The Poet's New Clothes

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Vitas, M. (2016). The Poet's New Clothes: A Study of Aratus' Original Style as Reflected in the Three Roman Translations of his Phaenomena, (45), 69-116. Retrieved from http://emu.f.bg.ac.rs/lucidaintervalla/issues/45(2016).pdf
Details
Title

The Poet's New Clothes

Subtitle

A Study of Aratus' Original Style as Reflected in the Three Roman Translations of his Phaenomena

Author

Marko, Vitas

Journal

Lucida intervalla

Volume
Issue

45

Start page

69

End page

116

ISSN

1450-6645

ISBN
DOI
URL

http://emu.f.bg.ac.rs/lucidaintervalla/issues/45(2016).pdf

Date

2016

Abstract

This paper explores the way three Roman translators of Aratus’ Φαινόμενα (Cicero, Germanicus and Avienus) treated the style of the original and what were their reasons for treating in such a way. These considerations should, furthermore, be also revealing as to the general conceptions and ideas the translators had about their task. The three stylistic features of Aratus assessed in detail in this paper are: (1) word play (as a typically Hellenistic asset); (2) personification and comparison (understood in a way characteristic of Aratus’ poem); (3) references to the poet-teacher and the pupil-reader (as a recurrent motive in didactic poetry).

Keywords

Aratea, Aratus, didactic poetry, personification, style, translation, word play