0:
Argonautika
Before Homer,
before Hesiod, there was the story of the Voyage of
the Argo: Jason's search for the Golden Fleece. We
know the story is older because both Homer and Hesiod
mention it, assuming it will be part of the everyday
knowledge of the people hearing the tales.
It is therefore
doubly sad that we do not have any of the early
versions of the story.
What we do have is
the version composed by Apollonius of Rhodes in the
third Century B. C. E., at the cultural peak of the
Ptolmaic Court in Alexandria; and a great many other
works based on the saga: including the version by the
early 'realist,' Diodorus Siculus, who reduces the
whole mythological substance to tedious commonplace
and robs it of the stuff which made it
immortal.
There are several
relevent texts in English for approaching the
Argonautika, and I will list them here.
Amazon has, of
late, been including less information on books than it
did in the past; so some of these listings are bereft
of important data. Still...
First is "Voyage of
Argo." I don't know if it is a poetic or prose
translation, or by whom. But here it is. The date
given is 1959, so this may be the E. V. Rieu
translation, which many think of very
highly.
Voyage
of Argo
Next is a prose
translation by Richard Hunter, which in the sample
given reads fairly well.
Jason
and the Golden Fleece : (The...
There are two more
books listed under Apollonius of Rhodes on Amazon, but
so little information is provided that one cannot
figure out just what they may be.
Some time in a
physical, used bookstore seems to be in order, when I
can get down to the City or Berkeley once
again.
1: Aesop's
Fables.
This is where
it begins. This is wisdom so basic there is little
room for argument. While many Pagan sects worry about
the direction their children will take, the simple
fables of Aesop teach and entertain at a level
appropriate to both adults and children and do so in a
manner condusive to Hellenic Polytheistic
thought.
The only difficulty
lies with the sheer number of translations available.
In an attempt to find one or two which I could
recommend I went to a local bookstore to examine what
was there. I found two versions of the complete
corpus: one in which the names of the Gods had been
changed to the Roman forms, the other in which all the
fables had been given titles borrowed from either the
Bible or Shakespear. Without a familiarity with these
outside sources, the titles made no sense
whatsoever!
The recommendation
of the moment is to go to your local bookstore and
examine carefully what they have, to make sure it has
not been bowdlerized. A used bookstore may help with
the budget, but don't depend on it: even with so many
different editions in print, the used bookstores I
checked were all out. People like these stories and
tend to hang on to them.
And details like
names and titles are important.
***
Further
Note:
In the pursuit of
appropriate editions of the Fables I have just spent a
couple of weeks surfing the net, going down to
Berkeley, rummaging through bookstores, and so forth.
The adventure has been... Well, an adventure. The
result is a rather extensive column and a list
of recommendations! Rather than post the whole
thing here, I am providing a link to the
Koinonia page, where I have posted the
extensive story, along with links for
purchase.
Click
here to learn more about Aesop's
Fables.
2: The Homeric
Hymns
This one is
easy. For years I used the Charles Boer translation,
which was accessible and kind of 'hip.' In a sense it
was the quintessence of Twentieth Century apologetics,
as well as being a fairly accurate representation of
the idea contained in the Hymns: it gave the feeling
of colloquiality to them, which was of value in
presenting them to a younger audience.
But then
there appeared the completely wonderful translation by
Apostolos N. Athanassakis and the Boer was relegated
to the shelf containing other quaint artifacts of the
late Twentieth Century.
I would be
hard-pressed to find superlatives to describe the
excellence of the Athanassakis translation. Suffice to
say, in the all-important arena of public performance
it rings out with beauty, power, and conviction. (As
in all versions, it helps to try and pronounce the
names with some semblance of correctness; but even if
you don't, the words in English will carry you along.)
I have been using it in ritual for the last couple of
years and it works. My highest
recommenation!
Here is a link by
which you can buy it.
Order
The Homeric Hymns
Today!
