Speak to Me Now, You Muses

Speak to me now, you Muses who hold the halls of Olympus!
Goddesses, you are there, and you have knowledge of all things—
we hear only legends, and we have knowledge of nothing.

Iliad II.484-486

This morning before work, I finished translating Book II of Homer’s Iliad. I’m still working on getting Book I online, so you aren’t reading it in real time; but eventually, I’ll catch up to myself, so that I’ll be able to post a stanza as soon as I finish it. Of course, that means if I edit something, I’ll have to go back and change it three times (once in my manuscript, once online without scansion, and once online with scansion). But that’s okay.

I want to take a moment to acknowledge the sources I use while translating. I extensively use The Chicago Homer as I translate, to look up the meanings of words as well as verb tenses and noun declensions. Greek is a difficult language for me (at least I know all the letters, thanks to my math/physics background); I’m getting a better grip on it as I go, but The Chicago Homer has been an indispensable resource. I doubt I would have even attempted this project without it (or something comparable). Wiktionary is an incredibly helpful secondary resource for meanings and etymologies of Greek words; but unfortunately it isn’t always complete, and often it seems the entries have been taken from the same dictionaries linked in The Chicago Homer. So it helps when it helps.

The Chicago Homer also pairs the Greek lines with Richmond Lattimore’s translation; while I’m not a huge fan of his translation (clunky language), it is quite faithful to the letter of the text and is therefore very useful for getting the sense of the Greek. I almost always refer to Robert Fagles’ translation as well while I’m translating; although he doesn’t always follow the Greek as closely as I’d like, I really love his rhythms and turns of phrase, and I occasionally borrow from him where I find it appropriate. I almost always follow his spelling of Greek and Trojan names (which mostly follows traditional Latinization of the names), and his Pronunciation Glossary is also incredibly helpful (correct pronunciation of the names is a necessity for a metrical translation). I technically have Alexander Pope’s translation at hand as well, but I don’t consult it too often; it is a lovely work of art, but Pope takes immense liberties with the source material.

Wikipedia has been a good source for looking up some of the backstories of the more obscure characters; I start with Google, but usually end up on Wikipedia. You’d be surprised how often you need to know the backstory to translate a passage properly. Maybe an example would make an interesting post in the future.

Anyway, I don’t have anything more to say, really. I just wanted to put it out into the universe that I finished Book II. Now I just need to multiply all my work by twelve, and I’ll be done with the whole thing. Easy peasy.