist for the sake of one another: so, either teach them or endure them. Οἱ ἄνθρωποι γεγόνασιν ἀλλήλων ἕνεκεν: ἢ δίδασκε οὖν ἢ φέρε. --Marcus Aurelius, Meditations VIII.59

[belovedapollo]

some of my favorites 📚 reblog is ok, don’t repost/use

[kurzler]

Hi, I recently saw your post of your rant about Greek Mythology and I'm recently interested in getting into it.

I know a bit about some myths from school, we read versions of Pandora's box, the Minotaur, Heracules, and the Odyssey. This was Year 4 so I was around 8-9, so there all probably a version for a child to read and understand. I also listened to Epic the Musical. I am fully aware of the inaccuracies of it from the original.

I'm just so overwhelmed on where do I start? Also I want to read the Iliad and Odyssey do have any recommendations for any versions?

hi! thank you for the ask, i'm gonna try my best to be helpful

disclaimer: i'm not a classicist nor a professional, this is just a passion of mine, so if anyone who has more credentials than me wants to chime in i'd be more than happy!

so! im gonna be listing some texts to look into, most of them i think are easily found on the internet, since they are so ancient and iconic. but before getting into that, i've found some helpful sites:

this site is a collection of classical texts: of course i'm not gonna be able to list every classical text here, i'm gonna recommend a few, so this is a good place to look if you want more, but i don't necessarily recommend reading them directly from here, since i know some of the translations are a bit outdated

this site, part of the same project, serves as a guide to gods, creatures, and heroes: again, some information may be a bit outdated, but it's a good place if you want to get a general idea

now, onto the texts themselves, there are a few i would recommend:

-the theogony by hesiod tells the origin of the gods and their genealogy

-works and days also by hesiod might be a little harder to get through, since it's mostly hesiod telling his brother how to work a farm, but it also contains the story of prometheus and pandora, and the myth of five ages

-the bibliotheca by pseudo-apollodorus is a collection of myths from the events of the theogony to odysseus, and it contains many famous myths, like those of the argonauts, perseus, heracles, theseus and various others

-the homeric hymns are useful it you want to know more about the gods, they are 33 and tell the stories of the birth of some gods or the establishment of their cult. they are 33, but some of the most famous are the hymn to demeter (the story of persephone's abduction), the hymn to athena (her birth from zeus' head) and the hymn to hermes (him stealing apollo's cows and creating the lyre)

-of course, the iliad and the odyssey by homer. the iliad comes chronologically before the odyssey and, contrary to popular belief, it isn't the story of the trojan war, but it covers a part of the last year of the war. the odyssey also isn't the linear journey of odysseus, it's mostly told in flashbacks

-the iliad and the odyssey are part of the epic cycle, a collection of works that tells a story that spans from the events leading up to the trojan war, the war itself, and the aftermath. apart from the iliad and the odyssey, the other works only survive in fragments, but they're worth looking into if you're curious about the trojan war

-finally, i also recommend reading some theatrical plays

from euridipus i recommend: medea, iphigenia in aulis, the trojan women

from sophocles i recommend: oedipus rex, antigone

from aeschylus i recommend: prometheus bound, the oresteia

now, as for what translation/version to read for the iliad and the odyssey, i'm afraid i can't be of much help because english isn't my first language, so i haven't read them in english and i can't offer firsthand advice, i've searched online and this is what i've found:

this is a collection of translations of the iliad and this is a collection of translations of the odyssey. overall, i've seen that the three translations that are most commonly suggested are by robert fagles, emily wilson and e.v. rieu. again, i haven't read these translations firsthand so if i'm mistaken, let me know!

i hope this helps you🫶

[jtisaacs]

Hiya! I'm very interested in your linguistics background and how it overlaps with your Classics degree so I have a very surface level question that I'm positive you may have fielded before. Do you have a favorite translation of Homer's Odyssey? Further, do you have any opinions on what seemed to be a very polarizing translation of it by Emily Wilson some years ago?

Hi! I have not answered this so thank you sm for asking! I’ve only read a few different full translations of the of the Odyssey, but my favorite so far is Richard Lattimore’s rendition (I’ve read his translations of the Odyssey and the Iliad, and both amazing. His translations maintain the grammar, sentence structure, and cultural nuances of the original Greek. But because of this his translations can often be considered very dense for casual readers. ) I also enjoyed Stanley Lombardo translation for a more modernized, easy read that still remains integral to the original text.

As for Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey, I have not read her full translation, but what I have read I’ve throughly enjoyed! Her translation is very entertaining, but divulges greatly from the traditional understanding of the Greek. Which makes her translation less than ideal from the linguistics perspective, but her cultural understanding of the story is unprecedented in the Classics field. Her 2017 translation of the Odyssey is the first ever English translation attributed to a woman, despite any short falling it may have, I think that it is still a tremendous achievement in the advancement of classical literature and the development of the poem’s unexplored perspectives.

Further more, every translation is going to be vastly different depending on which aspect of the text is being highlighted. Some emphasize the character development, the plot, the grammar, the cultural context, etc. So I don’t think there are necessarily any bad translations, just ones better suited for what aspects of the text you want to study.

Thank you again for the ask, I had a lot of fun with this! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the translations you’ve read as well!

