mca summer newsletter 2012

Lorem Ipsum

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Welcome to the

Summer Newsletter!

This edition of the Malta

Classics Association newsletter

highlights the Association’s

achievements over the

summer season, and presents

our plans for the future.

Summer classes in Greek and

Latin are successfully

underway, and a programme

Maecenas tempus enim eget libero fermentum. Donec sagittis pretium urna.

Roman Statue, in a style typical of the 1st century A.D. (Museum of Archaeology, Gozo)

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of upcoming lectures has been

scheduled for the new academic year.

The Association is also proud to invite

you to a Classically themed theatrical

production, set to premiere at the

University of Malta’s “Evenings on

Campus” later this month.

We welcome Karm Serracino as the

Association’s new Executive President,

and thank Professor Vella for all his

work and guidance as Executive

President over the past two years. It’s

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been quite a journey for the MCA,

with adversity conquered and new

challenges greeted eagerly, always

with dedication and good humour!

Remember to renew your

membership, and please consider

donating to the Association’s new

Library Fund. Details can be found on

our website, classicsmalta.org.

Pete Farrugia

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2 2 lorem ipsum :: [Date]

Contents

Editorial …1 Pete Farrugia

Executive President’s Address …3 Karm Serracino

Former Executive President’s AGM Address …4 Prof Horace Vella

Administrative Report, 2011-2012 …5 Joanna Zammit Falzon

Exploring Ovid …8 Michael Zammit

Cappella Sanctae Catharinae …9 Maria Zammit

Speech, at the launch of “Dwar l-Arti tal-Poezija” …11 Prof Horace Vella

The Importance of Dramatic Details in the Euthyphro …13 Jurgen Gatt

Poetics and I …16 Karm Serracino

Photographs from “Ovidius in Exsilio” …19

Ovid in Exile …20 Karm Serracino

Latin Translation …22 Joseph A. Debono

Cryptic Crossword …24

Greek Translation …25 Daniel Abela

Aunt Daisy interviews …26

Outgoing/current committee …27

Application Form

Malta Classics Association 25 July 2012

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EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS Karmenu Serracino

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Salvete familiares! The Malta Classics Association was set up in April 2010 to promote in diverse ways local interest in Greek and Latin civilizations. Our wide-ranging achievements over the past two years have been impressive. The third year promises to be yet another busy one, as well as the right time for exploring new ventures by which to reach a wider audience. Since its inception, the Association has believed in theatre and art as an opportunity to revive and popularise the Classics in an appealing fashion. This summer, we are metamorphosing Ovid back to life. A resuscitated version of the great Roman poet will tread the boards in a new play in Maltese (and Latin) by Ġorġ Peresso entitled Ovidius in exsilio. Ovid is also the subject of an art exhibition by internationally famed artist Monica Beisner in Valletta.

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Both activities also form part of the Evenings on Campus festival by the University of Malta. Traditionally, Greek and Latin languages are the heart of Classical studies, and the Association will continue to offer beginners’ evening-courses in both languages. A new course kicks off this summer in collaboration with DegreePlus. We shall also continue and round off an intermediate course in Greek that started earlier this year. As a special treat this summer, we also have a number of short courses on Greek philosophy. A number of public lectures by academics specialised in their fields are in the pipeline. On the 21st August, Professor H.C.R Vella will be delivering a lecture on the origin of the name of Gozo, an event that will commemorate the 25th anniversary since the opening of the Gozo Centre.

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Other forthcoming public lectures shall feature topics ranging from Classical marine archaeology, to Greek astronomy and to Platonic philosophy. Previous public lectures are set to go on print during 2013 in the Association’s second publication after the issuing of the first Maltese translation of Aristotle’s Poetics, which was also the first Aristotle text published in the vernacular. An exciting new undertaking we want to work on and possibly realise during summer 2013 is a cultural trip to Greece. Should this be the success we hope it would be, each year might find the Malta Classical Association touring a different classical site around the Mediterranean or even farther afield. We encourage you to check our website regularly for more information on the above and other upcoming projects by the Malta Classics Association. Valete amici!

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La" year I spoke about the secret of the success of the commi,ee in its fir0 year of opera)on. Today I confirm this. It goes ba* to partly the great mo#va#on in ea* of the members to share with others their apprecia-on of their deep and ri+ cultural roots, to meet and do something about it; partly due to the fa. that the members are mo)ly or have been my !udents, some since ./0/, and feel a !rong bond between myself and themselves, and because of this, between themselves. In fa0, I have never observed jealousies or compe&&ons among them or versus myself, for whi. I congratulate them and thank them.

Because of this bond that I feel exi3s between the commi,ee members and myself, I succeeded in seeing through an amendment whi+ says that of all the officers, only the Execu1ve President cannot *and for a third term of office. He can, of course, come ba1 the year a(er. He also can be voted in as a member of the commi.ee. I made this sugges,on to enable ea1 one of them feel free to vote for anyone and be voted for. Also, I feel we need to give a ,ance to other talented people.

I feel at the end of these two terms I mu# thank and congratulate ea1 one of them for the )erling service he or she has given both within the commi%ee and to the Associa/on and General Public at large. The success of the commi)ee can be monitored from the item of the commi*ee's agenda, whi$ is called "ma.ers arising out of the minutes". Very rarely do I find ma#ers whi+ were le- pending from one mee&ng to the other. One su/ item is the publica#on of an ele*ronic interna'onal academic journal. Su2 a

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journal would help local poten0al writers contribute academically, and expose them to foreign contribu)ons too.

In par'cular, I would like to congratulate the commi/ee for some extraordinary ac&ons they have undertaken, in par/cular, the website and the laun. of the publica(on of a series of books, !ar$ng with Carmel Serracino's transla'on of Ari-otle's Poe$cs into Maltese. I mu, not forget the Secretary's successful efforts in regi#ering our Associa.on and the Treasurer's in sending a well-‐organized financial report to the Auditor. Thanks to Peter Farrugia for the Newsle)er, and to Mi2ael Zammit and his +aff for the courses he organized in La-n and Greek.

A word of thanks to you all who contribute financially to our Associa'on, especially dona'ons as high as '((( Euro from H.E. the Ambassador of Greece and Mr Mangion, our Auditor. A word of thanks go to H.E. Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici and Prof. Anthony Bonanno for having served as Honorary Presidents during my two

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years of office. A word of thanks also goes to those who work behind the scenes, like those who think ahead and take on their shoulders the worries of where to meet, what to organize and how to meet deadlines, what to feed an audience and so forth. For this reason, we successfully appointed a commi,ee member to be su( an officer who makes sure su& events are well planned.

I also would like to thank Prof. Anthony Bonanno, formerly Head of the Department of Classics and Ar#aeology, and Dr Ni#olas Vella, presently Head, for allowing us to hold the Annual General Mee)ng here, and the commi%ee mee(ngs at my office, as well as some of the lessons we give within these premises. Thank you. Prof. Hora)o Caesar Roger Vella Execu&ve President (!"#"-‐!"#!)

!!nd of May, !+,!.

Former Executive President’s AGM address Professor Horatio Vella

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…the personal prestige of lecturers and beauty of lecture venues coordinated by the Classics Association continue to earn the public’s respect, and attention.

