Odusia — Wikipedia

L’ Odusia or Odyssey is an epic poem by the Latin poet Livius Andronicus, made towards the end of III ^{It is} century of. J.-C. , which constitutes the first literary testimony of an epic in the Latin language ^{[ first ]} .

Of the’ Odusia have reached us about forty fragments ^{[ first ]} . In the translation of the first verse of the Odyssey D’Homère, Livius retains the provision and the value of the terms, however by substituting the references to the muses the invocation of the Roman deities of the camsnes; the original Men of the Nation, Lossa, Polytropon ^{[ 2 ]} (Tell me, muse, this subtle man […] in the translation by Lisle Lequont) ^{[ 3 ]} become :

‘ My husband, the camena, insece versa. »

“Sing me, Camena, the hero at the multifaceted address. »»

Pre -literary epic forms were already strongly diffuse in Rome. Indeed Songs , carmen Priami And Carmen Nelei already celebrated the history of the fatherland and contributed to the creation of a legendary and mythological matter, the starting point for the development of successive epic works and ^{[What ?]} enabled the formation of a vast national epic heritage formed by many stories and legends that were later re -elaborated to give life to works like those of Naevius, Ennius or Virgile ^{[ 4 ]} .

This first epic text in the Latin language was not an original creation but a translation of the Odyssey of Homer who was with the Iliad The main Greek epic poem.

Objectives and influences [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Livius Andronicus was of Greek birth and culture ^{[ 5 ]} But had been able to know Latin culture and traditions during the long years of his presence in Rome.

In his quality of teacher , Livius Andronicus intended to create a text intended for school use by choosing at the time of its celebrity as a dramatic author to translate the Odyssey . Homer was considered the most illustrious and epic poet was the most noble and most important genre to which a literary author could devote himself ^{[ first ]} . Hellenistic culture, which had influenced Andronicus, brought him to favor pathetic and adventurous aspects as well as fabulous elements rather than bellicose facts that distinguished the other Homeric poem, Iliad ^{[ first ]} . simultaneously (?), The protagonist of the work, Ulysses, was easily assimilated to that of Aeneas, legendary character, origin of the Roman strain, forced to wander in the Mediterranean Sea in search of a homeland ^{[ 6 ]} The expansion of Rome in southern Italy and Sicily, made the theme of sea travel particularly sensitive that is found among the fundamental arguments of the work ^{[ 6 ]} . Finally, at the moral level, the Odyssey reflects Roman values, such as virtue or the fides : Ulysses, strong and courageous like any Homeric hero, is also very patient, wise and linked to the fatherland and the family to the point of refusing the love of Corcé and Calypso as well as the gift of the immortality that the latter had Free ; In addition, Pénélope, the wife of Ulysses, extremely reserved and faithful to her distant old would have embodied a model for all Roman matrons ^{[ 6 ]} .

The original translation [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The translation of the Odyssey presented important difficulties for Andronicus: he had to make important lexical, syntactic and metric choices in order to adapt the text to Latin culture and to Roman religion. The Roman religious apparatus required him to translate the names of the original deities and to replace the terms of sacred language with Roman correspondences; religious motivations also imposed the choice for the Odusia , from Saturnian (towards archaic Latin), in place of Greek typing hexamet: he referred to ancient Roman religious practices and gave the text a solemn and sacred character ^{[ 6 ]} .
Livius Andronicus had the heavy handicap of not having at his disposal an epic Roman tradition allowing him to draw an adequate language for his translation. The only sources were the annals held by the pontiffs and archaic religious carmes. The modifications made by Andronicus to the original text based on the canons of Hellenic literature are considerable: it inflated the pathetic and dramatic effects by remaining faithful to the structure and the content of the text of Homer while reorganizing its shape by making it a artistic translation ^{[ 7 ]} .
The language used is necessarily composite and includes copies of Greek terms, (like the title) but in large part it complies with the Latin of the Latin Chronicle pontiffs and religious carmes or celebrating the glories of people aristocratic

Influence and posterity [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The great merit of Livius Andronicus is to have made a real “from nothing” creation of the translation of a literary work. The translation was taken as a model by successive poets, erecting the basics of Latin epic poetry.
The translation put in the reach of the Roman people who did not know the Greek language a completely new mythological whole thus provoking the abandonment of a large part of the indigenous mythology and contributing to the process of identification of the Roman pantheon with the Greek.

Another peculiarity is the invocation to the camera, in the proemio (it) , italic divinity protecting sources and according to tradition, inspiring in place of the Greek muse.

The initiative of Livius Andronicus made available and popularized to the Roman people a fundamental text in the Greek language because only a few cultivated individuals could read the original of Homer. Odusia was used as a school text even when his language and the Saturnian verse became obsolete.
This information is reported to us by Horace when he laments “to have been forced to learn it by his brutal master Lucius Orbilius Pupillus” ^{[ 8 ]} .

‘ Doesn’t Cycling Carmina I think I remember what is plagued me Orbilium dictate. »

“I do not attack, I do not want to destroy the verses of Livius that I dictated to me, when I was little, I remember, the brutal orbilius. »» – [ 9 ]

Livius Andronicus being himself a schoolmaster, with his teaching he managed to disclose Greek culture in Rome and to advance literary culture in the Latin language.

Bibliography [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

• (it) William Beare , The Romans at the theater , Rome-Bari, Laterza, 2008
• (it) Giancarlo Pontiggia et Maria Cristina Big , Latin literature. History and texts , Milan, Principality, mars 1996 (ISBN  9788841621882 ) .

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