>I have a few questions to ask of the Classicist scholars who frequent >this list. > >Question #1: >Philip Vellacott, translator of Euripides' works, has the following >statement: > >Electra: "Year after year her father's blood cries from the ground; but >no god hears." >(P.Vellacott, Euripides, Medea and Other Plays, London, Penquin Books, >p.111, 1963) > >Is the expression "her father's blood cries from the ground" really a >Greek expression/metaphor or is it a rather "loosely-made" translation >of Vellacott's ? >
Definitely the latter; a very plain and literal version of lines 198-200 would go "No-one among the gods hears the cry of the unhappy woman, nor the old slaying of her father." >Question #2: >Edith Hamilton makes the following translation from Euripides' Seven >Against Thebes: > >Theseus: "We seek the dead only, to return to the earth the body, of >which no man is the owner, but only for a brief moment the guest. Dust >must return to dust again." >(p.266, Edith Hamilton, Mythology, Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, >[1940,1942], 1963) > >Is the phrase "Dust must return to dust again" really a Greek metaphor >or is it Hamilton's "loosely-made" translation ? > The play is not "Euripides' Seven Against Thebes" (you're thinking of Aeschylus' play of that name, where Theseus doesn't appear as a character) but rather Euripides' "Supplices" (i.e. "The Suppliant Women). I don't have a Greek text on hand, but I'll check later today in the library. >I realize that there are many differing translations of Vergil's Aeneid >and other works, and would imagine that one has to be careful in >accepting translations as really being true to the native language's >actual expression. > >Off-line answers will be appreciated, > >Thank you, > >Walter R. Mattfeld > > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------- >To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. >Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message >"unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You >can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub James Lawrence Peter Butrica Department of Classics Memorial University St. John's, Newfoundland A1C 5S7 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
