Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Epithets of Apollo

Antico
Apollo Belvedere
ca. 1520
bronze statuette
Ca' d'Oro, Venice

Marcantonio
Apollo Belvedere
ca. 1510-27
engraving
British Museum

Agostino Veneziano after Marcantonio
Apollo Belvedere
ca. 1510-27
engraving
British Museum

Antoine Lafréry after Marcantonio
Apollo Belvedere
1552
engraving
British Museum

A HYMN TO APOLLO (CONTAINING HIS EPITHETS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)

Let us hymn Paean the great god, Apollo;
Immortal, gloriously formed, unshorn, soft-haired,
Stern-hearted, king, delighting in arrows, giver of life,
Joyous, laughing, slayer of giants, sweet-hearted,
Son of Zeus, slayer of dragons, lover of the laurel,
Sweet of speech, of ample might, far-shooter, giver of hope,
Creator of animals, divine, Jove-minded, giver of zeal,
Mild, sweet-spoken, sweet-hearted, gentle-handed,
Slayer of beasts, blooming, charmer of the spirit, soft-speaking,
Shooter of arrows, desirable, healer, charioteer,
Weaver of the world, Clarian, strong-hearted, father of fruits,
Son of Leto, pleasant, delighting in the lyre, resplendent,
Lord of the mysteries, prophet, magnanimous, thousand-shaped,
Lover of the bow-string, wise, stiller of grief, sober,
Lover of community, common to all, taking thought for all, benefactor of all,
Blessed, making blessed, Olympian, dweller on the hills,
Gentle, all-seeing, sorrowless, giver of wealth,
Saviour from trouble, rose-coloured, man-breaker, path-opener,
Glittering, wise, father of light, saviour,
Delighting in the dance, Titan, initiator, revered,
Chanter of hymns, highest, stately, of the height,
Phoebus, purifier, lover of garlands, cheerer of the spirit,
Utterer of oracles, golden, golden-complexioned, golden-arrowed,
Lover of the lyre, harper, hater of lies, giver of the soul,
Swift-footed, swift-voiced, swift of vision, giver of seasons.
Let us hymn Paean the great god, Apollo.

– Epigram from Book 9 of the Greek Anthology, translated by W.R. Paton (1916-18)

Paton's translation in five small green volumes from the time of the Great War was the first bilingual edition of the Greek Anthology issued by Loeb Classical Library.  After a century, a new edition revised by Michael A. Tueller began to appear in 2014, but has not yet reached beyond the first volume (which also lacks indexes). The facing Greek text in the old Loeb edition shows that Paton as translator regularly re-used the same English word for original Greek words that differ from one another, though synonyms. Actually, I like the tone of Paton's translation  and even like the off-kilter repetitions  but it needs to be mentioned that they are unnecessarily untrue to the Greek. In the original, all epithets in any one poetic line begin with the same letter. Then the single-letter lines proceed line by line from the start to the end of the alphabet.

Hendrik Goltzius
Apollo Belvedere
ca. 1592
engraving printed on blue paper
Princeton University Art Museum

Jan de Bisschop
Apollo Belvedere
ca. 1663-68
engraving
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jan Punt for Jacob de Wit
Proportions of the Apollo Belvedere
1747
etching, engraving
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Johann Carl Bock
Apollo Belvedere
ca. 1800
stipple-engraving, etching
British Museum

Fratelli Alinari
Apollo Belvedere
ca. 1893-1903
photograph
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous photograph
Apollo Belvedere in stereo
ca. 1890
mounted photographic prints
Victoria & Albert Museum

Carlo Albacini
Head of the Apollo Belvedere
ca. 1750-1800
marble
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Giacomo Zoffoli
Apollo Belvedere
before 1785
bronze statuette
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Stoke-on-Trent Manufactory
Bust of the Apollo Belvedere
1861
Parian porcelain
Victoria & Albert Museum

Benedetto Pistrucci
Head of the Apollo Belvedere
ca. 1820
sardonyx cameo
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Anonymous Italian gemcutter
Apollo Belvedere
18th-19th century
onyx cameo
Victoria & Albert Museum