Greek Lyric: An Anthology in Translation Review

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(More customer reviews)This review relates to the volume -Greek Lyric: An
Anthology in Translation-, Translated with an Introduction
and Notes by Andrew M. Miller, ISBN: 0872202917, Hackett
Publishing Company,
1996. 258 pp.)
Though many of these lyrics and fragments have been
published in other editions, by other translators --
and each has its glories -- this edition is very well
formatted, pleasing, and very accessible to the eye and
mind. Each poet is preceded by a short piece of
background, then the poems are numbered, spaced, and
listed (with interspersed, but unobtrusive notes in
the text).
The scope and purpose of the volume is stated by
Miller in his "Preface": "This anthology of translations
is drawn from the little that remains of the lyric poetry
in the Greek world during the seventh, sixth, and fifth
centuries B.C. Following ample precedent, it includes
not only monody and choral lyric but also short poems
and fragments in the elegiac and iambic meters, even
though the latter do not fit the etymological definition
of lyric as -- 'poetry composed to be sung to the lyre.'"
The poets included in this volume are: Archilochus,
Tyrtaeus, Callinus, Semonides, Mimnermus, Alcman, Alcaeus,
Sappho, Solon, Stesichorus, Theognis, Ibycus, Anacreon,
Hipponax, Xenophanes, Simonides, Corinna, Pindar, and
Bacchylides. Since the poems still remaining by Pindar
and Bacchylides are more numerous than those of many of
the other poets, Miller says that his selection for
each of the two latter poets has been made with an
attempt to choose examples which best show "variety
of scale and treatment." For Pindar, the selection is:
Olympian 1, 2, 12, 13, and 14; Pythian 1, 3, 8, and
10; Nemean 5, 10; Isthmian 5, 6, and 7; Paean 4,
Dithyramb 2, Partheneion 2, Enkomions for Theoxenos,
Thrasyboulos, and Xenophon, and Threnos 7. For
Bacchylides, the selection is: Odes 2, 3, 5, 6, 11,
13; Dithyrambs 17, 18; and an Enkomion for Alexandros.
As example of Miller's translations, here is an
excerpt from Bacchylides' Dithyramb 18: "Theseus":
He is a boy,
on manhood's very verge;
the sports of Ares
are what his mind is fixed on, war
and battle with brazen din;
and what he seeks is splendor-loving
Athens.
-- Robert Kilgore.

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Successfully integrating elegance and a close fidelity to the Greek, these new translations aim to provide Greekless students with as close a sense as possible of how the Greeks themselves thought and wrote about the world. Miller's skilful introduction places the works in historical context and briefly describes the different metrical forms represented in the selections. Headnotes to each section highlight the background of the poet whose work follows. Complete with a glossary of names and a select bibliography.

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