Some Greek Translation
As part of the novel I’m writing, I’ve had occasion to look for a bit of Ancient Greek religious poetry that I could quote in the story. I ended up settling on #27 from the canonical list of the Homeric Hymns, To Artemis. Rather than use an existing translation, I went back to the original Greek text and roughed out my own. Not the easiest job, given how wobbly my Greek is. Still, I’m not too unhappy with the result, and it seems to be within striking distance of the canonical translations I’ve compared it to. Here it is:
I sing of Artemis with the distaff of gold, the terrible one,
Worshipful maiden, huntress of deer,
Own sister to Apollo of the golden sword.
Over the shadowy hills and windy mountain heights
She delights to draw her golden bow
Sending out grievous shafts. The heads of lofty mountains
And the deep-shadowed forests tremble
With the fearful cries of her prey, shaking both the lands
And the seas full of fish: bearing a brave heart
She turns to every side to destroy the family of wild beasts.
Yet when she is satisfied, this archer who pursues the hunt,
Her mind made glad, she sets aside her well-bent bow
And goes to the great hall of her belovéd brother
Phoibos Apollo, in the rich land of Delphi,
To oversee the dance of the beautiful Muses and Graces.
There she hangs up her crescent bow and arrows.
Commanding and setting them in order all around
She leads the dance: with divine voices
They sing of Leto of the lovely ankles, who bore
Immortals supreme in both thought and deed.
Hail to thee, children of Zeus and fair-haired Leto!
I shall remember thee, and now another song as well.
I’ll probably come back to this again when I start polishing up the compete rough draft of the novel, but for now it seems to work well enough.