For the sake of economy, I'm slightly blending the two specific blog assingments(the one dissecting a page of Stiener and the one dealing with one of the five central conflicts in Antigone)for this one.
It is page 248 in Antigones:
"Translation cannot render nor commentary cirumscribe the network of discriminations and contiguities which comprises the Greek terms[insert three untranslated Greek words here]. The rough ad ready equation with 'right', 'justice', and 'law' not only misses the shifting lives of meaning in each of these fundamental Greek words, but fails altogether to translate the interplay in both[word for 'right'] and [word for 'justice'] of pragmatic or abstractly legalistic connotations on the one hand, and of archaic but active agencies of the supernatural on the other."
So Steiner has some reservations on the full import of the words when translated. Which is a totally valid consideration, since translation can have such a great impact on the text(the Bible and its various translations is a case in point). But I think there may end up being some possible distinctions to be drawn between 'right' and 'justice' even in english--especially if you take 'justice' in a strictly legal sense--.
"Lingusitically, [word for 'right'] may be the moat ancient and originally localized. In Homer and Hesiod, the 'goddess in this word' enunciates, is the highest advocate for, the traditional, inherited order of things. She seems to represent a primary comeliness in heaven and on earth...But it is [word for justice] whom the epic poets fabulists, and dramatists habitually designate as the 'child of Time'...Symbolically and iconographically, the links of this configuration to the Antigone theme are direct. [word for 'justice'] appears quite often on funerary urns in the guise of a virginal young woman of grave, indeed fierce, mien."
So of 'right' and 'justice', Justice is more often appealed to by the ancient Greeks as having a god-like representation, despite 'right' being older. And how striking it is that she often appears in the guise Steiner describes. Sounds a bit like 'Tig to me. And if that is the case, she is alinged with Justice? Curious indeed.
OK, forget this being a dual blog along with one-of-five-themes. I'll do that(individual and the state) later.
It is page 248 in Antigones:
"Translation cannot render nor commentary cirumscribe the network of discriminations and contiguities which comprises the Greek terms[insert three untranslated Greek words here]. The rough ad ready equation with 'right', 'justice', and 'law' not only misses the shifting lives of meaning in each of these fundamental Greek words, but fails altogether to translate the interplay in both[word for 'right'] and [word for 'justice'] of pragmatic or abstractly legalistic connotations on the one hand, and of archaic but active agencies of the supernatural on the other."
So Steiner has some reservations on the full import of the words when translated. Which is a totally valid consideration, since translation can have such a great impact on the text(the Bible and its various translations is a case in point). But I think there may end up being some possible distinctions to be drawn between 'right' and 'justice' even in english--especially if you take 'justice' in a strictly legal sense--.
"Lingusitically, [word for 'right'] may be the moat ancient and originally localized. In Homer and Hesiod, the 'goddess in this word' enunciates, is the highest advocate for, the traditional, inherited order of things. She seems to represent a primary comeliness in heaven and on earth...But it is [word for justice] whom the epic poets fabulists, and dramatists habitually designate as the 'child of Time'...Symbolically and iconographically, the links of this configuration to the Antigone theme are direct. [word for 'justice'] appears quite often on funerary urns in the guise of a virginal young woman of grave, indeed fierce, mien."
So of 'right' and 'justice', Justice is more often appealed to by the ancient Greeks as having a god-like representation, despite 'right' being older. And how striking it is that she often appears in the guise Steiner describes. Sounds a bit like 'Tig to me. And if that is the case, she is alinged with Justice? Curious indeed.
OK, forget this being a dual blog along with one-of-five-themes. I'll do that(individual and the state) later.
posted by Kari Bowles at 1:14 PM
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