[psychidion]

ταῦτ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἀοιδὸς ἄειδε περικλυτός: αὐτὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς τήκετο, δάκρυ δ᾽ ἔδευεν ὑπὸ βλεφάροισι παρειάς. ὡς δὲ γυνὴ κλαίῃσι φίλον πόσιν ἀμφιπεσοῦσα, ὅς τε ἑῆς πρόσθεν πόλιος λαῶν τε πέσῃσιν, ἄστεϊ καὶ τεκέεσσιν ἀμύνων νηλεὲς ἦμαρ: ἡ μὲν τὸν θνήσκοντα καὶ ἀσπαίροντα ἰδοῦσα ἀμφ᾽ αὐτῷ χυμένη λίγα κωκύει: οἱ δέ τ᾽ ὄπισθε κόπτοντες δούρεσσι μετάφρενον ἠδὲ καὶ ὤμους εἴρερον εἰσανάγουσι, πόνον τ᾽ ἐχέμεν καὶ ὀιζύν: τῆς δ᾽ ἐλεεινοτάτῳ ἄχεϊ φθινύθουσι παρειαί: ὣς Ὀδυσεὺς ἐλεεινὸν ὑπ᾽ ὀφρύσι δάκρυον εἶβεν. These things the renowned bard was singing. But Odysseus was deeply moved, and tears wet the cheeks below his eyes. Just as a wife cries out, falling upon her beloved husband, who has fallen before his people and soldiers, striving to keep away a ruthless day from his town and children. Seeing him dying, gasping out life, she wraps herself around him and wails loudly, but from behind, striking her with their spears on her back and shoulders, they lead her into servitude to bear toil and misery, and with most pitiful grief her cheeks are withered, so did Odysseus let fall pitiful tears from below his brow.

~Homer, The Odyssey, Book 8, line 521-531

[sugaroto]

Watched the sonic movie with my cousin in Greek and the villain's name is Αυγένιος which is hilarious cause it sounds like Ευγένιος (aka Eugene, real name) but there something slightly wrong with it, what? The first 3 letters sound like egg??? I had to double check the villain's name in English cause I wasn't sure what it was but I was sure there were eggs mentioned, this is hilarious

(this might have been his official name also in the older translations, I don't know I don't remember I just think it's funny Greek took Eugene and fucked it up a little so it's Egggene)(or avyenios is you want to know how it sounds lol)

[onwingsofwords]

ladies, if your man is

• one who schemes after beauty and good

• brave

• impetuous

• intense

• an awe-inspiring hunter

• always scheming

• a man of desire and intentions

• resourceful

• a pursuer of knowledge

• a master magician and sorcerer

that's not your man, that's Eros from Diotima's oration in Plato's Symposium

(brought to you by my Greek translation homework)

[sarafangirlart]

Euripides Chrysippus literally just being ancient Lolita is very interesting

[quidam-sirenae]

A look into my very early translation process that nobody asked for! I tend to look up the uses of words in other texts so that’s what some of the little notes are. The other ones are me trying to make sense of aolic Greek and Greek in general.

[nat1vibes]

my buddy darryk.v put his unofficial greek translation of the table-top RPG Knave, created by Ben Milton on the internet archive (found here) (all of the conttents are under the CC BY 4.0 license)

[lionofchaeronea]

Come, shining lyre, speak to me--gain the power of utterance. ἄγι δὴ χέλυ δῖα μοι λέγε φωνάεσσα δὲ γίνεω. --Sappho, fr. 118

[misstsiki]

Love 77

[andromedainruins]

Tuesday, August 22nd || Homeric Greek

Today we started book one of the Iliad! This is what I've been waiting for since switching to a classics major. This is what I want to spend the rest of my life studying

That being said, I'm really excited about it

So here's the Homeric Greek:

μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί᾽ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε᾽ ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ᾽ ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε δαῖτα—Διὸς δ᾽ ἐτελείετο βουλή—, ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς.

My at-home translation:

Sing, Muse, the destructive rage of Achilles son of Peleus, that which set countless sufferings on the Achaeans, sent forth many valiant souls to Hades, the heroes themselves prey for the dogs a feast for the birds—the will of Zeus was fulfilled—, from the time they first separated, quarreling, the son of Atreus, the lord of men, and heavenly Achilles.

And the edited class translation:

Sing, Muse, the destructive rage of Achilles, son of Peleus, Which set countless sufferings on the Achaeans, And sent forward many strong souls to Hades, Made the heroes themselves prey for the dogs And a feast for the birds—the will of Zeus was being fulfilled—, Ever since the two first stood apart quarreling The son of Atreus, the lord of men, and heavenly Achilles.

[daughterofthemuse]

In Greek:

¨Ανδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον"

Fun fact, πολύτροπον (of many ways/many turns/wily) is an epithet of ο Όδυσσεύς (Odysseus)

Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways

[mushyooms]

"Then they recognized me. Each embraced me tightly in his arms, and started sobbing in desperation. So the house rang loud with noise, and even [Circe] herself pitied them."

[sugaroto]

I started re-watching atla with my cousin and I need to share a fun fact about the greek translation that Sokka (early seasons) would be shocked about

He has a girl voice😱 (actor)