Customer Reviews

The Homeric Hymns: A Verse Translation

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After reading the Loeb translation of the Homeric Hymns and Homerica, I was inclined to look askance on this slim little volume by Thelma Sargent. Upon opening the cover, however, I found I had been mistaken. Not only are these verse translations of short invocations and hymns to the Greek Gods and Godesses lovely and effecting (to which I will give credit where credit is due to Homer,an unlikely but romantic notion,or whichever ancient bard had the presence of mind to create them), they manage to be quite readable as well (credit for which I am willing to divide up between said bard and Thelma Sargent). The hymns are very straightforeward, utilizing in conjunction with the familiar stories of the Gods and Godesses, imagery common to the times and people for which they were written. Taking this alone into consideration, their beauty is impressive; rather like poetry invoking a Goddess to be present in your daily coffee making and data processing. Then again, maybe not, to have survived two and a half centuries, they would have to be pretty good little poems. I found the Hymns to Demeter, Delian Apollo, and the Mother of the Gods particularly elegant. It is from some of these hymns that we get our primary source material for some of our knowledge of Greek mythology. It is interesting to me, who was weaned on English re-tellings of these same myths, to read them in, at least closer to, their origional form. They are much deeper, the language much more sweeeping, than I had ever imagined- like the Psalms or Song of Solomon. We don't often think of those well-worn myths as religious tales. The way (I guess I mean the words and rythms)in which they were written, and then translated in this edition, makes the fact that they are religious texts decidedly apparant. It was, if not mind-blowing, than at least mind-stretching and intriguing to have them presented in this way.

I found the translations included in this book beautiful and clear. A good example that narrative poems can also be translated in verse as contrasted to prose, preserving rhythm and imagery. A brief and precise introduction completes the work by helping the reader into the context of the poems and offering a very short but lucid discussion of Greek meter for those who like me can't read Greek. I just pity so elegant a book being less than 100 pages (but this probably contributes even more to its elegance, I acknowledge) and not having found the translation of Theocritus' Idylls by the same Thelma Sargent.

I found "The Homeric Hymns" the most satisfying version of these ancient myths I have read; far superior to modern prose retellings. Thelma Sargent's elegant translations of these poems inspire a great sense of the sacred. The longer poems, especially "To Demeter" and "To Hermes" also develop a sense of the personalities of the gods. Those who love Homer's epics will also love these short poems, even if scholarship has taken the honor of authorship from him.

Thelma Sargent has full reign with the Homeric Hymns. Her translations are the most poetic, the most dramatic, the most beautiful on the market today!

These translations were hailed as being the most faithful to the original ancient Greek. Not only that but the print design is most pleasing to the eye, and you get the feeling that you are not reading a translation but pure and realistic Hymns to the Gods, who seem to live today (in my opinion, in her translations only)!

The only worthy comparison is the Penguin edition of recent. But really, I feel that Sargent's renderings are so successful that you don't even need to compare them with any others. I have compared many versions, but now only have Sargent's in my possession, and don't even consider owning a second version!

Thelma Sargent's Homeric Hymns should be in every household, to be loved and enjoyed...even to be used to re-develop a relationship with the "Immortal ones" once again in our life and our daily lives.

I can only agree with the previous reviewers in giving this slim but rich volume 5 stars. The translation by Thelma Sargent strives for transparency & clarity, and achieves this goal to perfection. Here, for example, is Persephone speaking of her abduction by Hades:

In delight I picked the bright blossom, but earth underneath
Gave way, and the mighty lord, the receiver of many, rushed forth
And carried me off all unwilling deep underground
In his chariot of gold, and I cried out at the top of my voice.

How perfectly the innocence & fear of the young Persephone is expressed, and how potent & powerful the actions of Hades in comparison!

Or here, describing the encounter of the mortal Anchises & the goddess Aphrodite:

So speaking, he took her hand, and the lover of smiles, Aphrodite
Turning aside her face, her beautiful eyes cast down,
Hesitant, followed him to the comfortable bed
Earlier spread for the hero's repose with soft coverings,
Over them thrown the skins of bears and loud-roaring lions
Slain by Anchises himself in the towering mountains.
When they had climbed up onto the well-structured bed,
Anchises removed first of all her shining adornments --
Her necklaces, flower-shaped brooches, and helical earrings;
Then he loosened her girdle and stripped off her glittering gown
And laid it upon a settle studded with silver.
Thus, by the will of the gods and the dictates of fate,
He, a mortal, all unaware, lay with an immortal goddess.

This is eroticism described with exquisite tenderness, conveying both emotion & physical detail in precise, subtle brushstrokes. Aphrodite is the immortal, powerful beyond imagining ... yet she's almost demure in this passage, allowing the mortal Anchises to take command. How much nuance is revealed in just a few well-crafted lines!

Not merely for those fascinated by Greek mythology & poetry, but for anyone who treasures the beautiful & the evocative -- highly recommended!