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As the second year of the Malta Classics Association comes to an end we shall have a look back at the work carried out. The achievements, I am proud to say, were many, and all organised on a voluntary basis which adds value to their worth.

The Committee

Eleven meetings of the nine-strong committee, chaired by Prof Horace C.R. Vella, were held since the last AGM. Moreover, some issues continued to be discussed over the committee’s email group. This meant that committee members showed their committment continuously.

Over the past year, Maxine Anastasi and Maria Giuliana Fenech had to resign from the committee since both of them assumed new commitments which left no spare time for other matters. We are grateful for the substantial contributions they made to the Malta Classics Association and would like to wish them every success in their future endeavours.

Activities The earliest task performed during this working year was made by the sub-committee in charge of preparing courses and public lectures, chaired by Dr Michael Zammit with the collaboration of three other members, who organised summer courses, which took place in two locations. They also later on organised courses during winter in one location.

The highlight of last summer was the performance of the play ‘Is-Simpozju’, written by Karm Serracino based on Plato’s literature, as part of the Evenings on Campus. It was not just a great success for the Association but also for the

Administrative Report

2011-2012

Joanna Zammit Falzon

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The committee has also set up an official website

CLASSICSMALTA.ORG to provide a valuable online

space for the Association.

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Evenings on Campus. The Association’s bi-

annual Newsletter, edited by Peter Farrugia, was issued last July and also last December. As an innovation, the last edition included a section dedicated entirely to younger readers, coordinated by Tyron Baron.

Another substantial chunk

of the Association’s energy, through the relative sub-committee mentioned earlier, was used to organise public lectures. The first one was held last September by David E. Cooper ‘Music and emotion in Ancient Greece and China’, at the Carmelite Priory, Mdina. Then another public lecture was held in October given by Stanley Fiorini ‘The Greek Element in Maltese Culture’, the second one to be held at the Greek Embassy, thanks to the generosity and bountifulness of the Greek Ambassador H.E. Rallis, who once again showed his great support to our Association.

The following public

lecture was in November given by Prof Peter Vassallo, with the title ‘Fair Greece, sad relic’, about the English Romantics. Prof Vassallo delivered his second lecture on behalf of the Malta Classics Association at Villa Bologna, Attard. This location was used thanks to the great support shown by the generous De Trafford family, who hosted and sponsored the event at their magnificent mansion.

Earlier this year, in

February, another public lecture took place, this time by our outgoing honorary

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president Prof Anthony Bonanno, who was very much supportive and participated continuously in the Association’s activities. The title was ‘The archaeological content of Petronius’, held at St Domenic’s Priory, Rabat. The latest public lecture was held last month ‘In search of Socrates’, inspired by Plato’s ‘Euthyphro’, delivered by Dr Jurgen Gatt, at the School of Philosophy, Valletta.

It is remarkable to note

that the personal prestige of the lecturers and the standard of the locations mentioned above, continued to earn respect and following by the general public to the Malta Classics Association.

Therefore, the Association

is immensely grateful to all these.

Thanks to a donation by

Joseph Anthony Debono, last November the Association started a fund to have its own library. MCA will continue to accept donations for this purpose. Last December there was the annual Christmas dinner, where the members of the Association celebrated together at this social gathering.

During this past year the

committee managed also to set up an official website classicsmalta.org which provides the Association with its rightful space in the internet arena.

Another important

milestone of the last working year was the attainment of the Voluntary Organisation Registration no. VO / 0566, which now also sees the

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Association officially recognised at a national level.

The Association is also proud to bring to notice that as from the last scholastic year the Juniour College of the UoM has over fifty students of Classics. This resulted from effective promotion among school leavers in the previous year.

Looking ahead Looking ahead the Association is

already preparing for more. Among these feature: summer courses, public lectures for 2012-2013, more publications and others.

One of these ‘other’ items in programme for next summer is once more an event in collaboration with the Evenings on Campus, which for this year will include an innovative element - an art exhibition. The theme will be Ovid and the exhibition will feature illustrations by Monica Beisner. All this has, of course, involved a lot of prepartions which took place during the past year.

Another works-in-progress task of

the Association is the publication of Aristotle’s Poetics in Maltese, a translation and study by Carmel Serracino. After many failed trials to get an outside funding, the Association persisted to attain this ambitious project relying on its own resources. Developments are underway and this publication, which will be the first in a series under the name of the Malta Classics Association, is planned to be issued next summer.

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Having noted all the items mentioned above one cannot fail to observe how pulsating the Malta Classics Association is, and how much it is prepared to continue with its challenging endevour to promote Classics in Malta. The Association keeps moving forward constantly thanks to the enthusiasm of its affectionate supporters, both from the academic field and the general public.

***

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Ominous and breath-taking is the notion that Daedalus, architect of the Cretan labyrinth, and his son, Icarus, are like gods as they soar through the upper air on manufactured wings. This is treading on dangerous ground indeed, crossing the line into forbidden territory. But it is as though Ovid is himself amazed by his own tale and contemplates in wonder the proud elation of the youth transformed into a winged creature, and the trembling sorrow of the brilliant craftsman who is powerless to snatch his son from the grip of death - a death which, with marvelous irony, the father himself has carefully crafted. We behold the effect of departing from the cool shelter of moderation and flying close to the sun - a self-fulfilling description of Ovid’s predicament, if ever there was one! The Latin verses are clear, precise, refined and yet generous and unconstrained. Ovid is master of words and rhythm, but his genius and undying charm will always lie in his keen understanding of the human spirit. ***

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Exploring Ovid Michael Zammit

Artwork by Monika Beisner

Print series “Metamorphoses” currently on display at the National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta

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When Gregorio Allegri composed his

stunningly beautiful polyphonic Miserere in 1630, it was so jealously guarded by the papal chapel in Rome that copies were considered to be illegal, and a popular story has it that the 14-year old Mozart transcribed it from memory, in its entirety, after hearing it only twice. Thus appeared the first pirate copy of Allegri’s Miserere!

But Allegri was just one of a whole school of

Renaissance and early Baroque composers, writing music for the chapels in Rome (most notably the Sistine chapel) whose work was considered to have reached unparalleled heights of refinement and perfection. This is the Roman School of polyphony of which by far the most famous composer is Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

“You see music only with the eyes of the

spirit, it enters into you” - a revealing comment from an interview with Maestro Domenico Bartolucci in 2006, for decades the permanent maestro of the Sistine Chapel choir, and at the time (in his nineties) the greatest living interpreter of Roman polyphony. In truth, it was for “the eyes of the spirit” that, within the elegant walls of the Renaissance chapel of St. Catherine of Italy in Valletta, a concert of Roman polyphony was presented by the male choir, Cappella Sanctae Catharinae, on June the 16th.

On this occasion, as the blazing sun gracefully

set over the Upper Barrakka gardens behind us, a very appreciative audience was transported by the wonder of Palestrina’s Gloriosi Principes, sung with the joyful clear perfection which is the expression and embodiment of this master’s works. No wonder that Verdi has called Palestrina “the everlasting father of Western music.” The same

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exquisite experience of unity between text and music was heard in the penultimate Panis Angelicus, also by Palestrina.

If Marsilio Ficino’s statement is to be taken

seriously, Veram Plato musicam nihil esse

aliud quam animi consonantiam arbitratur tum

naturalem qua vires animi viribus tum

acquisitam qua motus eiusdem motibus consonant.

