Andrew Curry. Declassed classics?

When Geoffrey Henderson first announced to the faculty that he wanted to defend a dissertation on the use of obscene language in the comedies of Aristophanes , respectable university professors rebelled. One of them suggested that Henderson write a dissertation on Latin, the other angrily asked: “Are you going to do this to Aristophanes?”

Nearly thirty years later, Henderson, now head of the classics department at Boston University , became director of a project to republish the most famous translations of classical literature produced by Harvard University Press in the famous Loeb Classical Library series . Past academic battles were not in vain: the uncompromising spirit that inspired Henderson from a young age eventually prompted him to make faithful translations of some of the famous comedies of the ancient Greek classic. Aristophanes' book, published in November of this year, is part of a large project in which the publishing house intends to publish revised translations of almost all 500 volumes of the Loeb Library.

The Loeb series was founded in 1911 by Harvard graduate James Loeb and was intended for both aspiring classical philologists and a wide range of readers interested in antiquity. The books published in the series were provided with parallel text - in the original and in English. However, English translations rarely remained faithful to the original. “Back when the series first came out, ... it was generally forbidden to print anything obscene,” says Henderson. Therefore, risky passages were either completely absent from the translation, or - in the case of ancient Greek texts - were transmitted in Latin. Obscene passages from Latin authors, as a rule, were translated into Italian.

The updated library of classics will be provided with translations into pure English, fully preserving the sexual liberation of the originals. It is also intended to change the general tone of some translations. Here is one rather harmless example of the processing of Aristophanes' text undertaken in the new edition. In the old translation we read: “When I heard their singing, a pleasant languor crept into my soul.” Henderson's translation of this passage reads as follows: "As soon as I heard these sounds, I felt a prick in my ass."

The old translations of ancient classics published in the Loeb series were kept in a sanctimonious Victorian spirit , which could not but have a significant impact on the study of antiquity as a whole. “A lot of people had a completely distorted idea of ​​what was actually in the original,” says Alexander Sens, a professor of classical philology at Georgetown University . “It seemed that the ancient Greeks were like two peas in a pod like members of British high society: all as one aristocrats who get together, sit in a circle and reflect on beauty." In fact, fertility festivals, during which performances of Aristophanes' comedies took place - "Lysistrata", "The Birds" or the completely wild "Women in Thesmophoria" (which, according to Henderson, was never translated literally) - and in these days might confuse some people. During Dionysian celebrations, the people splashed out feelings, the public manifestation of which at other times was impossible (often costumes and decorations were made in the form of huge phalluses ). However, it was only political satire and personalization that truly shocked the ancient Greeks, and not sex at all.

According to the authors of the project, the honesty and accuracy of the new translations should rehabilitate the Loeb series in the eyes of specialists who for a long time treated it with disdain due to the abundance of banknotes. Meanwhile, a new generation of students turning to the comedy originals is shocked by their homophobia , disrespect for ethnic minorities , misogyny and tolerance of slavery . That is, things that the Victorian reader swallowed without blinking an eye. "My students always ask me, 'Is there really such a thing?'" says Henderson. "It's often difficult for people of different generations to understand their predecessors' views on political correctness ."

U.S. News & World Report
Translated by Ilya Kun