Re: The Voices of the Gods

On Wed, 3 Dec 2003, Michael S. Morris wrote:
[...]

> That was struggling all of the way---looking up every word, puzzling
> over every case ending, every verb form, every archaism (relative to
> Attic), sorting each sentence out into each possible arrangement, and
> stepping back 10 feet or so (ala a Seurat painting) to see if I could
> then English it in any way that made sense, and then consulting English
> translations to learn, as often as not, that I had gotten it wrong.

Good heavens man, then you're what *I* mean by "an intellectual."


> But, anyway, by a sort of throwing of myself into the deep end
> and a tough slog at the dogpaddle, I learned I could do it.

When I tried something like that, albeit all myself, I gave up.


> I also learned  thereby that Lattimore's translation cribs the
> Greek almost word-for-word. Which is why Lattimore's is not the
> most exciting contribution to English poetry, but is the one
> version I'd recommend as canonically "Homer".

Thank you. I've been wondering about that too.





-- 
  "Spring was never waiting for us, girl. It ran one step ahead."
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