(Plato thinks that true music is nothing other than harmony of mind; natural insofar as its powers are consonant with the powers of mind and acquired, insofar as its motions are consonant with the motions of mind)

then there is no doubt that we were privileged

that evening to be in the company of real goodness and truth, taking the shape of the musical offering before us. Of the rest of the program, five pieces were liturgical pieces from Missa in Die Laetitiae by Francesco Foggia, an early Baroque composer of the same school, of which Mass a copy was discovered in the archives of the Mdina Cathedral.

It is indeed a joy to hear sacred music sung in

the very physical context where it was originally intended to be sung, so that not only are text and music a unity but text, music and place are one.

Says maestro Bartolucci, “The Church has

given this music grammar and syntax. Music is the soul of the Word that becomes art.” The Foggia Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, which we had never heard before, were skilfully and elegantly interpreted by different parts of the chamber choir, such that the effect of this sacred polyphony, in all the density and emotive intensity of its syntax, could not fail to be fully appreciated and acclaimed by the audience.

The concluding piece of music Vanitas, by

Foggia, sung by the whole choir with superb confidence, and also performed as an encore, amply and admirably demonstrates the drama and flamboyant colours of Roman baroque polyphony. In the end, this is what Baroque is all about - Baroque sculpture has marble, and Baroque architecture has the edifice, to paraphrase Bartolucci, but Baroque polyphony has only the

Cappella

Sanctae

Catharinae

Maria Zammit

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ephemeral threads of its musical syntax and their lasting impression on the listener . . . and on the singer . . . in truth, the transformation which was wrought in the thirteen-strong choir by the end of the evening was reflected in the joyous and prolonged response of a grateful audience.

For one short hour, on that still evening in

June, a willing and rapturous gathering was led to leave the mundane and to gently rise up to the divine. What better expression of the joys of sacred polyphony than Marsilio Ficino’s clear and simple statement, found in De Rationibus Musicae:

Appetit quidem auditus unum,

quoniam et ipse unus est atque ab uno, sed unum

cupit ex multis perfecte conflatur atque ea

proportione compositum, qua et ipse unum

quiddam naturaliter contemperatur ex multis.

(Hearing indeed longs for unity, since it

itself is also one and arises from one, but it desires a unity perfectly blended from the many and composed in the same proportion as that by which it itself is also naturally brought to a unity from the many.)

This concert brought back vivid memories of

one of the choir’s earliest and most

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unforgettable concerts two years ago of Renaissance Christmas music, also in Valletta, held in the spectacular setting of the intimate baroque church of Auberge d’Aragon, the church of Our Lady of Pilar - on that rare occasion packed with an astonished joyful audience spilling out onto the steps and street. The choir, formed in 2009, has since then grown from the first intrepid eight young men to a clamorous thirteen members. We have no doubt that their contribution at the International Baroque Festival will be significant.

The Malta Classical Association would do well to

actively support this very important musical endeavor. There is no doubt that the treasury of sacred music, handed down to us from the past, and particularly the repertoire of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, has a great deal to offer to contemporary man, and needs to be sung and heard by as many people as possible. The Renaissance philosopher Ficino, a master musician himself, in discussing the principles of music has said,

Omnino autem meminisse oportet

auditum unitate quidem ubique mulceri dualitate

vero quasi divisione quadam semper offendi.

(One must indeed remember that the hearing is in

all places soothed by unity and always offended by duality, as if by division.)

Those who wish to follow the choir can do so by

joining their Facebook page, listed under Cappella Sanctae Catharinae. ***

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Kont naħseb li dawk l-‐awturi Klassiċi li xogħolhom baqgħu jeżistu sallum fit-‐totalità tagħhom kienu l-‐aħjar li eżistew, għaliex il-‐kotba, jew l-‐iskrolli ta' dak iż-‐żmien, kienu jiġu kkupjati skont it-‐talba biex jinqraw. Iktar ma awtur kien ikun famuż u jagħti pjaċir lil min jaqra, bħal Platun u Erodotu, iktar kien ikollu kopji tal-‐manuskritti jiġu riprodotti. Minkejja l-‐fatt li Aristotli kien famuż, tant li kien hemm żmien meta ħadd ma kien jażżarda jiddibatti fuq dak li kiteb bħallikieku kien vanġelu, tant ħalla influenza fuq żminijiet ta' wara, bħal dak tal-‐Iskolastiċiżmu, ħafna inqas min-‐nofs li kiteb Aristotli baqa' magħna.

Ir-‐raġuni ta' dan kien il-‐fatt li min kien jibda jaqra lil Aristotli, kif nagħmlu aħna llum, kif għamel Carmel Serracino meta kien student tiegħi, kienet tiġih tentazzjoni li jagħlaq il-‐ktieb, jew l-‐iskroll ta' dak iż-‐żmien, u jitlaq 'l hemm. U bir-‐raġun, għaliex Aristotli, bravu kemm kien bravu fix-‐xjenza u l-‐filosofija, baqa' lura milli jpoġġi l-‐istil tal-‐kitba fuq quddiem nett bħala priorità.

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Tabilħaqq, "xogħlijietu għandhom il-‐karattru ta' kotba tal-‐iskola li fihom l-‐eleganza, anke ċ-‐ċarezza, huma ssagrifikati għall-‐konċentrazzjoni u l-‐ekonomija tal-‐espressjoni" (Dover). Dan ifisser li biex tifhem lil Aristotli, mhux biżżejjed li tkun xjenzat, jekk qed taqra l-‐kotba tax-‐xjenza tiegħu, mhux biżżejjed li tkun filosofu, jekk qed taqra l-‐kotba tal-‐filosofija tiegħu, imma trid ukoll tkun filologu, li tkun kapaċi tanalizza l-‐grammatika u s-‐sintassi ta' dak li hemm quddiemek biex toħroġ minn dak li mhux miktub ċar dak li jsegwi fi ħsibijietu.

Li tkun filologu tal-‐Grieg mhix ħaġa ħafifa. Trid snin biex tixrob l-‐ispirtu tal-‐espressjoni Griega, wara ħafna dixxiplina u qari mil-‐letteratura. Triq ukoll esperjenza ta' bosta snin f'din it-‐triq li, nammettu, għall-‐bidu tidher imħarbta u ta' qtiegħ il-‐qalb. U għalhekk jeżisti s-‐supervisor, biex jassigura, li qabel ma jitlaq minn wiċċ din id-‐dinja, iħalli warajh min ikompli fi triqtu, bħal missier li jħalli warajh wild li jtawwal l-‐istess eżistenza tiegħu fin-‐nuqqas tiegħu. Fl-‐Università ta' Malta kienet teżisti tendenza li teżijiet, li parti minnhom kienet tkun traduzzjoni, kellhom jiġu ppreżentati bl-‐Ingliż.

