Great Classical Literature...or is it?

I've been working on a project for one of my courses, which I handed in earlier this afternoon. It's a project on ancient Greek drama, specifically the playwright Aristophanes. He wrote was is known as Old Comedy, and he's the only person whose Old Comedy writings still exist; the rest are lost to history (and so are three-quarters of Aristophanes' works, as well). And, like Homer, Plato, and Herodotus, I always understood him to be a 'classic' writer, someone whose works should be read and studied to better understand the human condition, society, and life in general.

When I was younger, I picked up a great series of books called The Great Books of the Western World. I had the original, 1952 edition, which I picked up on the cheap a bunch of years ago. Aristophanes and the other great Greek playwrights are in that set, and I've read that entire volume, cover to cover. And yes, the plays were thought-provoking and entertaining at the same time. Truly inspirational writing, among the best ever put to parchment in human history.

Then I read a more accurate, modern translation. Oh, my, was that eye-opening. The translations I read were from the 19th century, public-domain translations which were used in the GBWW set to keep costs as low as possible. Anyone who's read 19th-century English translations from other languages knows that, for the most part, it's very tame. Unless you're reading Richard Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights; he didn't hold back anything in that one, especially in his copious footnotes. But otherwise, the translators held to a strict morality, and didn't expose their readers to the more outlandish things these men wrote.

Today's translators, however, have no such qualms. They relish the opportunity to present these works in their 'original' form with the most literal translations possible while still maintaining the structure of the work itself. And let me tell you, Aristophanes was not at all like the man whose works I read in that volume of Greek playwrights.

Here's a brief excerpt from his play Lysistrata, in which the title character attempts to force an end to the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta by getting all the women of both cities to go on a sex strike. The first version is from Jack Lindsay's translation, done in 1925:

If they were trysting for a Bacchanal,
A feast of Pan or Colias or Genetyllis,
The tambourines would block the rowdy streets,
But now there's not a woman to be seen
Except--ah, yes--this neighbour of mine yonder.

Now, here's George Theodoridis' translation of the same lines, done in the year 2000:

If my invitation was for one of those orgies, held for Little Dick or High Dick or Low Clit, you wouldn’t be able to get through all the bum- and drum-beaters clogging the streets. But for this, no! Oh, no! Not a bloody woman in sight! Not one of them! Pause. Sees Caloniki in the distance, SL

Ah, except for my neighbour! Thank goodness… Hi, Caloniki!

Quite the difference, isn't it? Now, I would frankly prefer to read the earlier translation myself, but from my research for the project, it looks like the second one is more accurate. And that definitely changes my outlook on Aristophanes' merits as a classical writer. The rest of his plays are basically the same. He uses a lot of topical subject matter; current events, local celebrities (mostly of the political or military kind, but not always), and extant literature, what we would consider 'pop culture.' That's right, Aristophanes is the spiritual ancestor of Saturday Night Live. Except he's actually funny. And he throws in a heck of a lot more dick jokes.

Shakespeare is another one who puts more 'rude and crude' in his work. We just don't speak his kind of English anymore, so we get bogged down in all the forsooths and thines and forasmuches. But behind all that, he was quite the earthy fellow.

So, what does this mean? I don't know, really; it certainly has forced me to reevaluate my opinion of the world's oldest comedian. I mean, it's still funny, but relying on sex jokes is entirely too much like today's 'humor.' It gets old after a while. But the older translations do clean it up while keeping the humor and entertainment intact, so that's how I'm going to keep reading them. Sure, it's not 'modern.' But how 'modern' can you expect a guy to be when he's been dead for twenty-four centuries?

For some humor that doesn't rely on crudity, you might want to check out The Missing Magnate, one of my Cameron Vail mysteries, available on Amazon. And, you get a fun murder mystery as well. Double the pleasure, folks! So, support indie publishing, and read a new author today!