In the year of grace 1906, '08, or '10 I picked from the Paris quais a
Latin version of the _Odyssey_ by Andreas Divus Justinopolitanus
(Parisiis, In officina Christiani Wecheli, M, D, XXXVIII), the volume
containing also the Batrachomyomachia, by Aldus Manutius, and the "Hymni
Deorum" rendered by Georgius Dartona Cretensis. I lost a Latin _Iliads_
for the economy of four francs, these coins being at that time scarcer
with me than they ever should be with any man of my tastes and
abilities.
In 1911 the Italian savant, Signore E. Teza, published his note, "Quale
fosse la Casata di Andreas Divus Justinopolitanus?" This question I am
unable to answer, nor do I greatly care by what name Andreas was known
in the privacy of his life: Signore Dio, Signore Divino, or even
Mijnheer van Gott may have served him as patronymic. Sannazaro, author
of _De Partu Virginis,_ and also of the epigram ending _hanc et sugere_,
translated himself as Sanctus Nazarenus; I am myself known as Signore
Sterlina to James Joyce's children, while the phonetic translation of my
name into the Japanese tongue is so indecorous that I am seriously
advised not to use it, lest it do me harm in Nippon. (Rendered back _ad
verbum_ into our maternal speech it gives for its meaning, "This picture
of a phallus costs ten yen." There is no surety in shifting personal
names from one idiom to another.)
Justinopolis is identified as Capodistria; what matters is Divus' text.
We find for the "Nekuia" (_Odys_. xi):
"At postquam ad navem descendimus, et mare,
Nauem quidem primum deduximus in mare diuum,
Et malum posuimus et vela in navi nigra:
Intro autem oues accipientes ire fecimus, intro et ipsi
Iuimus dolentes, huberes lachrymas fundentes:
Nobis autem a tergo navis nigræ proræ
Prosperum ventum imisit pandentem velum bonum amicum
Circe benecomata gravis Dea altiloqua.
Nos autem arma singula expedientes in navi
Sedebamus: hanc autem ventusque gubernatorque dirigebat:
Huius at per totum diem extensa sunt vela pontum transientis:
Occidit tunc Sol, ombratæ sunt omnes viæ:
Hæc autem in fines pervenit profundi Oceani:
Illic autem Cimmeriorum virorum populusque civitasque,
Caligine et nebula cooperti, neque unquam ipsos
Sol lucidus aspicit radiis,
Neque quando tendit ad cœlum stellatum,
Neque quando retro in terram a cœlo vertitur:
Sed nox pernitiosa extenditur miseris hominibus:
Navem quidem illuc venientes traximus, extra autem oves
Accepimus: ipsi autem rursus apud fluxum Oceani
Iuimus, ut in locum perveniremus quem dixit Circe:
Hic sacra quidem Perimedes Eurylochusque
Faciebant: ego autem ensem acutum trahens a foemore,
Foveam fodi quantum cubiti mensura hinc et inde:
Circum ipsam autem libamina fundimus omnibus mortuis;
Primum mulso, postea autem dulci vino:
Tertio rursus aqua, et farinas albas miscui:
Multum autem oravi mortuorum infirma capita:
Profectus in Ithicam, sterilem bovem, quæ optima esset,
Sacrificare in domibus, pyramque implere bonis:
Tiresiæ autem seorsum ovem sacrificare vovi
Totam nigram, quæ ovibus antecellat nostris:
Has autem postquam votis precationibusque gentes mortuorum
Precatus sum, oves autem accipiens obtruncavi:
In fossam fluebat autem sanguis niger, congregatasque sunt
Animæ ex Erebo cadaverum mortuorum,
Nymphæque iuvenesque et multa passi senes,
Virginesque teneræ, nuper flebilem animum habentes,
Multi autem vulnerati æreis lanceis
Viri in bello necati, cruenta arma habentes,
Qui multi circum foveam veniebant aliunde alius
Magno clamore, me autem pallidus timor cepit.