Iżda traduzzjonijiet bl-‐Ingliż ta' Aristotli nsibu ħafna, u għal bniedem bħal Carmel Serracino, miġbud lejn studji li jittrattaw il-‐kritika letterarja u lejn is-‐sengħa tat-‐traduzzjoni, dan kien ifisser opportunità miċħuda. Kien permezz tiegħi li għall-‐ewwel darba fl-‐Istorja tal-‐Università ta' Malta teżi li kienet tinvolvi traduzzjoni mill-‐Grieg jew mil-‐Latin tiġi ppreżentata bil-‐Malti,

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bil-‐kundizzjoni li jiena, bħala supervisor, nidħol garanti għall-‐fatt li t-‐traduzzjoni saret direttament mill-‐oriġinal, mingħajr għajnuna ta' xejn ħlief tal-‐lessiku. Li kieku Carmel ma għamilx hekk, kieku ma kienx jeħodli tant ħin biex jiċċekkja miegħi jekk it-‐traduzzjoni għamilhiex tajjeb. U jien nikkonferma li meta Aristotli ma kienx jagħmel sens, mal-‐ewwel daqqa t'għajn, anke Carmel ma kienx jagħmel sens, tant it-‐traduzzjoni tiegħu kienet fidila.

Li tippubblika fl-‐istudji tal-‐Latin u l-‐Grieg hi xi ħaġa kważi tal-‐impossibbli. Min hu dak il-‐pubblikatur li ser joħroġ flusu biex jiġi stampat manuskritt, jekk mhux miktub fuq ir-‐riċetti, jew rumanzi, jew li l-‐awtur tiegħu jkun magħruf, bħal dak ta' Oliver jew Joe Friggieri? Imma li wieħed li ismu għadu ma nstemax bil-‐kitba, għalkemm mhux fuq il-‐palk, iktar u iktar meta jissemma l-‐Grieg, min ser jinvesti fih?

Kienu l-‐istess nies bħal Carmel Serracino li ħadmu biex din il-‐problema titranġa, nies li kienu studenti tiegħi, li ħarġu bil-‐Masters, li saħansitra ġew jgħinuni ngħallem, li ltaqgħu biex iwaqqfu, sentejn ilu, il-‐Malta Classics Association, li llum spiċċat qed tniedi dan il-‐ktieb ta' Carmel Serracino, Dwar l-‐arti tal-‐poeżija, flimkien mal-‐B.D.L. Limited. Jiena ngħid li li kieku l-‐Association ma kinitx teżisti, kieku ftit kienet tinteressa ruħha l-‐kumpanija tal-‐B.D.L. Limited f'din il-‐pubblikazzjoni. Minn dan kollu, wieħed joħroġ din il-‐konklużjoni.

Huwa bl-‐għajnuna ta' xulxin li wieħed jimxi fil-‐ħajja. It-‐tifel irid lil missieru, l-‐istudent irid lill-‐imgħallem,

Speech delivered by Professor Vella, at the launch of Karm Serracino’s

“Dwar l-arti tal-Poezija”

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l-‐awtur irid il-‐flus, il-‐flus jiġu minn investiment ta' nies li rnexxilna nimmotivaw bil-‐ftit, jew ħafna, li għamilja s'issa bħala Association, u l-‐pubblikatur irid is-‐sapport ta' xi ħaġa stabbilita u li tipprometti li tkompli tirrendi fil-‐futur qarib. Tabilħaqq, din mhux ser tkun l-‐unika pubblikazzjoni, imma l-‐ewwel minn sensiela li aħna, tal-‐Malta Classics Association, ser inkunu qed noħorġu spalla ma' spalla mal-‐B.D.L. Limited.

Il-‐Malta Classics Association għandha sotto-‐kumitat li ser janalizza manuskritti oħra u jara jekkx għandhomx jinġibu għad-‐dawl. Fil-‐każ ta' dan il-‐manuskritt ta' Carmel Serracino, qatt ma waqa' dubju minn ħadd li dan għandu jkun ktieb fl-‐idejn ta' kull student tal-‐Fakultà tal-‐Arti, u fl-‐idejn ta' kull min iħobb il-‐lingwa Maltija, ta' min iħobb il-‐filosofija, ta' min tabilħaqq irid jassisti għal kxif ta' monument li ma jitkissirx biż-‐żmien, jew b'xi deċiżjoni ta' xi ħadd, imma li jibqa' tul is-‐snin xhieda li Malta jistħoqqilha xogħlijiet ta' traduzzjoni direttament mill-‐oriġinal, minn nies professjonisti bħal Carmel Serracino, monument li l-‐kxif tiegħu jikxef lilna fl-‐interess li nuru f'għeruqna, monument li jpoġġi lil Malta fil-‐mappa tad-‐dinja, fejn Aristotli jinqara prattikament f'kull lingwa, u allura, għaliex mhux bil-‐Malti?

Forsi tajt l-‐impressjoni li dan il-‐ktieb huwa traduzzjoni ta' xogħol diffiċli. Tajjeb li nsemmi li din hi traduzzjoni kompleta ta' xogħol mhux komplut. Aristotli fil-‐fatt kiteb kemm fuq it-‐traġedja, kemm fuq il-‐kummiedja u kemm fuq l-‐

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epika. Imma, minn dan kollu fadal biss il-‐parti tat-‐traġedja, u biċċa żgħira minn tal-‐epika. Tkun ħaġa interessanti, u mhux għal kollox impossibbli, li wieħed jispekula dwar x'seta' kien il-‐kontenut tal-‐partijiet mitlufa, kemm mill-‐mod kif irraġuna Aristotli fil-‐parti tat-‐traġedja, kemm mill-‐Arti tal-‐Poeżija ta' Orazju li, bla dubju, ħa ħafna minnu.

Iżda Carmel Serracino mar 'l hinn minn hekk. It-‐tagħrif li tana dwar il-‐poeta Grieg, il-‐kritika letterarja, Platun u Aristotli ġew miktuba b'reqqa, kif b'reqqa nkiteb il-‐kummentarju li jkompli jiċċara dawk il-‐biċċiet li biex tifhimhom trid pawsa u għajnuna. Dan hu ktieb li jmur 'l hinn mill-‐Loeb Edition, għax jagħti iktar minn traduzzjoni.

Dan hu ktieb li ma setax inkiteb

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ħlief minn min jistħoqqlu jkun iktar minn Direttur f'dipartiment tal-‐Gvern, li tabilħaqq stħoqqlu jinħatar floki din l-‐istess ġimgħa bħala l-‐Executive President tal-‐Malta Classics Association.

Grazzi u Awguri. ***

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The Euthyphro is one of the early dialogues1 of Plato dealing with the circumstances of Socrates’ trial and death2. Yet, when compared to the Apology, there seems to be a certain distance from the historicity of trial3;4. The purposeful construction of the setting and the choice of characters make manifest the fact that the dialogue is intended5 to be read, in part, as dramatic set piece. It is reasonable to think that such details serve to strengthen the philosophical points made more explicitly in the dialogue.

This impression is

further corroborated by the wealth of dramatic detail found especially toward the beginning of the dialogue. With the opening words of the dialogue we are thrown into a highly charged setting. Outside the King Archon’s stoa7, Socrates, about to face charges of impiety, meets a holy man who soon claims to know what the nature of piety is and moreover to know why Socrates is being accused of impiety.

Both men are here on

business, yet one has been dragged away from his haunts, the other has come here purposefully. One is ‘fleeing’ from a dike, the other ‘chasing’ in a graphe. The first is about to defend himself

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against the charges of impiety brought by a younger man, the other to accuse an older man of impious acts. Yet from a writer with the artistry of Plato one cannot expect simple dichotomy and straightforward opposition. Both are ‘holy men’8, both have offended the commonly held religious morality of the 5th century Athenian9, and both are marginalized by the jurors, Socrates about to be condemned, Euthyphro exposed to public ridicule.

