From kopff@spot.colorado.edu Fri Mar  7 13:27:06 2003
Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.133])
	by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW03.03/8.12.1+UW03.02) with ESMTP id h27LR6CK051580
	for <classics@reallists.u.washington.edu>; Fri, 7 Mar 2003 13:27:06 -0800
Received: from spot.colorado.edu (spot.Colorado.EDU [128.138.129.2])
	by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW03.03/8.12.1+UW03.02) with ESMTP id h27LR4g8019134
	for <classics@u.washington.edu>; Fri, 7 Mar 2003 13:27:05 -0800
Received: from localhost (kopff@localhost)
	by spot.colorado.edu (8.11.6/8.11.2/ITS-5.0/standard) with ESMTP id h27LR4912895
	for <classics@u.washington.edu>; Fri, 7 Mar 2003 14:27:04 -0700 (MST)
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 14:27:04 -0700 (MST)
From: KOPFF E CHRISTIAN <kopff@spot.colorado.edu>
To: classics@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: commentaries on the Odyssey
In-Reply-To: <000801c2e4bb$57a45540$2f69fa43@pavilion>
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.40.0303071410330.16696-100000@spot.colorado.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Fri, 7 Mar 2003, Gene O'Grady wrote:
> Not having access to the 1993 TLS, I'm curious as to whether the disputed
> passage was lively, racist, or something else all together.  Any clues?
because I had written about R. D. Dawe, _The Odyssey. Translation and
Analysis_ (The Book Guild: Sussex, 1993):
> > Another lively passage provoked Edith Hall in the TLS (July 15, 1993)
> > into calling Dawe racist.
EH referred to (without quoting) R. D. Dawe, The Odyssey, p. 11:
"Now getting the words of Homer exactly right is much less important than
it would be for, let us say, Sophocles, for Homer does not achieve his
effects by the deployment of the lapidary phrase. Just the same it is a
worrying thought that there are Professors of Greek holding responsible
posts today who can look at a line like Odyssey 24.231 'On top he had a
goatskin cap on his head as he let his sorrow swell up' and see nothing
amiss. True, there is not anything _wrong_ with the words either as a
piece of Greek or as a piece of English. There is not anything _wrong_
with a Pakistani railway porter exclaining 'Oh, my goodness gracious me!'
He has as much right to say it as an elderly _grande dame_ fingering a
pearl necklace. But it is an insensitive person who does not recognize the
difference."

Christian Kopff
University of Colorado, Boulder
kopff@spot.colorado.edu


.