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theburningbook's review against another edition
Como dicen por ahí: «la mitología griega comenzó cuando Zeus se quitó la túnica».
Me abstendré de calificarla, porque no tengo ni idea de cómo hacerlo.
Me abstendré de calificarla, porque no tengo ni idea de cómo hacerlo.
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
2.0
Norman O. Brown's 1953 translation of Θεογονία was the first I ever read, so I have a particular fondness for this edition. That does not mean I would necessarily recommend it as a preferred or accurate translation.
This translation is certainly dated. It's brief, under 100 pages, mostly dedicated to laying out the various genealogical connections of Greek deities (the word θεογονία refers, in fact, to the genealogy of gods). Brown chose to use English equivalents of Greek words such as Earth (Γαῖα), Strife (Ἔρις), Envy (Ζῆλος), Victory (Νίκη), and so on; he also used Latin spellings for various names, such as Cronus (Κρόνος), Uranus (Οὐρανός), and so on. Again, this dates the translation significantly, and is also misleading—I won't outright accuse him of Roman cultural imperialism (tongue in cheek), but this is supposed to be Greek mythology, after all, not Roman!
Brown in his introduction addresses the fairly common complaint that Θεογονία is little more than a collection of whose paternity is what and suchlike (which it is, obviously), and argues that the pantheon's lineage mirrors societal growth from the "lawless anarchy" of the Titans (Τιτᾶνες) to the "divine monarchy" of the 12 Olympians (so to speak). He also compares Greek and Mesopotamian mythologies in the introduction, and marks sections of text throughout that he believes "don't belong" in the original—usually instances where fragments of other texts have allegedly been interpolated into Hesiod's own—although he does not fully explain nor justify his reasoning in every instance, so I would question some of those. Overall the translation is decent, albeit conspicuously obsolete in many ways.
Unfortunately there are not many options from which to choose when it comes to translations of Hesiod. As Dr. Emily Wilson notes:
I would also recommend Lattimore's 1959 translation, partially due to his unorthodox translation of culturally specific words whose "exact" translation or modern equivalent carries a very different meaning; for example, βασιλευς (chief, master, king, lord, patron): Lattimore is one of the few who does not translate this as "king."[2]
Daryl Hine's translation I would not recommend, neither Theogony nor Works and Days; Hine tends to use overly modern fanciful phrasing—"experimental," as Dr. Wilson put it—and his translations are subsequently less than accurate. He translates the phrase σφέτερον πατέρ᾽ ὑμνείουσαι (Works and Days, v.2) as "Tell me of Zeus, your progenitor": the actual Greek is "your own"(σφέτερος) + "father"[3] (πατήρ) + "sing of" (ὑμνέω): Lattimore, mutatis mutandis, translates this as "Tell of Zeus, your own father," which, while still not entirely accurate, is more literal.
//
[1] I would recommend this edition for scholars if for no other reason than the fact that it includes the original Greek text.
[2] During specific periods of Greek history, the word βασιλεύς was used to describe certain foreign leaders of comparable authority, such as the Persian kings and Roman Caesars; in this usage, it often took on certain modifications, such as a lack of definite article or the use of the adjective μέγας.
[3] An epithet of Zeus.
This translation is certainly dated. It's brief, under 100 pages, mostly dedicated to laying out the various genealogical connections of Greek deities (the word θεογονία refers, in fact, to the genealogy of gods). Brown chose to use English equivalents of Greek words such as Earth (Γαῖα), Strife (Ἔρις), Envy (Ζῆλος), Victory (Νίκη), and so on; he also used Latin spellings for various names, such as Cronus (Κρόνος), Uranus (Οὐρανός), and so on. Again, this dates the translation significantly, and is also misleading—I won't outright accuse him of Roman cultural imperialism (tongue in cheek), but this is supposed to be Greek mythology, after all, not Roman!