Yet of all the details found

in the dialogue the most ornate and the most striking are the facts pertaining to Euthyphro’s court case. Euthyphro is accusing his father – Plato remarks on the typical reaction one would expect from a 5th century audience in a number of ways:

The reaction of the family

members (that it is unholy for a man to prosecute his own father), Socrates’ reaction on discovery of the accused and of the accusation, and Euthyphro’s assumption of the general reception of his claim.

The complexity of the case

itself – Euthyphro is not accusing his father of a straightforward murder, but

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rather of a murder which is (i) of culpable omission and not commission (ii) of omission caused at least partly by the desire to hear the court’s judgment (iii) of a murderer, and of the (iv) of a murderer of his own dependent – it is noteworthy that the father did not turn the criminal over but perhaps expected the courts to deliver a punishment he could mete out himself.

What is most emphasized

in the dialogue as remarkable and particular to court case is the discrepancy between Euthyphro’s action i.e. accusing his own father and the fact that the man on whose behalf he is doing this is a murderer himself.

What does all this amount

to? What characteristic of

Euthyphro’s behaviour is being ‘dramatically’ emphasized?

Given the complexity of

the situation, the general reaction of onlookers (of which Euthyphro is well aware) and the fact that Euthyphro is flying in the face

The Importance of Dramatic Details in the Euthyphro

Jurgen Gatt

“What Socrates seeks is not merely Euthyphro’s knowledge of piety, but

the justification of the very actions with which

we are presented.”

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of 5th century traditional religious sentiments, Plato is drawing attention to the headstrong confidence with which Euthyphro acts.

The complexity of the case serves to emphasize

in dramatic terms Euthyphro’s disproportionate confidence. Further, the fact that Euthyphro breaks so easily from traditionally held opinions of morality serves to make his confidence arrogant and unquestioning.

What is Socrates’ reaction? I quote the first

interjection of Socrates after being told the details of the case.

Text A (4e) E – But they are mistaken Socrates

about what God thinks about the holy and the unholy.

S – By Zeus Euthyphro, do you really

think that you know so precisely what the gods say about holy and unholy things that you, these things (the murder) having happened as you say, you do not fear that in proceeding against your father, you may be doing something unholy.

To Socrates there is an obvious connection

between Euthyphro’s actions (proceeding against his father) and his claim to knowledge about the nature of piety. What provides the link between the two is the fear of unwittingly committing an impious action.

Euthyphro is freed from the fear of committing

an impious act, and thus can act, only because he believes he knows what piety is. In the character of Euthyphro the elenchus maintains its traditional enemy, the man who claims to know, and further, whose claims of knowledge spur action.

Thus the first philosophical concession which

Euthyphro makes in the dialogue is precisely in this vein, confirming that his actions are (and I suspect can only be) grounded in the knowledge of the nature of piety.

Text B (4e-5a – continues from Text B) E – Indeed Euthyphro would have no

use Socrates, nor would anything separate him from the common man, if he didn’t precisely know all these sorts of things.

It is important to note that what Socrates seeks

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thus is not merely Euthyphro’s knowledge of piety but

the justification of the very actions with which we are presented. This connection between knowledge and action

is further strengthened later on in the dialogue in an interlude from the discussion which reminds the reader, with great dramatic irony, of the impending trial of Socrates.

Text C (12e) S – So that I may tell Meletus no longer

to wrong me and accuse me of impiety since I have sufficiently learnt from you what the holy and the pious is and what is not.

A precise knowledge of the nature of piety and

impiety will prevent Socrates from being accused of impiety and thus of impious acts. Not only does Socrates believe this to be the case, he assumes that the accusers themselves will be powerless to condemn him if he reveals to them his knowledge.

How can Meletus ever be convinced unless

Socrates can argue convincingly that knowledge and action are two sides of the same coin, that he is no longer capable of committing impiety, that if he has wronged he has done so unknowingly and thus shouldn’t be accused and that akrasia is impossible?

Returning to the dialectic proper, the emphasis

quickly moves away from Euthyphro’s justification of his condemning his father and onto the nature of piety found in all acts13. Socrates’ reasons for this change in emphasis is personal, he wishes to acquire a definitional knowledge of piety. The reasons why are found in the dialogue.

Text D S – Teach me whatever this form might

be, that I, looking upon it and using it as a paradigm, may call holy that which you or anyone else does, if it is of that nature, and if not, that I may call it unholy.

In the Euthyphro we are presented with a

Socrates whose primary reasons for wanting to have such knowledge, as shown in text C, are linked with the immediate dramatic surroundings of the dialogue (the impending court case and his ability to discredit the accusations).

Secondly Socrates’ interest in acquiring such

knowledge seems to be theoretical (text D), as an observer rather than a subject of moral action. Both,

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however, seem to be at variance with other claims made elsewhere.

The contradiction is settled when one

acknowledges that Socrates might have envisioned several benefits of having such knowledge among which are the ones made reference to in Text D.

However Socrates’ chief interest in moral

definitional knowledge was practical and not theoretical, or rather the theoretical (and thus philosophical in the modern sense) usefulness of such knowledge (being able to judge an action as being pious or impious) is subservient to the practical usefulness (and thus philosophical in the older sense – philosophy seen as a way of life).

When such knowledge is turned to

oneself and one’s own actions15, definitions become a paradigm upon which not merely to judge actions but to act, a guide for correct action.

This claim has implications when combined with the Socratic denial of knowledge16. A consequence of Socratic ignorance seems to be ‘Socratic inaction’.

The suspension of judgment leads

inexorably to suspension of action. A cause for this is implied in the dialogue (text A) the fear of unwittingly committing impiety. I grant the argument a logical form, grounded in the main upon Text B – the first is a negation of Euthyphro’s state, the second a consequence of it.

1. I do not know what holiness (O) is.

(Socratic Ignorance) 2. It is necessary to know what O is to

know whether action X is ‘o’, where ‘o’ is an instance of O (Priority of Definitional Knowledge)

3. It is necessary to know what O is to know whether action X is not-‘o’, where not-‘o’ is an instance of not-O19

4. Any action may be ‘o’ or not-‘o’ 5. Thus for any action X, I do not

know if it is ‘o’ or not-‘o’

And further,

1. To refrain from committing actions

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not-‘o’, I must refrain from actions which I know to be not-‘o’ and actions whose status (whether ‘o’ or not-‘o’) I do not know

2. For any action X, I do not know if it is ‘o’ or not-‘o’

3. Thus - I must refrain from any action X

This argument is the strongest expression of a paradox that lies at the very heart of Socratic philosophy, a paradox present in the tension between the following two Socratic precepts, knowledge or wisdom is par excellence the guide to moral action, and the wisest man in Athens knew only that he did not know.

The dramatic contrast thus between Euthyphro

and Socrates reaches a grand and almost logical climax. Euthyphro, young, accuser of an older man on charges of impiety, self-laudatory, self-righteous, full of Euthyphronic confidence in his own actions, meets an elderly Socrates, accused and about to be condemned to death, self-deprecating, haunting the Lyceum because he can do nothing else, frozen in inaction by his ignorance.

