The first Modern Greek translation of Catullus’ poems by Gustave Laffon
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol8.80Keywords:
Catullus, Lesbia, Laffon, Latin, reception, translationAbstract
The reception of Catullus has a long history in Western Europe. A lot of critical editions, translations and commentaries were composed for his work. In 19th century Greece there are a few translations of some of Catullus’ poems. Gustave Laffon (1835-1906) was a Franco-Cypriot poet who wrote in Modern Greek and translated a number of French authors in Greek, as well as a few poems of Roman lyric poets and elegists. In this paper I study Laffon’s five Modern Greek translations in verse of Catullus’ poems for Lesbia (published after his death, in his Apanta in 1915). Firstly, I reveal the identity of these poems. Furthermore, I analyze some of his translation techniques, his language and style. Finally, I try to detect the readership of these translations.References
R. Ancona – J.P. Hallett, “Catullus in the Secondary School Curriculum”, in M.B.
Skinner (ed.), A Companion to Catullus (Malden MA: Willey-Blackwell,
, pp. 481-502.
J. M. André, L'otium dans la vie morale et intellectuelle romaine des origines à
l'époque augustéenne (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1966).
B. Arkins, “The Modern reception of Catullus” in M.B. Skinner (ed.), A Companion
to Catullus (Malden MA: Willey-Blackwell, 2007), pp. 461-78.
P. Botley, “Three very different translators: Joseph Scaliger, Isaac Casaubon and
Richard Thompson”, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 41.4 (2014), pp. 477-91.
G. Braden, “Viuamus, mea Lesbia in the English Renaissance”, English Literary
Renaissance 9.2 (1979), pp. 199-224.
E. Castorchis, Ρωμαίων ἑλεγοποιῶν Τιβούλλου καὶ Κατούλλου τὰ ἐκλεκτότερα
κατὰ τὴν νεωτάτην κριτικὴν ἔκδοσιν τοῦ Καρόλου Λαχμάνου οἷς προστέθησαν καὶ τινὲς ἔμμετροι ἑλληνικαὶ μεταφράσεις πρὸς χρῆσιν τῶν τῆς Φιλολογίας φοιτητῶν” (Athens, 1850).
H. J. van Dam, “ ‘The Honour of Letters’: Bonaventura Vulcanius, Scholar and
Poet”, in H. Cazes (ed.), Bonaventura Vulcanius, Works and Networks, Bruges 1538-Leiden 1614 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 47-68.
A. L. De Luca, “Catullum numquam antea lectum […] lego: a short analysis of
Catullus’ Fortune in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries”, in M. McLean and S. Barker (eds), International Exchange in the Early Modern Book World (Leiden: Brill, 2016), pp. 329-42.
D. Demetriou, “The ‘Pleiade’ in Cyprus: French authors and the island of Aphrodite”,
in G. Georgis-G. Kazamias (eds), Linked by history – united by choice. Cyprus and its European Partners (Nicosia: En Tipis Publications, 2012), pp. 297-307
J. H. Gaisser, “Catullus”, in V. Brown (ed.), Catalogus Translationum et
Commentariorum 7 (Washington DC, 1992), pp. 197-292.
___ , Catullus and his Renaissance Readers (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).
___ , “Picturing Catullus”, Classical World 95 (2002), pp. 372-85.
___ , “Catullus in the Renaissance”, in M.B. Skinner (ed.), A Companion to
Catullus (Malden MA: Willey-Blackwell, 2007), pp. 439-60.
D. H. Garrison, “Catullus in the College Classroom”, in M.B. Skinner (ed.), A
Companion to Catullus (Malden MA: Willey-Blackwell, 2007), pp. 503-19.
P. G. W. Glare (ed.), Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968).
G. P. Goold, Catullus, 2nd edition (Bristol: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1989).
R. M. Henry, “Pietas and Fides in Catullus”, Hermathena 75 (1950), pp. 63-5.
Ph. Ioannou, Φιλίππου Ἰωάννου, Θετταλομάγνητος, Διδάκτορος τῶν ἐπιστημῶν
καὶ Καθηγητοῦ ῶν καὶ Καθηγητοῦ τῆς Φιλοσοφίας ἐν τῷ Ἐθνικῷ Πανεπιστημίῳ Ἀθηνῶν. Προσφωνηθέντα τῷ ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ Δημητρίῳ Ι. τῷ Γυαλᾷ (Athens, 1865).
___ , Ἔκδοσις Β΄ ἐν ᾗ τινα διώρθωται ἢ ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον μεταπεποίηται, οὐκ
ὀλίγα δὲ καὶ προστέθειται. Ἀθήνησιν, ἐκ τοῦ τυπογραφείου τῶν Ἀδελφῶν Περρῆ, ἐπὶ τῶν ὁδῶν Βουλῆς καὶ Μητροπόλεως (Athens, 1874).
Y. Ioannou, “H γαλλοφωνία στην Κύπρο από το τέλος του δέκατου ένατου
αιώνα μέχρι τις μέρες μας», Περγαμηνή 3 (2008), pp. 42-60.
A. E. Karathanassis, “Spiridon Vlantis (1765-1830) et son oeuvre de traduction”,
Synthesis 6 (1979), pp. 97-103.
O. Katsiardi-Hering, “Χριστόφορος Φιλητάς. Σκέψεις για τη διδασκαλία της
γλώσσας”, Μνήμων 12 (1982), pp. 9-42.
