Category: Translations

Al(l)ia Potestas: A Woman with a Different Authority
Oct 27

Al(l)ia Potestas: A Woman with a Different Authority

Al(l)ia Potestas: A Woman with a Different Authority
By Daniel Campos-Rojano

A strange funerary inscription dedicated to a certain Allia Potestas has puzzled philologists for its language, layout, and outlandish content. The epitaph, written primarily in dactylic hexameter, was found near the Salary-Pinciano burial ground in Rome, a site that was primarily in use from the decline of the Republic to the end of the Flavian Age. Although the dating is controversial, the inscription is generally dated to the early Imperial Age. The poet often alludes to or outright quotes Ovid as a source of literary inspiration which supports this dating…

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Lucretia Moribunda: Honor and Suicide at the Hands of Sexual Assault in Livy's Book One
Sep 29

Lucretia Moribunda: Honor and Suicide at the Hands of Sexual Assault in Livy’s Book One

Lucretia Moribunda: Honor and Suicide at the Hands of Sexual Assault in Livy’s Book One
By Dara Sánchez

After translating and analyzing a section of The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, I chose to translate a passage from the first book of Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita because, like the early Christian martyrs Perpetua and Felicity, Lucretia was a martyr who died for her moral beliefs. Although these women had different religious creeds, they were both concerned with virtues like modesty and honor. Moreover, the horrible conditions that they endured because of a violent outside world, such as Tarquinius’ sexual assault of Lucretia and the bodily harm Perpetua experienced during the circus games, made these women sympathetic yet courageous personalities…

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Plutarch, Life of Antony Chapters 4 and 24.6–7
Aug 19

Plutarch, Life of Antony Chapters 4 and 24.6–7

Plutarch, Life of Antony Chapters 4 and 24.6–7
By Noah Apter

Of all the classical historians on offer to us, what appeal does Plutarch have? What, if anything, causes him to stand out amongst the likes of Tacitus, Suetonius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and others? I believe the allure of Plutarch’s writing is that he captures the humanity and psychology of his subjects with greater depth than any of his contemporaries or those before him. There is no greater example of this than his writing on Mark Antony. Plutarch remarks on his jests and camaraderie with fellow soldiers, his great generosity, and (briefly) his efforts to deliver justice to those who were wronged…

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Vulpis et Ciconia
May 12

Vulpis et Ciconia

Vulpis et Ciconia  
By Dara Sánchez

The poem “Vulpis et Ciconia” tells a tale in which the Fox’s cunning nature does not come to its advantage. In this fable, a Fox invites a Stork to dinner but gives her a plate with liquid broth, which restricts the Stork from eating while the Fox enjoys her meal.1 In response, the Stork invites the Fox to dinner and puts the food in a vase, disabling the Fox from enjoying her dinner as the Stork satisfies herself. The lesson readers are meant to get from this, as explained in the promythium and re-emphasized by the Stork as a dialogued epimythium, is that: harm must not be done, but when it is, the one who caused harm must endure the same punishment for there to be justice…

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A Close Translation of Demosthenes’ Letter 1.5-7
Apr 28

A Close Translation of Demosthenes’ Letter 1.5-7

A Close Translation of Demosthenes’ Letter 1.5-7
By Isaiah Weir

Around 324 BC, the city of Athens condemned Demosthenes, one of their greatest orators and statesmen, on charges of embezzlement and bribery. Forced into exile, he wrote several letters pleading his case but to no avail. However, after the death of Alexander the Great, Demosthenes, a lifelong enemy of Macedonian rule, wrote this letter, urging Athens toward political unity and a general uprising for the freedom of the Greeks…

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Fables of Phaedrus, "The Dogs Sent Envoys to Jupiter"
Mar 10

Fables of Phaedrus, “The Dogs Sent Envoys to Jupiter”

Fables of Phaedrus, “The Dogs Sent Envoys to Jupiter”
By Dara Sánchez

Animal fables in ancient Rome were not viewed with high regard in comparison to other genres of literature. Yet Phaedrus, an alleged freeman of Augustus from the 1st century AD, does not allow these preconceived notions to deter his ambitions. In this feces-filled poem, Phaedrus describes to us an etiological myth that explains why dogs smell each other’s behinds. He mixes the sacred gods, Jupiter and Mercury, with the vulgarity of dogs and excrement, contrasting such different things, and playing on borderline absurdity…

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Penelope’s Wait: A Translation of Ovid’s Heroides Book I Lines 1–50
Mar 3

Penelope’s Wait: A Translation of Ovid’s Heroides Book I Lines 1–50

Penelope’s Wait: A Translation of Ovid’s Heroides Book I Lines 1–50
By Erin Schott

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey have endured for thousands of years because they tell stories still true to the human experience. The Iliad recounts the horrors of war and the egotism of those in power, while the Odyssey narrates an arduous homecoming to a place that is not the same as before…

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Lucan's Witch
Oct 29

Lucan’s Witch

Lucan’s Witch
By Erin Schott

From Morgan le Fay to Hermione Granger, witches captivate the imagination. Their motives and magical prowess enthrall the little child in all of us who yearns to cast a spell. And since there is no time of year when the witch receives more attention than Halloween, I thought this would be an appropriate moment to reflect upon the genesis of the contemporary witch by translating a passage of Lucan’s Bellum Civile. This “genesis” of the contemporary witch lies in Lucan’s Erictho, a frightening Thessalian sorceress whom Sextus Pompey has asked to reveal his father’s fate. Erictho has just told Sextus Pompey that she will use her dark arts to reanimate a corpse, which will then tell the fate of Pompey Magnus…

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Perpetua in the Arena: A Translation and Literary Analysis
Sep 10

Perpetua in the Arena: A Translation and Literary Analysis

Perpetua in the Arena: A Translation and Literary Analysis
By Dara Sánchez

From a prison diary in Carthage, Perpetua gives a captivating account of martyrdom in the Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis (Passio Perpetuae). Amidst the foul conditions of the prison, her father’s pleas for her to reject Christianity, and her separation from her infant, Perpetua wondrously describes the visions that come to her in dreams…

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An Emotional, Brutal Translation of Iliad 5.1–29: The Beginning of Diomedes’ Aristeia
Sep 3

An Emotional, Brutal Translation of Iliad 5.1–29: The Beginning of Diomedes’ Aristeia

An Emotional, Brutal Translation of Iliad 5.1–29: The Beginning of Diomedes’ Aristeia
By Noah Apter

Through my word choice and overall translation of the text, I want to preserve the vivid imagery and raw emotions we feel while reading Homer (examples include intense feelings of awe, glory, and dread). When reading any original narrative Greek text, I feel like I can produce a realistic and precise painting of what is happening in the passage inside my head…

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