***

Bibliography

C. E. Jones. Editor, Plato: Euthyphro (Duckworth 2011) Adam A.M. editor, The Apology of Socrates Eighteenth

printing (Cambridge University Press 1994) Tarrant H. Tredennick H. trans. The last days of Socrates

(Penguin 2003) Burnet J. editor, Plato Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, Crito

(Clarendon Press 2002) G. Grote. Plato and the other companions of Sokrates

(Cambridge University Press 2010) P. Friedlander. Plato (Princeton University Press 1973) G. Vlastos, M. Burnyeat editor. Socratic Studies

(Cambridge University Press 1994) D.R. Morrison. The Cambridge Companion to Socrates

(Cambridge University Press 2010) H.G. Liddle, R. Scott. An Intermediate Greek-English

Lexicon: Founded upon the Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford University Press 1945)

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Karmenu Serracino is the author of the recently-launched Dwar l-arti tal-poeżija, the first translation of Aristotle’s Poetics into Maltese. In this article, Karmenu looks back at his long-time relationship with Aristotle’s seminal treatise on literary criticism.

The first time I heard of Aristotle’s Poetics was over twenty years ago during the introductory year of the BA programme in Classical Culture and Civilization. The erudite Rev. Nicholas Debono Montebello started off the three-credit course on Greek and Roman drama with the theory of Aristotle, the mimesis, the fobos and eleos, and their katharsis.

Those strange terms were

slightly overwhelming for an undergraduate who had never read any Greek drama before. Moreover, Dr Debono Montebello’s custom of expounding such terms in their original form, to students who had no Greek, made them appear solemnly mysterious. They must have struck a chord, however, for I resolved to get a translation of the Poetics and read this fundamental text for the study of Greek theatre.

My next, closer encounter,

with the Poetics was a few years later. This time round, I was doing the one-year MA Qualifying course in Classics, and one of the prescribed texts happened to be the Poetics. Fourteen lecturing-hours of thorough reading from the text in the original Greek left a lasting impression on me.

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However, what must have eventually sealed my determination to work on this text for my Master’s Degree was the impact of D.W. Lucas’ commentary for the Clarendon Press (Oxford, 1968).

This was probably my first

experience of closely using a commentary to help me through an ancient text. It can be a truly enriching and stimulating experience, and one that I always encourage my students to try out for themselves. Reading through the miniscule print of the Lucas commentary, with a note for every other word in the Poetics, each entry heavy with cross references and quotations but still managing to retain a degree of graceful lucidity, all this made me feel as though I was being initiated into a prestigious brotherhood of classical philologists.

The essays in the

appendices of the book were highly intriguing. I do not mean to say I was able to understand all the nuances they conveyed – far from it. What I certainly understood was that Aristotle’s treatise is one piece of ancient writing that you study for the enlightenment it can provide on subsequent literatures as much as for the greater

3

appreciation of Greek poetry and drama. Eventually, I realized there was nothing revelatory about that notion, and it could well apply to the whole corpus of Greek and Latin literature. Yet, at the time it came as new to me.

In one of the essays,

Lucas pays tribute to J. H. Newman, who, according to the commentator, gave in his youthful “Essay on Poetry” the best and most succinct explanation of Aristotle’s universal attribute to poetry. At the time, it so happened that concurrently with falling victim to the spell of the Poetics, I had also started to listen with great interest to Elgar’s oratorio The Dream of Gerontius. The rapturous music of that composition was a powerful intoxication. As Gerontius’ music is set to the verses of Cardinal Newman, this was another of those instances where the old and the new seemed to fuse, at least to my mind, into one momentous and significant experience.

Another influential

motivator was the three-year MTADA course in drama I had started to

POETICS AND I Karmenu Serracino

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follow round ab out the same time. This was a rather intensive commitment, but one that was worth every minute. The first term of the course was dedicated to Greek drama and for the end-of-term production our class performed excerpts from Euripides’ Trojan women. I acted the role of Poseidon, and delivered the god’s opening monologue in my own translation from the Greek.

For a Classics student

following a course on Aristotle’s Poetics, the participation in a production of a Greek play can be extremely edifying. It provides the student with an opportunity to test the extent to which Aristotle’s theories can be applied in real performance. The French tragedian Pierre Corneille, who was expected by the 17th-century Académie Française to write plays according to Aristotelian rules (or, at least, according to the Académie’s interpretation of them), complains in his Discourses that in application these rules do not always hold water as much as one would like them to. Abiding by Aristotle’s favoured category of the best tragic situation, Corneille’s Le Cid had apparently caused spectators a lot of piteous tears. On the other hand, the playwright expresses doubts whether the play had provoked in the audience any fear at all. In our performance of the Trojan woman, I similarly recall we had managed to evoke an excess of pity, but very little in the way of fear.

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Then again, what exactly did Aristotle mean by the two emotions of eleos and fobos? In principle as well as in practice, the philosopher’s concepts seem to defy a straightforward interpretation, thus making his treatise the fascinating enigma that it is.

All these experiences led me

to decide that for my Master’s degree I would translate into Maltese this canonical text in the history of literary criticism. This would make it the first-ever Maltese translation of a complete work by Aristotle. I wanted to include a whole set of notes to the text, but such as would target students and readers who are approaching the work for the first time and who have little or no familiarity with Greek literature. An introduction would lay down solid groundwork for the reader’s appreciation of the developing role of the poet and poetry in ancient Greek society from the earliest times to the age of Plato and Aristotle.

The actual work was a long

and arduous affair, but I managed to press on not only as a result of my own perseverance but more so through the unflagging encouragement of Prof. Horatio Vella, the dissertation’s supervisor. He insisted that the first task should be my looking up in Liddell & Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon of each word that may challenge a straight translation, enlisting all the possible meanings of such a word. I dare say that such an injunction applied to nearly all the words found in Aristotle’s work.

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That painstaking but priceless chore over, I turned to the translation itself. For months on end, I spent nearly every Friday morning at Prof. Vella’s office as we discussed the translated passages I had prepared over the week and the different obstacles I was encountering. My purpose, and one to which I tried to adhere scrupulously, was to render into Maltese as close a version to the original as possible. A relentless difficulty was the translation into their Maltese form of the countless Greek proper names found in the text. I needed to establish a consistent methodology for this exercise as none of the previous Maltese translators working on a Greek text appeared to have formed one before. Another exciting challenge was finding the best possible Maltese equivalents of key terms that have undergone centuries of scholarly contention and interpretation, such as mimesis, hamartia and katharsis.

The next phase of the

work was the writing of the annotations. This was a real pleasure to do. In conformity with my plan, I kept the notes plain, basic, and all-inclusive. It felt imperative to add comments explaining my reasoning behind the translation of a particular Greek word or phrase. However, I did not shy away from including more down-to-earth notes, such as brief summaries of plays or Homeric passages referred to

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by Aristotle. The final task was the introduction. I wanted the introduction to serve as a wide-ranging backdrop to Aristotle’s text, enabling the reader to understand the significance of poetry in Greek society and, especially, the religious attributes that the poet had enjoyed since Homeric times and that Plato found so unacceptable. I corroborated the statements in the introduction with several excerpts from Greek authors that I translated myself. This gave me the delightful opportunity to translate diverse authors, such as Homer, Hesiod, Gorgias, and Plato.