Brown in his introduction addresses the fairly common complaint that Θεογονία is little more than a collection of whose paternity is what and suchlike (which it is, obviously), and argues that the pantheon's lineage mirrors societal growth from the "lawless anarchy" of the Titans (Τιτᾶνες) to the "divine monarchy" of the 12 Olympians (so to speak). He also compares Greek and Mesopotamian mythologies in the introduction, and marks sections of text throughout that he believes "don't belong" in the original—usually instances where fragments of other texts have allegedly been interpolated into Hesiod's own—although he does not fully explain nor justify his reasoning in every instance, so I would question some of those. Overall the translation is decent, albeit conspicuously obsolete in many ways.
Unfortunately there are not many options from which to choose when it comes to translations of Hesiod. As Dr. Emily Wilson notes:
The near-contemporary poems by Hesiod, also the products of a long oral tradition and also composed around the eighth or seventh century BCE (although Barry Powell gives an earlier date), are less prominent in [Western] culture. Perhaps the relative paucity of good, reader-friendly translations is partly to blame. There is a nonmetrical and fairly old but still-vibrant translation by Richmond Lattimore (1959) and experimental poetic versions by Daryl Hine (in hexameters, 2005) and by Catherine M. Schlegel|3013063] and Henry Weinfield (in rhyming couplets, 2006). There is a nice free-verse version by Apostolos N. Athanassakis (1983) and another, in a more folksy register, by Stanley Lombardo (1993). There is also a prose translation by Martin West (1978) and another prose translation for the Loeb library, with facing Greek text, by Glenn Most (2007).[1]Dr. Wilson does not mention Richard S. Caldwell's 1987 translation, which I personally find excellent, in no small part due to its inclusion in line numbers, extensive explanatory notation, footnotes which often take up more than half the page, original proper names (none of that Latinised nonsense!), and primarily literal translation of more idiomatic Greek expressions and phrases (all of which are explained by helpful footnotes).
This may seem a large array of choices, but by Homeric standards, it is pitiful. There have been dozens of new translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey into English in the past few decades. [...] There is no recent English Hesiod that fully captures the strange poetic qualities of the original, which would be a tall order.
I would also recommend Lattimore's 1959 translation, partially due to his unorthodox translation of culturally specific words whose "exact" translation or modern equivalent carries a very different meaning; for example, βασιλευς (chief, master, king, lord, patron): Lattimore is one of the few who does not translate this as "king."[2]
Daryl Hine's translation I would not recommend, neither Theogony nor Works and Days; Hine tends to use overly modern fanciful phrasing—"experimental," as Dr. Wilson put it—and his translations are subsequently less than accurate. He translates the phrase σφέτερον πατέρ᾽ ὑμνείουσαι (Works and Days, v.2) as "Tell me of Zeus, your progenitor": the actual Greek is "your own"(σφέτερος) + "father"[3] (πατήρ) + "sing of" (ὑμνέω): Lattimore, mutatis mutandis, translates this as "Tell of Zeus, your own father," which, while still not entirely accurate, is more literal.
//
[1] I would recommend this edition for scholars if for no other reason than the fact that it includes the original Greek text.
[2] During specific periods of Greek history, the word βασιλεύς was used to describe certain foreign leaders of comparable authority, such as the Persian kings and Roman Caesars; in this usage, it often took on certain modifications, such as a lack of definite article or the use of the adjective μέγας.
[3] An epithet of Zeus.
ladylore's review against another edition
3.0
Definitely an interesting addition to my mythology course. Theogony stands as a modern Bible in antiquity and it definitely shows. It was interesting to read about how all of the gods came about and who their children became. This poem is scattered with minor events that explain about Tartarus and the conflicts surrounding the gods and the children of Heaven and Earth. The notes helped tremendously!
This is definitely one I want to study in more detail.
This is definitely one I want to study in more detail.
reyhanehn's review against another edition
3.0
Hesiod is not a great storyteller, but he knew how to rationalize their (Greek) traditional customs and beliefs in a way that even a modern reader can understand or imagine them. Actually I enjoyed it a lot.
gio_shelves's review against another edition
I’ve...translated this and read this about 10 times lol