Types of the homeric formula in the Latin translation of the Iliad by Rajmund Kunić

Šoštarić, Petra. (2015). Types of the homeric formula in the Latin translation of the Iliad by Rajmund Kunić. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Linguistics.
(Poslijediplomski doktorski studij lingvistike) [mentor Novaković, Darko].

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Abstract

1. Introduction The translations by Kunić and Zamanja mark the final stage in a long tradition of translating Homer into Latin. The aim of this doctoral thesis is to explore the translators' approach to the problem of rendering the Homeric formula, a hallmark of the oral epic tradition, in the post-Vergilian epic tradition. 2. Latin translations of Homer The first Latin version of Homer, Andronicus' Odusia, is remarkable for more than one reason: it is the first literary work of Ancient Rome; the oldest translation of Homer and the only one in the original Italic verse, the Saturnian. There were other attempts to translate Homer in ancient Rome, but Andronicus' was the most successful. In the Middle Ages Greek was forgotten in the West, but Homer was not. The Latin reworkings were widely read and inspired further reinterpretations. The West owes its first Latin version of Homer to Petrarch who hired a Calabrian monk named Leonzio Pilato to translate Homer for him. Pilato produced an ad verbum translation, criticised by humanists like Coluccio Salutati. New Latin versions of Homer appeared: prose translations by Leonardo Bruni, Lorenzo Valla and Francesco Griffolini. It took much longer to translate at least one Homeric epic into Latin verse in its entirety because of the style and the subject. The formularity of oral epic poetry with all the repetitions of formulaic elements like speech introductions or time-denoting formulae was not understood at the time. Many Greek epithets, decorative adjectives that accompany nouns, a typical element of oral epic, were compounds – an obstacle for the translator because Latin did not have lexical equivalents. The translator was supposed to overcome these challenges while staying true to Homer – and true to Vergil. The latter was the main model for every humanist epic author, so even a translation of an epic into Latin was bound to bear his mark. Unfortunately for the translators, there were significant differences between Homer and Vergil. Homer lacked Vergil's decorum; Vergil was suitable for Christian interpretation, Homer was not. Therefore the first verse translations were partial (Marsuppini, della Valle, Romano,Pannonius and Poliziano). The first complete Latin version of the Iliad was the one by Eoban Hess published in 1540. Only a year earlier Johannes Prasch translated Books 9-12 of the Odyssey in elegiac couplets. Notable Swiss humanists who translated Homer were Simon Lemm, autohor of the first complete Latin hexameter Odyssey, and Heinrich Loriti. In the late 18th century three Latin translations of Homer appeared: Francisco Javier Alegre, Rajmund Kunić and Bernard Zamanja. 3. Formularity in Greek and Latin epic Although only the minority of Greek and Roman epic poems belong to an oral tradition, Homer's influence was felt in later epic in the use of formularity. Formularity was not necessary in written epic, but it was considered a hallmark of epic literature and later epic poets used the Homeric formula to varying degrees of repetition and subtlety. Humanist epic poets looked to the Romans, especially Vergil, as role models; therefore humanist epic poems will use formularity and imitation of typical Homeric expressions to a certain degree. 4. Life and works of Rajmund Kunić and his pupil Bernard Zamanja Both Rajmund Kunić (Raymundus Cunichius, 1719–1794) and Bernard Zamanja (Brno Džamanjić, Bernardus Zamagna 1735-1820) were born in Dubrovnik, where they attended the Jesuit Collegium Ragusinum, and then continued their studies in Rome at the Collegium Romanum. Kunić taught Greek and rhetoric at various Jesuit colleges in Italy, eventually returning to Rome where he obtained a professorship at the Collegium Romanum, which at the time rivaled La Sapienza. His educational work left him enough time for writing and translating. He wrote more than 3500 epigrams, 46 elegies, 44 poems in hendecasyllables, 13 hexameter poems, 13 epistles and 14 orations; translated into Latin the complete Iliad, Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Mimnermus, Tyrtaeus, Theocritus, 499 epigrams from the Greek Anthology and paraphrased Horace and Catullus. He belonged to the circle of intellectuals around Baldassare Odescalchi (1748-1810), an educated young aristocrat who sponsored the publishing of Kunić's Iliad in 1776. Kunić, 30 years his senior, dedicated to τdescalchi Anthologica sive epigrammata Anthologiae Graecorum selecta Latinis versibus reddita, the first edition of his translations from Greek anthology. When Zamanja arrived in Rome in 1753 it was his compatriot Kunić who taught him Greek and rhetoric. They formed a close friendship and shared their views on poetry and learning. As translators, they had similar areas of interest: Greek archaic epic and Hellenistic poetry. Zamanja translated the Odyssey, Hesiod, Bion, Moschus and also Theocritus. Zamanja also translated poems from Croatian to Latin. In addition to translations, Zamanja wrote two small-scale didactic epics: Echo (Rome 1764), dealing with acoustics, astronomy and meteorology, and Navis aëria (Rome 1768, Vienna 1784), description of an airship propelled by four hot air balloons; also Elegiarum monobiblos, a book of elegies dedicated to Virgin Mary. For a while Zamanja taught rhetoric in Siena, later Greek and rhetoric in Milan where he also served as a diplomat for the Dubrovnik Republic. After the Jesuit order had been abolished