From jmpfund@bgnet.bgsu.edu Thu Jan 31 15:01:33 2002
Received: from mailscan2.cac.washington.edu (mailscan2.cac.washington.edu [140.142.33.16])
	by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.01) with SMTP id g0VN1Sw6078788
	for <classics@lists.u.washington.edu>; Thu, 31 Jan 2002 15:01:28 -0800
Received: FROM mxu1.u.washington.edu BY mailscan2.cac.washington.edu ; Thu Jan 31 15:01:27 2002 -0800
Received: from smtp02.bgsu.edu (smtp02.bgsu.edu [129.1.5.18])
	by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.01) with ESMTP id g0VN1Qpj016098
	for <classics@u.washington.edu>; Thu, 31 Jan 2002 15:01:26 -0800
Received: from [129.1.105.78] (dhcp-105-78.bgsu.edu [129.1.105.78])
	by smtp02.bgsu.edu (Switch-2.1.0/Switch-2.1.0) with ESMTP id g0VN1Pm16179
	for <classics@u.washington.edu>; Thu, 31 Jan 2002 18:01:25 -0500 (EST)
Mime-Version: 1.0
X-Sender: jmpfund@mailstore.bgsu.edu
Message-Id: <p04320400b87f745c7a3d@[129.1.105.78]>
In-Reply-To: <003601c1aa9d$481afc40$777f1ec4@al40>
References: <003601c1aa9d$481afc40$777f1ec4@al40>
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 18:01:23 -0500
To: classics@u.washington.edu
From: "James M. Pfundstein" <jmpfund@bgnet.bgsu.edu>
Subject: Sheer Matthew Arnoldism (was: Seth Benardete on Textual Criticism)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

>On Wed, 30 Jan 2002, J. F. Gannon wrote
>
>: There is a famous essay by Arnold "On Translating
>: Homer".
>Terrence Lockyer wrote:
>Famous and more substantial than the term 'essay' might suggest:  my copy
>(including 29 pages of introduction and 5 of notes by W. H. D. Rouse) is a
>volume of 200 pages.  The publication details for that edition are:
>
>- Matthew Arnold and W. H. D. Rouse (intr. and notes), *On Translating
>Homer* (London : John Murray 1905)
>
>*OTH* was first published in 1861, and originated in lectures given by
>Arnold in 1860 as professor of poetry at Oxford.

It might almost have been better titled "On NOT Translating Homer" 
(cf. Woolf "On Not Reading Greek")-- there are some beautifully snide 
passages in it, at the expense of some of the Victorian translators 
of Homer (especially Newman). One can see how Housman would have 
liked it. It's pretty unsatisfying at times, though-- often mere 
unqualified Homerolatry, as when Arnold claims Homer is "always 
noble," even in the Thersites passage (_Iliad_ 2.211ff). To mock ugly 
little balding men might have seemed like the height of nobility to 
Arnold but I (for reasons of my own) am inclined to disagree.

JM("Mounos ametroepe:s ekolo:a")P
.