Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Entreaty
Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1091-1095 (tr. R.C. Jebb):
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And Apollo, the hunter, and his sister, who follows the spotted, swift-footed deer—I wish that they would come, a double help to this land and to its people.J.C. Kamerbeek on στέργω:
καὶ τὸν ἀγρευτὰν Ἀπόλλω
καὶ κασιγνήταν πυκνοστίκτων ὀπαδὸν
ὠκυπόδων ἐλάφων στέργω διπλᾶς ἀρωγὰς
μολεῖν γᾷ τᾷδε καὶ πολίταις.
I love > I desire > 'I entreat'.The same, tr. Hugh Lloyd-Jones:
And I call upon the hunter Apollo and his sister, follower of dappled swift-footed deer, to come giving the aid of both to this land and to its citizens!If you want to know what Sophocles meant, you can rely on Jebb and Lloyd-Jones. Some translations are completely unreliable, e.g. Robert Fitzgerald:
Apollo, Artemis, come down,and David Slavitt:
hunter and huntress of the flickering deer—
pace with each cavalier
for honor of our land and Athens town.
I call upon hunter Apollo and on Diana,Cavalier? Hillside? Not in Sophocles.
who follows the quick deer on the hillside,
to give aid to our men, this land, and us.
