Saturday 26 November 2016

Homer, Anderson And Stirling

Returning once more to Homer, Troy and Chapman in order to move forward yet again to Poul Anderson and SM Stirling:

Virgil's Aeneid is a sequel to Homer's Iliad and Odyysey;
John Keats compared reading Chapman's Homer to discovering a new planet (here);
James Joyce wrote Ulysses, named after the hero of the Odyysey;
Arthur C Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyysey;
Poul And Karen Anderson's Gratillonius liked the Aeneid but not Homer;
Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry refers to Ilion (Troy);
SM Stirling pays respectful homage to Homer and Anderson, as I will shortly show.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

If my recollection is correct, Gratillonius disliked Homer because he had trouble learning Greek. I'm frankly surprised one seems to have translated Homer's poems into Latin by the late fourth century. Yes, I know educated persons were supposed to learn Greek, but even so!

I remember Dominic Flandry's reference to Ilion! I think you had Chapter II of THE REBEL WORLDS in mind, where Admiralty Center was being described.

Sean

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Sean!

Interesting point (I assume you meant that you're "surprised NO one seems to have translated"). I would think that the stories from Homer would have been more or less known to minimally educated Latin speakers, even if they had not read the Greek originals. But yes, people like Gratillonius would presumably have wanted to read a good Latin translation of Iliad and Odyssey, and if there ever was such a thing, perhaps no monk of the Dark Ages copied his monastery's fading copy, or perhaps it ended up as tinder for a viking band's campfire.

Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Nicholas!

Thanks for your comments. Oops, yes, I meant to say "no" after "surprised." Drat!

Yes, I think from reading the AENEID alone the basic plot of the ILIAD and ODYSSEY would be known to most reasonably well educated Latin speaking Romans. It still seems odd to me that no Latin translation of Homer's poems were ever made in Roman times. And, if any existed, they might well have ended as you suggested, alas.

Regards! Sean