[B-Greek] Greek: "A Mere Plague and Torment"

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Jan 11 07:51:44 EST 2008


My morning blog-scan came to the old curmudgeon (Michael Gilleland,  
self-styled Laudator temporis acti, http://tinyurl.com/2p5tv7) and  
lighted upon this interesting citation from Andrew Lang, notable  
elsewise and as a scholar and translator of Homer):

"As to Greek, for years it seemed a mere vacuous terror; one invented  
for one's self all the current arguments against "compulsory Greek."  
What was the use of it, who ever spoke in it, who could find any sense  
in it, or any interest? A language with such cruel superfluities as a  
middle voice and a dual; a language whose verbs were so fantastically  
irregular, looked like a barbaric survival, a mere plague and torment.  
So one thought till Homer was opened before us."

No, not Homer Simpson, but the blind bard of Chios, as tradition  
speaks of him, rightly or wrongly. I suspect that many a seminarian  
would harbor the same notion that ancient Greek is "a mere plague and  
torment." And while the ability to read the NT in its original tongue  
is undoubtedly a prime desideratum for them, I think it remains a  
valid observation that reading Homer, once one has scaled that lofty  
peak, is a sheer joy and delight -- all that Keats found even in  
Chapman's translation.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Ret)




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