A. Katsigiannis, “Επίγονοι του Κοραή και πρώιμη νεοελληνική γραμματεία –
Χριστόφορος Φιλητάς: πρόδρομος και λησμονημένος”, in St. Kaklamanis and A. Kalokairinos (eds), Proceedings of the 7th International Conference Neograeca Medii Aevi, Χαρτογραφώντας τη δημώδη λογοτεχνία (12ος αι.-17ος αι.), Iraklion (2017), pp. 635-60.
V. Kopanos, «Παρατακτικά ζεύγη στις μεταφράσεις του Μαξίμου Πλανούδη»,
ΕΕΦΣΠΘ 13 (1974), pp. 19-34.
G. Laffon, Γουσταύου Λαφφών Τα Άπαντα, Ριχάρδος Βαρζίλης (ed.) (Nicosia, 1915).
Λεύκωμα της Eκατονταετηρίδος της εν Aθήναις Aρχαιολογικής Eταιρείας 1837-1937,
(Athens, 1937 (?)), 2nd part.
O. Masson, “Diplomats et amateurs d’ antiquités à Chypre vers 1866-1868”,
Journal des savants, vol. 1, no. 1 (Paris, 1992), pp. 123-54.
P. McGushin, “Catullus’s Sanctae Foedus Amicitiae”, CPhil. 62.2 (1967), pp. 85-93.
A. N. Michalopoulos, «Παρατηρήσεις στην πλανούδεια μετάφραση των διπλών
επιστολών των Ηρωίδων του Οβιδίου», ΕΕΦΣΠΘ, τεύχος Τμήματος Φιλολογίας 10 (2002-3), pp. 360-72.
___ , “Ovid in Greek: Maximus Planudes’ Translation of the Double Heroides”,
Classica & Mediaevalia 54 (2003), pp. 359-374.
___, “Translating and interpreting Ovid’s Heroides in 19th century Greece:
Philippos Ioannou and his Φιλολογικά Πάρεργα”, in K.A. Dimadis (ed.), Proceedings of the 5th European Congress of Modern Greek Studies, Continuities, Discontinuities, Ruptures in the Greek World (1204-2014): Economy, Society, History, Literature, Thessaloniki, 2-5 October 2014, European Society of Modern Greek Studies, vol. 2 (Athens, 2015), pp. 287-97.
Ch. N. Michalopoulos, “Literary transfers and cross-cultural exchanges in the Greek
speaking world at the turn of the 20th century: the verse translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses by A.S. Kasdaglis (1908)”, in K.A. Dimadis (ed.), Proceedings of the 5th European Congress of Modern Greek Studies, Continuities, Discontinuities, Ruptures in the Greek World (1204-2014): Economy, Society, History, Literature, Thessaloniki, 2-5 October 2014, European Society of Modern Greek Studies, vol. 2 (Athens, 2015), pp. 299-313.
R. Milliex, “Esquisse d’une biographie de Gustave Laffon (1835-1906)”, Πρακτικά
του Πρώτου Διεθνούς Κυπρολογικού Συνεδρίου (Nicosia, 1973), pp. 221-36.
R. A. B. Mynors, C. Valerii Catulli Carmina, (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
.
D. Z. Nikitas, “Ovidius allegoricus: Die neugriechische Übersetzung der
Metamorphosen durch Spyridon Blantes (1789)”, in W. Schubert (ed), Ovid Werk und Wirkung. Festgabe für Michael von Albrecht zum 65. Geburstag, Teil. III (Frankfurt am Main, 1998), pp. 1005-19.
___ , «Μύθοι πάνυ ὠφέλιμοι καὶ τερπνοί: H πρώτη δημώδης νεοελληνική
μετάφραση των Μεταμορφώσεων του Οβιδίου από τον Ιωάννη Μάκολα (1686)», in Δ.Ζ. Νικήτας (ed.), Laus et Gratia. Ιn memoriam Κωνσταντίνου Γρόλλιου (Thessaloniki: University Studio Press, 2012), pp. 103-42.
R. Pack, “Catullus, Carmen V: Abacus or Finger-Counting?”, AJPhil. 77 (1956), pp.
-51.
Z. Papantoniou, Τα χελιδόνια (Athens, 1920).
Chr. Philitas, Γ. Οὐαλερίου Κατούλλου. Ἡ περὶ τοῦ πλοκάμου τῆς Βερενίκης
Ἐλεγεία σὺν τῷ προτεταγμένῳ αὐτῆς ἐπιστολίῳ τῷ πρὸς Ὅρταλον ἡρωελεγείοις ἐκφρασθεῖσα ἑλληνικοῖς, καὶ μετὰ σημειώσεων συνοδευθεῖσα τινῶν υπό Χ. Φιλητᾶ (Athens, 1865).
N. T. Pratt, “The Numerical Catullus 5”, CPhil. 5 (1956), pp. 99-100.
H. Scott, “Omnes unius aestimemus assis: A Note on Liability for Defamation
in Catullus V”, Roman Legal Tradition 3 (2006), pp. 95-110.
H. Stead, A Cockney Catullus: The Reception of Catullus in Romantic Britain
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).
L. Tromaras, Κάτουλλος: ο νεωτερικός ποιητής της Ρώμης, 2nd edition, (Thessaloniki:
University Studio Press, 2001).
E. Vandiver, “Translating Catullus”, in M.B. Skinner (ed.), A Companion to Catullus
(Malden MA: Willey-Blackwell, 2007), pp. 523-41.
I. Zioga, Η διδασκαλία των Λατινικών στη Μέση Εκπαίδευση, unpublished doctoral
thesis (Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 2015).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2019 Vasileios Pappas
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with thersites agree to the following terms:
- Publishing in thersites is free of any charges.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication.
- Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, so long as the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. The journal is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. More information about this license is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
