![]() ![]() And there's this sort of question about a dog's loyalty. What exactly is Helen saying to herself or about herself? Is it an insult? Is she distanced from herself? What is it to be like a dog? I mean, a dog is as an animal that can eat the same food as men, but can also live in several different men's houses as Helen does. So to me it's important to translate the metaphors and let the reader figure out, I think this is another moment of ambiguity in the text. He doesn't have Achilles say to Agamemnon you slut! Which might be quite good, but it wouldn't have the metaphor. And if you look at the Lattimore translation of that line, it's the same word in the Greek. One thing that I would point to is the fact that that same word is used in the initial quarrel at the start of the Iliad, when Achilles and Agamemnon are yelling at each other and Achilles says to Agamemnon, you dog face. It's not a very faithful translation if you've left the metaphor out. And it seems to me quite surprising that these translations, I mean, the Lattimore is very often touted for fidelity. I mean, there's not a literal translation. ![]() To me, it's quite a surprise that so many 20th century translators went for that kind of choice, like I think the Robert Fagels one uses whore in that line on the Stanley Lombardo one uses something similar and so on.
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