3: Hesiod: The
Theogony, Works and Days, The Shield of
Herakles
This one also
is easy, because it is possible to translate these
poems so badly that one revels in a good
translation. I have one translation that reads with
all the excitement of a telephone book from someplace
in Wyoming. Next to it I have the splendid piece of
poetry that is the Richmond Lattimore translation, and
frankly, you wouldn't know they were the same thing at
all. The Lattimore sings, both in the mind and on the
voice.
--And, as of 28
March 2001, I have recommendations of a 1983
translation by non other than Apostolos Athanassakis,
who has done the definitive Homeric Hymns which we
recommend. I have not yet read this new version, but I
have some confidence in the abilities of Athanassakis,
so I am adding it to this list as a likely alternative
to the Lattimore.
I make an
additional recommendation with regard to reading
Hesiod for the first time: read the Works and
Days first, then the Theogony. Works and
Days is a very human, very down to Earth piece of
writing. It is fun, and it is full of really good
advice. It's also kind of grumpy in a humorous sort of
way. The Theogony is a more elevated work, but
it suffers, even in Lattimore's splendid translation,
from being, to a great degree, lists of genealogies of
divine beings. I suspect it to be one of those works
which, spoken in the original language, is
triumphantly musical, but spoken in other languages
loses something in translation: no mind, the
information in it is vital, and in the Lattimore
translation it is poetry rather than phone
listings. The Shield of Herakles is a
fascinating work, but it comes down to us in a less
than complete version, which is frustrating. Still, it
falls somewhere between the other two works in terms
of style and content, and you shouldn't miss it for
anything.
The Lattimore
translation is, fortunately, still in print; and here
is a link for buying it.
Order
Hesiod, Translated by Richmond Lattimore
Today!
Order
Hesiod, Translated by Apostolos Athanassakis
Today!
4: Homer, The
Iliad
This, of
course, is the heart of the matter. Without Homer it
is likely we would not still be worshipping the Gods
of Hellas. Neither would Western Literature as we know
it exist. I do not think it puts too fine a point on
it to say that everything since is built on the words
of the blind poet of Chios.
It is therefore
vital that one have a good translation, and we are
fortunate in our times to have two.
The first which I
will recommend is the 1951 translatioin by Richmond
Lattimore. I have a gut level feeling that Lattimore
ought to be cannonized as one of the patron saints of
Hellenic Polytheism because he has made so much not
only available in English, but beautiful and moving as
well. (His translation of the New Testament is pretty
good too!) Allow me to quote the opening of the
Iliad:
"Sing, Goddess, the
anger of Peleus' son Achileus,
and its
devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the
Achaians,
hurled in their
multitudes to the house of Hades strong
souls
of heroes, but gave
their bodies to the delicate feasting
of dogs, of all
birds, and the will of Zeus was
accomplished
since that time
when first there stood in division of
conflict
Atreus' son the
lord of men and brilliant Achileus."
The Lattimore
translation can often be had in used book stores at a
bargain price, but if you would like a nice new copy
it is still print in paperback and here is a
link:
Order
The Iliad, Translated by Richmond Lattimore
Today!
**
More recently,
Robert Fagles has done a translation that has received
high praises from almost every quarter. I do not have
it yet, and therefore have not read it; but I have
read excerpts, and it seems also to be a marvelous
job, with a certainly vitality that may be
particularly appealing at the end of the ultra-violent
Twentieth Century. Here is Fagles' version of the
opening, a couple of lines shorter that the Lattimore
version above because I don't have it handy. But
compare, and see which you like.
"Rage-Goddess, sing
the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderer, doomed,
that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the
House of Death so many sturdy souls..."
Note that
Fagels chooses to use the more common, Latinized
spelling of the protagonist's name (Achilles instead
of Achileus), which does make for a difference in
pronunciation. In a work this size, however, I don't
think that should stop you.
The Fagels
translation is available in three editions, a
hardback, a trade paperback, and a regular paperback.
I will give links to all three. They are all very
reasonably priced. --And it may be noted that the
Iliad sells very, very well: way ahead of many 'best
sellers,' I might note.
Order
the Hardback of The Iliad, Translated by Robert
Fagles
Today!