The dissertation was

successful and earned me my Degree. However, academic justifications apart, one may question the actual need for such a Maltese translation when various renderings in English and other languages already exit. I believe that translation is an exercise in the two languages concerned. It is always a new interpretation, irrespective of the number of translations in the same and different languages the original work had undergone before. Moreover, every language deserves to have its own version of the great works of literature. As far as Classical literature is concerned, such a translation confirms the position of Malta and its culture in the long history of the classical tradition, a unique role that is ours by right and that we should seek to foster and strengthen continuously.

It is for this reason that the

Malta Classics Association has

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published a revised version of this dissertation as the first in a series of Classics-related books the Association will issue in collaboration with BDL Publishing. I am forever grateful to the Association for making this possible and for giving the Maltese public the first opportunity to read Aristotle in their own language.

***

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Photographic displays from 'Ovidius in Exsilio'

produced by The Malta Classics Association alongside Mediteatru theatre company

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For the third consecutive summer, the Malta Classics Association will be participating in the Evenings on Campus arts festival at the University of Malta. This time round, we will be superseding our previous efforts by organising two activities for the festival, albeit the two very much connected in theme. The first is an art exhibition by the internationally renowned artist Monika Besiner, which will be held at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. We shall be able to enjoy a selection of original prints from her wonderful collection inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Our second activity will be a theatre-production. After the successes of The Widow of Ephesus in 2010, and Is-Simpożju last year, theatre is becoming a much-anticipated event in the MCA’s annual calendar. We immeaditaley agreed that the new play should be related in its subject-matter to the exhibition. After a few brain-storming sessions, we met veteran author Ġorġ Peresso who eagerly took the bait and set to work.

Within the month, he had given us a script, a lovely piece of work, entitled Ovidius in exsilio. Meanwhile, we had engaged Keith Borg as a director. Established previously as an actor, Mr Borg is venturing into the art of theatre-direction with a lot of viguor and determination. His troupe, Mediteatru, are also helping in the production of this work. To anyone who is familiar with Ovid, the Latin title will immediately recall the bitter circumstances that marked the last ten years of the poet’s life. The reason behind the poet’s exile (properly, a relegatio, in which the victim at least retained his property and citizenship) to one of the outposts of the empire has always eluded Roman historians.

In his poetry written in forlorn Tomis on the

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Romanian coast of the Black Sea, Ovid laments incessantly – and yet, he never speaks openly. He only blames “carmen et error” (Tristia 2.207) which made Emperor Augustus banish him far way from his beloved Rome, to a barbarous and wind-swept territory where even water was brackish. The carmen presumbly refers to Ovid’s poetry celebrating promiscuity that had shot him to stardom. A kind of glittery guidebook-in-verse for the rich bon vivant bent on his next sexual escapade, the content jarred heavily with Augustus’ labours towards a nation-wide moral reform. The error is much harder to pin down. One rather glamorous story suggests that Ovid might have become involved with Augustus’ daughter Julia, who was notoriously exiled by the emperor on charges of adultery, and in conditions even harsher than the poet’s. Rather than speculating on possible causes behind the banishment, Ġorġ Peresso’s play is more concerned with the kind of life Ovid was living in remote Tomis. Besides writing stacks of still-extant epistolary poetry addressed to his wife and friends in Rome, beseeching their intercession with the Emperor, and apart from pining away for the baths, the games, and the banquets of glorious Rome, Ovid must have striven to find a way to make life in Tomis endurable to him. We know from his poetry that Ovid was a much-respected personality among the locals. He tells us he learnt their language (he had to, as nobody could understand Latin) and even wrote some verse in it. Peresso’s play goes a step further. Here, the exiled Ovid is seeking a personal reconciliation with his past and his Roman cultural identity by running a Basic Latin class for the barbarian youth. He does not want merely to teach them Latin; he wants to acquaint them with the grandeur that is Rome, to make orators of them, to Romanize them

Ovid in Exile Karm Serracino

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in readiness for their eventual move to the capital.

Time is running short for Ovid, his health is getting weaker, and the hope of an official pardon is ever-dwindling. Something else is burning inside him, the old fire unexpectedly revived. There still may be the final metamorphosis lying in wait for the old rake and poet. Enough of the plot! The rest of the story will be told onstage at the University on the nights of 26th and 27th July.

***

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George Peresso,

playwright

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Capitulum I

Quamobrem Fabula Regulae est Olim, erat regula parva cuius pater erat regni magni, ubi erant montes plurimi vallesque. Eius regia, quae erat magnificissima et pulcherrima, in monte quodam stabat. Regula, cuius nomen ei erat Irena, ibi nata sed, post paulo, quia mater valde aegrotabat, missa est, ut a rusticis educaretur, domi magna, in alio montis lato, inter basem cacumenque. Regula erat dulcis parvula et illo tempore in quo fabula mea incipit, censeo octo annos vixisse sed ab pueritia celerrime excessisse. Eius facies erat candida et pulchra, in qua erant occelli, tamquam astra lucentes, in noctis caeruleo caelo, dissoluti. Censueris illos occellos scivisse debere illinc venisse, quo saepius respiciebant. Gynaecei, ubi tum alebatur, tectum, astra in eo habens, erat caeruleum tam caelus quam id facere potuerunt. Sed dubito utrum caelum verum umquam viderit necne ob causam quam oportet me statim narrare. Hi montes cavatis subtus locis pleni erant; erant specus ingentes et flexuosa itinera, nonnulli aquas, per eos currentes, habent et alii, cum lux in eis ferretur, coloribus Iridis omnibus, scintillantes. Multa de eis nescita essent nisi ibi essent metalla et putei magni altique, cuniculis viisque, eis abcurrentibus, qui excavati erant causa aera aliena capiendi, quibus montes pleni erant. Dum excavabant, metallici horum naturalium cavernarum multas inveniebant, quarum paucae rimas distantes, in montis lato vel in valle arcta, habuerant. Vero autem, in his inferis specibus, genus nequam, qui, ab aliquibus, homunculi nominabantur, ab alteris elphiculi, ab aliis, larvae, habitabant. Erat, in illo regno, historia commenticia quae memoria prodita est. Haec historia narrabat, illo diu tempore, illos supra terram habitavisse et simillimos aliis hominibus fuisse. Sed ob causaum aut aliquam, de quibus essent commenticiae rationes diversae, regem tributum, quod severissimum putarent, imponuisse, vel leges, quae eis non placerent,

