CLAS 095  TAP: Greek Tragedy   

This page contains three different translations of Aphrodite's opening speech from the Hippolytus. The idea is to provide you with a small passage in which you can compare the choices which different translators make. Among the things to consider are the following:

• Ask yourself the following:
• Would I feel comfortable saying this word to my parents, a priest, and a rather formal professor?
• Would I use this word in my own writing normally without thinking about it?
• Would I say this word with  my friends?
• Does this word ever occur outside of poetry?
  
• Is this a technical word (e.g.  "mud" can be used technically if you are speaking of drywall construction, or it can be a more everyday word if you are talking about what's on your shoe)
• Is this the normal meaning of the word?
• Is this a word that cannot help but shock or attract attention in some other way?
  
• Now, ask all those questions about the word order
• "Silently flows the river" is different from "the river flows silently": the first is more poetic-sounding.
• Now ask them about the thought
• Now ask them about the phrases
• Sometimes every word is normal and unexceptional, but the phrases are more interesting.
• Ask yourself:
• Are there metaphors, similes, alliterations, consonance, rhymes, personifications, anaphoras, pleonasms, hendiadys, synecdoches, etc. here? (if you don't know what they all are, you could look them up)
• A more simple question: is this prose or poetry? What's the difference?

Every translator makes a thousand decisions in every line, some conscious, some unconscious. Even if you can't read the original, by reading multiple translations, you can detect those decisions and identify salient elements of each translation.
     

• EP Harrington, 2004 (from Adelaide, Australia)
  
  APHRODITE
  
  WIDE o'er man my realm extends, and proud the name that I, the goddess Cypris, bear, both in heaven's courts and 'mongst all those who dwell within the limits of the sea and the bounds of Atlas, beholding the sun-god's light; those that respect my power I advance to honour, but bring to ruin all who vaunt themselves at me. For even in the race of gods this feeling finds a home, even pleasure at the honour men pay them. And the truth of this I soon will show; for that son of Theseus, born of the Amazon, Hippolytus, whom holy Pittheus taught, alone of all the dwellers in this land of Troezen, calls me vilest of the deities. Love he scorns, and, as for marriage, will none of it; but Artemis, daughter of Zeus, sister of Phoebus, he doth honour, counting her the chief of goddesses, and ever through the greenwood, attendant on his virgin goddess, he clears the earth of wild beasts with his fleet hounds, enjoying the comradeship of one too high for mortal ken. 'Tis not this I grudge him, no! why should I? But for his sins against me, I will this very day take vengeance on Hippolytus; for long ago I cleared the ground of many obstacles, so it needs but trifling toil. For as he came one day from the home of Pittheus to witness the solemn mystic rites and be initiated therein in Pandion's land, Phaedra, his father's noble wife, caught sight of him, and by my designs she found her heart was seized with wild desire. And ere she came to this Troezenian realm, a temple did she rear to Cypris hard by the rock of Pallas where it o'erlooks this country, for love of the youth in another land; and to win his love in days to come she called after his name the temple she had founded for the goddess. Now, when Theseus left the land of Cecrops, flying the pollution of the blood of Pallas' sons, and with his wife sailed to this shore, content to suffer exile for a year, then began the wretched wife to pine away in silence, moaning 'neath love's cruel scourge, and none of her servants knows what disease afflicts her. But this passion of hers must not fail thus. No, I will discover the matter to Theseus, and all shall be laid bare. Then will the father slay his child, my bitter foe, by curses, for the lord Poseidon granted this boon to Theseus; three wishes of the god to ask, nor ever ask in vain. So Phaedra is to die, an honoured death 'tis true, but still to die; for I will not let her suffering outweigh the payment of such forfeit by my foes as shall satisfy my honour. But lo! I see the son of Theseus coming hither-Hippolytus, fresh from the labours of the chase. I will get me hence. At his back follows a long train of retainers, in joyous cries of revelry uniting and hymns of praise to Artemis, his goddess; for little he recks that Death hath oped his gates for him, and that this is his last look upon the light.
  
  (APHRODITE vanishes. HIPPOLYTUS and his retinue of hunting ATTENDANTS enter, singing. They move to worship at the altar of ARTEMIS.)
  
  
• Kovacs (from Perseus)
  Aphrodite
  
  Mighty and of high renown, among mortals and in heaven alike, I am called the goddess Aphrodite. Of all those who dwell between the Euxine Sea and the Pillars of Atlas and look on the light of the sun, [5]  I honor those who reverence my power, but I lay low all those who think proud thoughts against me. For in the gods as well one finds this trait: they enjoy receiving honor from mortals.
  