Order
the Trade Paperback of The Iliad, Translated by
Robert Fagles
Today!
Order
the Popular Sized Paperback of The Iliad,
Translated by Robert Fagles
Today!
***
At the Christmas
season in 2001 I went looking for gifts and found yet
another new translation, this one copyrighted 1997,
and by Stanley Lombardo. I haven't read it yet, but it
has some beautiful maps of the action in the front.
Here is the opening in Lombardo's
translation:
Rage:
Sing, Goddess,
Achilles' rage,
Black and
Murderous, that cost the Greeks
Incalculable Pain,
pitched countless souls
of Heros into
Hades' dark,
And left their
bodies to rot as feasts
For dogs and birds,
as Zeus' will was done.
Begin with the
clash between Agamemnon --
The Greek warlord
-- and Godlike Achilles.
***
In addition to the
three translations above there is the one by
Fitzgerald, which I would not recommend. Though the
words of Homer stand up very well after three thousand
years, the translation of Fitzgeral after only a
hundred seems as dry and dusty as an abandoned
pulpit.
There is also the
verse translation by Alexandere Pope, but the only
current edition is a paperback selling for a
ridiculous $125! It would be an easy one to memorize,
but you would have to be Donald Trump to both afford
it and have the time to commit it to
memory.
And then,
discovered in a used book store at Christmas in 2001,
there is a very pleasant translation, albeit abridged,
by non other than William Cullen Bryant. He calls the
hero 'Ulysses,' but the little book has a fold-out map
and was meant for students, and withal is not a bad
job for the period; and still, remarkably, readable:
the latter no doubt brought about by the translator
being an excellent poet in his own right.
There are also some
audio tapes, both very much abridged. The tape of the
Lattimore translation has only three books on it,
which is a shame considering that the performer is
Anthony Quayle. The tape of the Fagels translation is
three cassettes in duration, which is better but still
abridged.
Of course, there is
the complete audio version in Ancient Hellenic by
Stephen Daitz, but that costs more than the Pope
translation: though I have it on my Christmas
list.
Oh, and one last
thing. Despite the blurbs of people trying to sell
things on the net, the Iliad is not the story of the
Trojan War. It is the story of a very brief time in
the ninth year of the Trojan War. Don't expect to read
the story of the Choice of Paris, and don't expect to
experience the Fall of Troy. Just expect the single
greatest war story every written, and maybe the most
realistic.
AND, on the
last day of March of 2000, I encountered a brand new
translation by Peter Meineck, which I believe was the
basis for his stage presentation of The Iliad: Book
One. It is s complete translation, but I didn't
have the money to buy it. You might like this new one
even better, so when you go shopping don't fail to
take a look at this new one as well.
5: Homer: The
Odyssey
If the new
reader is surprized that Homer chose, in the
Iliad, to write about a brief and painful time
in a long and terrible war, nobody is surprized to
find The Odyssey a story that spans decades. If
The Iliad is the primal war story, then The
Odyssey is the primal adventure tale, and as such
it echoes thoughout all the imaginative literature,
theater, and film created since. Interestingly enough,
this adventure story, in which the hero is repeatedly
seduced by a wide range of beautiful women (human and
otherwise) is also the non-plus-ultra tale of marital
fidelity.
I mean, how many
books and films can you remember in which all the hero
wants is to get back to his wife and kid? --That's
Homer the Myth Maker, right there at the writer's
shoulder, telling the basic story of the power of
human love.
And, let me tell
you now: every monster encountered on the page is
not a Goddess displaced by an evil patriarchy.
Sometimes monsters are only monsters. Monsters are
there to scare you, not to make political
points. Anybody who tells you otherwise has been to
too many academic luncheons!
With The
Odyssey our choice is once again clear, and the
same. Lattimore or Fagles, with a third place going to
Allen Mendelbaum's excellent verse translation and a
fourth to Fitzgerald (if you really must). I will
quote the opening in the Lattimore and Fagles and
Mendelbaum versions, and you can choose.