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constituisse aut eos iniuriose tractare incepisse. propter has causas, omnes, e conspectu, evolaverunt. Historia tamen commenticia narrabat, quum ad alteram terram ire debere, eos omnes in cavernas confugisse unde numquam venisse nisi noctu et deinde raro in multitudo se comparuisse ac numquam multis spectatoribus semel. Fuisse solo in montium difficillis partibus, traditum est, eos in caleo aperto congregisse. Illi, qui eorum quosquam dispexerunt, narrabant eos, tempore progrediente, magnopere mutatos fuisse; et non mirum est quoniam longe a sole, in frigidis, humidis atque obscuris locis, habitabant. Nunc erant non plerumque diformes sed aut prorsum foedi aut ridiculissimi. Non esse licentissimae cogitationis fabricationem, graphide vel calamo expressam, dicebant, quae eorum speciei immodicum excedere posset. Nihilominus suspicor hos, qui haec dixerint, eorum comitum animalium nonnullos, de quibus plus aliquando dicendus sit, illos, credidisse. Larvae ipsi non erant tam dissimiles hominibus quam narratio habere voluit. Et velut distorti fiebant sicut callidi versutique facti erant et iam res potuerunt quas mortales nequiverunt facere. Sed velut vafriores sic scelestiores fiebant et valde omnibus modis eis placebat excogitare ut incolentes super terram sollicitarent. Satis pietatis inter se habebant ut omnino crudeles non essent crudelitatis causa eis quibus obviam iverunt. Sed tamen adeo vehementissime aviti inimicitias cum eis, qui eorum bona priora occupabant, gerebant, et maxime cum regis, qui eorum exactionem effecit, progeniebus ut quamque occasionem ad eos cruciandos, modis tam insolitis quam eorum inventoribus, caperent; et cum pumili distortique essent, virem aequalem suae malitiae habuerant. Tempore progrediente, regnum et rem publicam, cuius prima occupatio, praeter ipsas simplices res, erat finitimos suos perturbare, constituerunt. Iam erit manifestissimum quamobrem regula parva caelo noctu numquam viderat. Larvas tam timebant ut eam noctu domo exire non sinerent,

Translation into Latin, George Macdonald’s “The Princess and the Goblin”

Joseph Anthony Debono

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ne cum tantis comitibus quidem; et causam bonam, de qua aliquando videbimus, habuerant. Comments: This is a translation of the first chapter of George Macdonald’s “The Princess and the Goblin” which is a Victorian fairy tale written by a Scot in somewhat formal but still delightful language. The literary conceit of translating vernacular works into Latin has a long tradition in the exercise of composition and is now enjoying a revival, as the translation of the Harry Potter books, and other works, shows. The challenge of translating such a work lies in striking a balance between the literary style of the original author and a style that a Classical Roman might have understood without too much exertion. For this reason, I have tried to maintain this balance, the success of which must be judged by better Classicists than me. I have tried to use words, grammar, syntax and idiom which were current in the Golden and Silver ages of Latin literature and I have done my best to use the period as far as possible – with varying results. The main fault, that I can discern is the production of very long and complex sentences but, I believe, that the judicious use of punctuation should make the reader’s task easier. In some instances, I have had to render concepts into near equivalents. There seems to have been no Roman equivalent for the Victorian “nursery”, so I adapted

4

“gynaeceum”, the word for the women’s quarters in Ancient Greece for this purpose. Likewise words such as “dwarf”, “goblin”, “kobold” etc. I hope that this little exercise encourages others to try their hands at similar works. Quite apart from the literary pleasure of such an exercise in its own right, it does a great deal to encourage composers to reflect at length on the nature and idiom of the source and target language. Such an exercise has obvious benefits even for composition in the vernacular. ***

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SUMMER CRYPTIC CROSSWORD by Pietru

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Translation into Greek,

Passage from Sidgwick’s “First Greek Writer”

Daniel Abela St. Martin’s College Κύκνοι

ἔστι νῦν µεσηµβρία, καὶ ὁ ἥλιός ἐστι σφόδρα θερµός. ἡ τῶν δένδρων σκιά ἐστι ψυχρά, καὶ ἡ λίµνη ἐστὶ καλή. ὁρῶ πολλοὺς κύκνους τε λαµπροὺς καὶ λευκούς. ὁ ἐκείνου τοῦ κύκνου τράχηλός ἐστι µαχρός, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀριστερὸν πτερὸν δοκεῖ εἶναι µικρόν. οὐκ οἶδα τὴν αἰτίαν τούτου. ἴσως ἐστὶ κακὴ νόσος ἐν τούτῳ τῷ πτερῷ. ἴσως τὸ τούτου τοῦ κύκνου ὀστοῦν διερράγη λίθῳ. ἔστι µικρὸν πλοῖον ἐπὶ τῇ λίµνῃ

Daniel (14 years old) translated the above text under exam conditions, after just five lessons of Greek. All the work is the student’s own, including the accents on the enclitics, without reference to any material beyond the rubrics in the passage itself. In the test, Daniel obtained a perfect score and the passage above is reproduced exactly as Daniel wrote it in these conditions. ***

26


Aunt Daisy

Interviews…

1

I must admit that venturing to interview Medusa was quite an adventure. A stone is not what I would like to become eventually. Anyhow, let me tell you how it occurred to me to interview her. Well, surely it was not while I was reading about her nemesis Perseus (which, however, I recommend you do!).

No. It was a totally unusual place for literary inspiration, the last place you would imagine: a perfumery. And those of you who often visit such places can easily guess why. So I thought I’d also use this matter to start off my talk with her. It should please her to know that her notoriety transformed itself into this lucrative fame!

A D: Madame, I would like to bring to your notice, in case you were too busy to do so yourself, that for a few decades, besides the Ancient notoriety, your face has gained fame as the logo of a tremendously successful company of fashion and perfumes.

On the other hand, I am afraid your name did not benefit from the same quality in Ancient Greece. Can you tell us a bit more about yourself? How did you legacy start?

2

M: I am very grateful to this company that recognised my real worth. It finally gave me the justice that I never got in Ancient Greece. I started as a priestess of Athena and back then, with all modesty, I was a beauty. But this was also my fall. Poseidon, wanted to have me, so he desecrated Athena’s temple by defiling me in that place. Funnily enough, then Athena turned against me! She transformed me into a mortal Gorgon, as most people know me, with an ugly face and a headful of snarling snakes instead

3

of hair locks.

A D: And from a goodie you turned to a baddie?

M: Well, since it became an honourable deed to kill me, I swore to turn into stone anyone who dared to look at me… I was my only defence mechanism!

A D: But how did you fare then?

M: Well some guys did turn into stone, too bad for them. But then a certain Perseus, alas, came along. And this part I am not so

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4

happy to dwell upon, perhaps you should ask him. My heart waxes glad to know that from what Poseidon did to me another mythological star was born, a horse-son, Pegasus. What a darling, heroic steed!

Anyhow, although my ugliness was not a positive asset, my mortality quite soon purged me from bearing it for long. And thanks to my old Italian friend, Gianni, who now resides on the same side of the universe as me, I even became a symbol of beauty! What more could Medusa want?

***

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Outgoing Committee (2011-2012)

Honorary President – Professor Anthony Bonanno

Executive President – Professor Horatio Caesar Roger Vella

General Secretary – Joanna Zammit Falzon

Treasurer – Victor Bonnici

Publicity Officer – Dr Michael Zammit

Editor – Peter Farrugia

Archivist/Webmaster – Joseph Anthony Debono

Creative Officer – Karmenu Serracino

International officer – Maxine Anastasi

Member – Tyron Baron

Current Committee (2012-2013)

Honorary President – Professor Peter Vassallo

Executive President – Karmenu Serracino

General Secretary – Joanna Zammit Falzon

Treasurer – Victor Bonnici

Publicity Officer – Tyron Baron

Editor – Peter Farrugia

Archivist/Webmaster – Joseph Anthony Debono

Creative Officer – Dr. Michael Zammit

International officer – Professor Horatio Caesar Roger Vella

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mca summer newsletter 2012

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