[B-Greek] Psalms and Greek poetry

Albert Pietersma albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Fri Feb 11 19:44:31 EST 2005


On Feb 11, 2005, at 7:05 PM, Trevor Peterson wrote:

> Albert Pietersma wrote:
>>  From my perspective the central issue continues to be whether 
>> Septuagint translators can be said DELIBERATELY TO HAVE CREATED the 
>> antecedents of Greek rhythmic poetry  or whether,  in its reception 
>> history, the LXX (notably the Psalms) EXERTED AN INFLUENCE ON the 
>> evolvement of Greek rhythmic poetry.  For the former I see no 
>> credible evidence within the LXX. In fact, I would argue that the 
>> textual-linguistic make-up of most of the LXX makes such highly 
>> improbable even a priori. The latter scenario is certainly possible 
>> though by no means a necessary explanation for the development from 
>> Classical to Byzantine poetry.
>
> Please excuse my ignorance. So, is there no clear evidence of what 
> happened with Greek poetry between the Classical stage and the 
> Byzantine?
Of course there is but that was not being asked.
> Or was Classical poetry still being written in the Koine period, but 
> it's simply that we don't find it in the GOT?
Precisely, and well into the Byzantine period.
> In either case, your remarks seem to go beyond my question, which was 
> simply, are there poetic features in the Greek translation of psalms 
> that are not incidentally imported from Hebrew? For instance, if we 
> were talking about Hebrew poetry, we would have to admit that there is 
> a lot of controversy surrounding the core structure, but we could 
> still identify features that tend to distinguish poetry from 
> prose--more frequent use of figurative language, phonetic patterning, 
> etc. I realize some of this sort of thing will simply come across from 
> Hebrew into Greek, but are there characteristic features that can be 
> observed in the Greek translation that do not track directly with the 
> Hebrew source?
You seem to have answered your own question. Since Hebrew poetry 
differs from Hebrew prose and since Septuagint translations are 
typically formal correspondence/equivalence translations,  features of 
Hebrew poetry are often carried over in to Greek. BUT THAT DOES NOT 
MAKE GREEK POETRY, nor for that matter do such literary devices as 
assonance and alliteration, EVEN WHEN THESE APPEAR IN THE GREEK TEXT 
WITHOUT WARRANT IN THE SOURCE TEXT. One should bear in mind, however, 
that the Hellenistic culture was still very much an oral culture in 
which to be it remained an ideal to be regarded "a doer of deeds and A 
SPEAKER OF WORDS." Recall the role of rhetoric from the classical 
period onward. No great surprise then that even translationese partakes 
at times of the literary features.
But since the question was about Greek POETRY and not about Greek 
literary style in general the answer to your initial question remains, 
No—not in my view.
Al
> thanks,
>
> Trevor Peterson
> CUA/Semitics
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>
—
Albert Pietersma
Professor of Septuagint and Hellenistic Greek
Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
Home: 21 Cross Street,
Weston ON Canada M9N 2B8
Email: albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Homepage: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~pietersm




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