Richmond
Lattimore's version:
"Tell me, Muse, of
the man of many ways, who was driven
far journeys, after
he had sacked Troy's sacred citadel.
Many were they
whose cities he saw, whose minds he learned
of,
many the pains he
suffered in his spirit on the wide sea,
struggling for his
own life and the homecoming of his
companions."
The Lattimore
translation can often be had in used book stores at a
bargain price, but if you would like a nice new copy
it is still print in paperback and here is a
link:
Order
The Odyssey, Translated by Richmond Lattimore
Today!
**
Robert Fagles'
version:
"Sing to me of the
man, Muse, the
man of twists and
turns
driven time and
again off course,
once he had
plundered
the hallowed
heights of Troy.
Many cities of men
he saw and
learned their
minds,
many pains he
suffered, heartsick
on the open
sea,
fighting to save
his life and bring
his comrades
home."
Order
the Hardback of The Odyssey, Translated by Robert
Fagles
Today!
Order
the Trade Paperback of The Odyssey, Translated by
Robert Fagles Today!
***
Allen
Mandelbaum's version:
"Muse,
tell me of
the man of many wiles ,
the man who
wandered many paths of exile
after he sacked
Troy's sacred citadel.
He saw the cities
-- mapped the minds -- of many;
and on the sea his
spirit suffered every
adversity; to keep
his life intact;
to bring his
comrades back. In that last task
his will was firm
and fast, and yet he failed;
he could not save
his comrades. Fools, they foiled
themselves:"
With the Mandelbaum
translation you have three choices, and one of them,
though I have not experienced it, sounds delicious: an
audio program, six tapes, 9 hours long, with Derek
Jacobi doing the narration. I don't know whether it is
possible to get the whole poem into nine hours, or
whether it is abridged: but hearing Jacobi do Homer
sounds great, and this is a good solution for those
who either have problems with reading (such as those
suffering from dislexia) or who would like to listen
in the car, on the way to work, or while working
around the house. And at $29.71, it is cheaper than
the hardback! --Anyway, here are the three options of
the Mandelbaum translation:
Order
the Hardback of The Odyssey, Translated by Allen
Mandelbaum
Today!
Order
the Paperback of The Odyssey, Translated by Allen
Mandelbaum
Today!
Order
the Audio Cassettes of The Odyssey, Translated by
Allen Mandelbaum and Read by Derek Jacobi
Today!
***
And here, at
Christmas, 2001, is the Stanley Lombardo version of
the opening (again, with some great maps):
Speak, Memory
--
Of the cunning
hero
The wanderer,
blown off course time and again,
After he
plundered Troy's sacred heights.
***
Books
on Magick and the Occult
1: Simply put, I
have not yet encountered a more useful, sensible, and
no-nonsense introduction to the subject than Dion
Fortune's Psychic Self-Defense. Hard-headed and
practical, this is the book I always recommend to
people who want to know something about the practice
of magick and/or the occult. The only thing you need
to know beforehand is that Ms. Fortune was working in
a time and place where one simply had to put
everything in terms of a Christian social ascendency;
so everything in the book is carefully phrased so as
not to offend the Anglican Church of England, which
was the dominant force where she lived at the time of
writing.
Other than that I
can offer no criticism, and do recommend that you read
it. --There will be a quiz!
Order
Dion Fortune's Psychic Self-Defense
Today!
2: As Thiasos
Olympikos grew out of the High Priest's work with
Men's Mysteries, hardly anything could be more
appropriate or useful than the High Priest's book on
the topic, which is now back in print. While there are
great numbers of books dealing with Women's Mysteries
(of greatly varying value), there are relatively few
equivalent books for Men, and practically none written
by anyone who has actually done the work. This
addition to the list is being made as of 28 March
2001, and the link will take you to the website of the
publisher, Xlibris, rather than to Amazon.com. The
procedure for ordering is the same, but the author
will make a little more from a direct transaction. Or,
you can copy down the ISBN number from the website and
order through your local bookseller.
Order
Blindfold
on a Tightrope, by Ramfis S.
Firethorn
Today!