  The truth of these words I shall shortly demonstrate. [10]  Hippolytus, Theseus' son by the Amazon woman and ward of holy Pittheus, alone among the citizens of this land of Trozen, says that I am the basest of divinities. He shuns the bed of love and will have nothing to do with marriage. [15]  Instead, he honors Apollo's sister Artemis, Zeus's daughter, thinking her the greatest of divinities. In the green wood, ever consort to the maiden goddess, he clears the land of wild beasts with his swift dogs and has gained a companionship greater than mortal. [20]  To this pair I feel no grudging ill-will: why should I? Yet for his sins against me I shall punish Hippolytus this day. I have already come a long way with my plans and I need little further effort. One day when he came from Pittheus' house [25]  to the land of Pandion to see and celebrate the holy mysteries of Demeter,1 his father's high-born wife Phaedra saw him, and her heart was seized with a dreadful longing by my design. And before she came to this land of Trozen, [30]  she built, hard by the rock of Pallas Athena,2 a temple to Aphrodite overlooking this land since she loved a foreign love. After ages shall call this foundation Aphrodite-Next-Hippolytus.3
  
  But since Theseus has left the land of Cecrops, [35]  fleeing the blood-guilt he incurred for the murder of the Pallantidae,1 and sailed with his wife to this land, consenting to a year-long exile from his home, from this point on the poor woman, groaning and struck senseless by the goad of love, means to die [40]  in silence, and none of her household knows of her malady. But that is not the way this passion is fated to end. I shall reveal the matter to Theseus and it will come to light,2 and the young man who wars against me shall be killed by his father with the curses the sea-lord [45]  Poseidon granted as a gift to Theseus: three times may Theseus pray to the god and have his prayer fulfilled. But Phaedra, noble though she is, shall nonetheless die. I do not set such store by her misfortune as to let my enemies off from [50]  such penalty as will satisfy my heart.
  
  But now I see Hippolytus coming, finished with the toil of the hunt, and so I shall leave this place. A great throng of his servants treads close at his heels [55]  and shouts, hymning the praises of the goddess Artemis. Clearly he does not know that the gates of the Underworld stand open for him and that this day's light is the last he shall ever look upon. Exit Aphrodite. Enter Hippolytus by Eisodos A, carrying a garland, with a chorus of servants3
  
  
• Gilbert Murray (Harvard, 1909-1914, from Bartleby)
  APHRODITE
  
  
  GREAT among men, and not unnamed am I,
  The Cyprian, in God’s inmost halls on high.
  And wheresoe’er from Pontus to the far
  Red West men dwell, and see the glad day-star,        4
  And worship Me, the pious heart I bless,
  And wreck that life that lives in stubbornness.
  For that there is, even in a great God’s mind,
  That hungereth for the praise of human kind.        8
    So runs my word; and soon the very deed
  Shall follow. For this Prince of Theseus’ seed,
  Hippolytus, child of that dead Amazon,
  And reared by saintly Pittheus in his own      12
  Strait ways, bath dared, alone of all Trozên,
  To hold me least of spirits and most mean,
  And spurns my spell and seeks no woman’s kiss.
  But great Apollo’s sister, Artemis,        16
  He holds of all most high, gives love and praise,
  And through the wild dark woods for ever strays,
  He and the Maid together, with swift hounds
  To slay all angry beasts from out these bounds,        20
  To more than mortal friendship consecrate!
    I grudge it not. No grudge know I, nor hate;
  Yet, seeing he bath offended, I this day
  Shall smite Hippolytus. Long since my way        24
  Was opened, nor needs now much labour more.
    For once from Pittheus’ castle to the shore
  Of Athens came Hippolytus over-seas
  Seeking the vision of the Mysteries.        28
  And Phædra there, his father’s Queen high-born;
  Saw him, and as she saw, her heart was torn
  With great love, by the working of my will.
  And for his sake, long since, on Pallas’ hill,        32
  Deep in the rock, that Love no more might roam,
  She built a shrine, and named it Love-at-home:
  And the rock held it, but its face alway
  Seeks Trozên o’er the seas. Then came the day        36
  When Theseus, for the blood of kinsmen shed,
  Spake doom of exile on himself, and fled,
  Phædra beside him, even to this Trozên.
  And here that grievous and amazèd Queen,        40
  Wounded and wondering, with ne’er a word,
  Wastes slowly; and her secret none bath heard
  Nor dreamed.
                But never thus this love shall end!        44
  To Theseus’ ear some whisper will I send,
  And all be bare! And that proud Prince, my foe,
  His sire shall slay with curses. Even so
  Endeth that boon the great Lord of the Main        48
  To Theseus gave, the Three Prayers not in vain.
    And she, not in dishonour, yet shall die.
  I would not rate this woman’s pain so high
  As not to pay mine haters in full fee        52
  That vengeance that shall make all well with me.
   
    But soft, here comes he, striding from the chase,
  Our Prince Hippolytus!—I will go my ways.—
  And hunters at his heels: and a loud throng        56
  Glorying Artemis with praise and song!
  Little he knows that Hell’s gates opened are,
  And this his last look on the great Day-star!
  [APHRODITE withdraws, unseen by HIPPOLYTUS and a band of huntsmen, who enter from the left, singing. They pass the Statue of APHRODITE without notice.