> >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 ? >
Loose is the word again. This is apparently a version of Euripides, Suppliant Women 531-536, of which Vellacott gives a far more literal version: "Permit their bodies To hide below ground, and each part to return there Whence first it came into this light; breath to the sky, Flesh to the soil. For we have in our own bodies But a life-tenancy, not lasting ownership; At death, the earth that bred us must receive us back." > JLB >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