in 1773 by Pope Clement XIV, Zamanja returned to his hometown where he held different posts in public education system, while Kunić stayed in Rome at the insistence of his friends and continued to teach Greek. Zamanja's Homeri Odyssea Latinis versibus expressa was first published in Siena in 1777, with a second edition 1784 in Venice and third 1834 in Zadar, Croatia. It was prefaced by Zamanja's own Ratio operis, in which he compares the Odyssey to the Iliad, considering the former aequabile et temperatum, and the latter sublime et magnificum. Iliad is admired for grandeur, Odyssey for diversity. Zamanja states his own debt to Kunić, and Vergil's to Homer. Although Zamanja does not go into great detail regarding the aesthetics of translation, his Ratio operis is similar to his mentor's. He mention forerunners in translating the Odyssey and discusses the Latin version by a Swiss humanist, Simon Lemm, whom he reproaches for overusing Vergilian expressions. Both Kunić and Zamanja were members of the Accademia degli Arcadi, a literary society that responded to the aesthetic of Seicento by promoting classicist values. Membership had to be deserved by artistic or intellectual merit. The Arcadians were dedicated to reviving classical taste and renouncing the artifice and extravagance of baroque, il cattivo gusto. In their point of view, art not only had to delight the audience, but also to teach and enlighten. 5. Translations of different types of the Homeric formula in the Iliad by Kunić In the introductory essay Operis ratio Kunić distinguishes two schools of translatorsμ the ones who cling to the original text, faithful to the point of unfaithfulness, betraying the original style and the elegance of Latin language, and the other kind who reproduce the original text in a new, equally beautiful form. He discusses the ideas of fides and venustas. Text is to be reproduced faithfully, but the translation has to be a work of art in itself. Kunić looked up to classical authors like Cicero as role models. In translating Homer Kunić first of all pays a tribute to Vergil and also shows his skills at imitating the traditional expression, avoiding repetitions the classicist reader would find tiresome and unrefined. The epithet, often a compound, is a special problem among the formulae, since Greek is rich in compounds, while Latin is not. Therefore the poet-translator deals with the epithet in his own way: sometimes it is left out completely, sometimes translated more or less faithfully, and sometimes it is replaced by a new expression; for example, the formula πολύμητις ᾿Οδυσσεύς (1.311, 1. 440, 3.216, 4.329, 4.349 etc.) is rendered prudens dux Ulysses (1.381), Ulysses (1.531), mirus vi mentis Ulysses (3.240), prudens Ulysses (4.365), Ithacesius heros (4.385). The example 3.240 shows the effort to render the meaning of the Greek epithet in Latin words. In his translation Kunić was indebted to Vergil, Ilias Latina and Renaissance humanists. 6. Translations of different types of the Homeric formula in the Odyssey by Zamanja Homeri Odyssea Latinis versibus expressa was first published in Siena in 1777, with a second edition 1784 in Venice and third 1834 in Zadar, Croatia. It was prefaced by Zamanja's own Ratio operis, in which he compares the Odyssey to the Iliad, considering the former aequabile et temperatum, and the latter sublime et magnificum. Iliad is admired for grandeur, Odyssey for diversity. Zamanja states his own debt to Kunić, and Vergil's to Homer. Although Zamanja does not go into great detail regarding the aesthetics of translation, his Ratio operis is similar to his mentor's. He mention forerunners in translating the Odyssey and discusses the Latin version by a Swiss humanist, Simon Lemm, whom he reproaches for overusing Vergilian expressions. Zamanja himself does not refrain from incorporating Vergil's material into his own, but implies that he, unlike Lemm, does it only when appropriate, although examples show he has not been consistent to this implication. Like his teacher Kunić, Zamanja is more or less faithful in translating the functional types of formula, but allows himself more freedom with the epithets. As already noted by earlier researchers, Zamanja avoids to translate Homer’s syntagm πεπνυμένος Τηλέμαχος, „wise Telemachus“ (1.213, 1.230, 1.306, 1.345, 2.129, 2.208, 4.315, 23.123, etc.). He renders it in many different ways: simply Telemachus (1.369, 2.250), juvenis (1.232, 252, 329), natus (23.136), natus Ulysse (2.147, 4.370). His approach is similar to his mentor's, with some differences regarding the epithets and influences. 7. Conclusion Kunić and Zamanja shared a similar approach to translation and the same cultural background. As translators, they aim to produce an interpretation of Homer acceptable for their time and age, and they prefer different solutions to numerous repetitions of the same phrase. Their translations are a reflection of the classicist taste combined with Jesuit education: they write for a refined audience, avoiding the vulgar and aiming for the sublime. There differences to be noted in their approach to the Homeric formula: Zamanja shows less variety in epithet translations and less effort in translating the Greek compounds. Also, Ovid had greater influence on Zamanja, while Kunić seems to have read Ilias Latina and Poliziano's translation of the Iliad, but the main influence in both translations is Vergil's. Both use the epithet as a way of providing the reader with new points of view on certain Homeric characters, which is in keeping with Jesuit outlook on Homer as laid out in treatises by Jesuit thinkers like Rapin. These two translations are significant contributions to the epic of Croatian Latinity and to the reception of Homer in general.

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