Ancient Translation Problems
Στηλαι ενθαδε τυπουνται και χαρασσονται νασις ιερος συν ενεργειαις δημοσσιαις.
“Slabs here are modelled and engraved for holy temples with public labors.”
Tituli heic ordinantur et sculpuntur aidibus sacreis cum operum publicorum.
“Inscriptions here are ordered and engraved for holy temples with public labors.”
Can you guess the errors? No cheating now. Actually, there is are three errors: a grammatical error, a word usage error, and a translation error.
The grammar error should be recognizable enough: cum operum publicorum ought to be cum operibus publicis since cum takes an ablative, not a genitive. What’s funny, though, is that συν also takes a dative (Greek lost its ablative case fairly early; the dative and genitive case took over its function), which would correspond with the ablative, and not a genitive like some Greek prepositions. Perhaps, as Warmington noted, the translator was confusing it with μετα?
The second error is that ordinare “to order, to arrange” is not a very good word used to translate τυποω “to mold”. In my opinion, fingere seems a much better word that should have been used.
The third error is that ενεργεια does not indicate public labor. I cannot confirm this absolutely, but I think it is closer to the Latin actus than opus.
[…] We have a good deal of ancient history fare this time around. “Papyri: Artemidorus and Oxyrhynchus posted at PhDIva, discusses a rediscovered 50 B.C. papyrus by Artemidorus, which is a copy of his second book in an eleven-book series on Mediterranean geography. Tony Keen critiques a Timewatch show on “The Mystery of the Headless Romans” in “Headless Romans.” Alex Bordessa at Alex’s Historical Fiction also talks about about decapitations and references Tony’s post in “Dr. Who and the Skellies?” Chris Weimer at Thoughts on Antiquity discusses “Ancient Translation Problems.” Finally, Martin Rundkvist keeps us up-to-date with his field research in “Fieldwork in Östra Husby.”. Martin didn’ find any Viking artifacts but did discover some remains from a prehistoric settlement. […]
May 1st, 2006 at 12:56 pmIf the inscription reads operum, then its ablative plural is operibus (from opus,-eris, not opera, -ae). I think you’re right about ενεργειαις though. Though a poor grecian, I should think the right word would be πονοις or even simply δημοσιαι (last ι = ι-subscript). The double sigma in δημοσσιαις would also appear to be an orthographic error, too.
March 5th, 2007 at 10:15 amWow, almost a whole year went by without me noticing that simple mistake. I had written that it came from opus, operis (last paragraph), but somehow those two extra letters escaped my fingers. Thanks for the correction and suggestions.
Chris
March 5th, 2007 at 4:57 pm