![]() The Greek, which Lattimore translates accurately as “of the perished dead,” is With inhuman clamor, and green fear took hold of me. These came swarming around my pit from every direction The souls of the perished dead gathered to the place, up out of Erebos. Odysseus’ narration translated by Richard Lattimore is, Invoking the dead, he sees the dread shades approaching. But first, Odysseus walks in darkness.ĭisembarking, Odysseus digs a pit and pours a libation to the dead. Eventually Homer starkly contrasts the darkness with the bright spiritual themes we will come to see in this book. ![]() Structured chiastically, the opening lines of book XI begin and end with images of darkness: as the dark ship sets sail, the journeying ways are darkened, and Odysseus and his companions arrive at the place of νὺξ ὀλοὴ-deadly, perpetual night. Odysseus travels to where the ancients believed the very boundary of the earth existed, a place where the sun cannot shine. Instructed by Circe, Odysseus has learned that he cannot go directly home but must first journey to the underworld to consult the prophet Tiresias, who alone can tell him the way home. In general, a translator will prioritize certain elements above others, for English cannot fully capture the depth of Homeric Greek, and the translator must make concessions wisely.Ī walk through a selection of the Odyssey, comparing translations to the original Greek, may help us see how choices of translation illuminate different aspects of the original poetry and may ultimately help us select translations suited to our particular purposes.Īt the heart of Homer’s Odyssey lies the iconic descendus ad inferos, the journey to the kingdom of the dead. His careful control of the elements of poetry-word, meter, and content-leave the translator a great challenge: how to render these three elements in a way that conveys the greatest poetic knowledge of the original. Homeric Greek can do much with few words, allowing for poetry of depth and dimension dressed in simplicity and economy. Homer’s poetic craft is masterful to the point of mystery. Even when a translator desires a precise and literal rendering, fidelity to the complexity of Homeric poetry can be elusive. In bringing poetry into our native language, each translator will choose how tightly to tether to the original. Like Odysseus, the translator has a preeminent goal: to bring a work home. While the poet deals in truth, he does not necessarily utilize literal facts. Desiring to understand and experience the original to the greatest extent possible, we ask of our translation: Is it faithful? In so doing, we ask the same question of our translators that has been asked for generations of Odysseus: Is the poet faithful to the truth?-a question especially fitting to the tradition of the Odyssey. Those who read the work in translation encounter another poet: the translator. In doing so, Odysseus reveals to his audience that he, like Homer, is a poet. The arch-poet Homer turns the story over to his hero, Odysseus, and it is Odysseus himself who tells of his voyages. ![]() ![]() The great narrative of the Odyssey is not entirely told by Homer. The following article was originally published in FORMA Journal.
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