Iam postea socios hortans iussi
Pecora, quæ iam iacebant iugulata sævo ære,
Excoriantes combuere: supplicare autem Diis,
Fortique Plutoni, et laudatæ Proserpinæ.
At ego ensem acutum trahens a foemore,
Sedi, neque permisi mortuorum impotentia capita
Sanguinem prope ire, antequam Tiresiam audirem:
Prima autem anima Elpenoris venit socii:
Nondum enim sepultus erat sub terra lata,
Corpus enim in domo Circes reliquimus nos
Infletum et insepultum, quoniam labor alius urgebat:
Hunc quidem ego lachrymatus sum videns, misertusque sum aio,
Et ipsum clamando verba velocia allocutus sum:
Elpenor, quomodo venisti sub caliginem obscuram:
Prævenisti pedes existens quam ego in navi nigra?
Sic dixi: hic autem mini lugens respondit verbo:
Nobilis Laertiade, prudens Ulysse,
Nocuit mihi dei fatum malum, et multum vinum:
Circes autem in domo dormiens, non animadverti
Me retrogradum descendere eundo per scalam longam,
Sed contra murum cecidi ast autem mihi cervix
Nervorum fracta est, anima autem in infernum descendit:
Nunc autem his qui venturi sunt postea precor non præsentibus
Per uxorem et patrem, qui educavit parvum existentem,
Telemachumque quem solum in domibus reliquisti.
Scio enim quod hinc iens domo ex inferni
Insulam in Æaeam impellens benefabricatam navim:
Tunc te postea Rex iubeo recordari mei
Ne me infletum, insepultum, abiens retro, relinquas
Separatus, ne deorum ira fiam
Sed me combure con armis quæcunque mihi sunt,
Sepulchramque mihi accumula cani in litore maris,
Viri infelicis, et cuius apud posteras fama sit:
Hæcque mihi perfice, figeque in sepulchro remum,
Quo et vivus remigabam existens cum meis sociis.
Sic dixit: at ego ipsum, respondens, allocutus sum:
Hæc tibi infelix perficiamque et faciam:
Nos quidem sic verbis respondentes molestis
Sedebamus: ego quidem seperatim supra sanguinem ensem tenebam:
Idolum autem ex altera parte socii multa loquebatur:
Venit autem insuper anima matris mortuæ
Autolyci filia magnanimi Anticlea,
Quam vivam dereliqui iens ad Ilium sacrum,
Hac quidem ego lachrymatus sum videns miseratusque sum aio:
Sed neque sic sivi priorem licet valde dolens
Sanguinem prope ire, antequam Tiresiam audirem:
Venit autem insuper anima Thebani Tiresiæ,
Aureum sceptrum tenens, me autem novit et allocuta est:
Cur iterum o infelix linquens lumen Solis
Venisti, ut videas mortuos, et iniucundam regionem?
Sed recede a fossa, remove autem ensem acutum,
Sanguinem ut bibam, et tibi vera dicam.
Sic dixi: ego autem retrocedens, ensem argenteum
Vagina inclusi: hic autem postquam bibit sanguinem nigrum,
Et tunc iam me verbis allocutus est vates verus:
Reditum quæris dulcem illustris Ulysse:
Hanc autem tibi difficilem faciet Deus, non enim puto
Latere Neptunum, quam iram imposuit animo
Iratus, quem ei filium dilectum excæcasti:
Sed tamen et sic mala licet passi pervenientis,
Si volveris tuum animum continere et sociorum."
The meaning of the passage is, with a few abbreviations, as I have
interpolated it in my Third Canto.
"And then went down to the ship, set keel to breakers,
Forth on the godly sea,
We set up mast and sail on the swart ship,
Sheep bore we aboard her, and our bodies also,
Heavy with weeping; and winds from sternward
Bore us out onward with bellying canvas,
Circe's this craft, the trim-coifed goddess.
Then sat we amidships--wind jamming the tiller--
Thus with stretched sail we went over sea till day's end.
Sun to his slumber, shadows o'er all the ocean,
Came we then to the bounds of deepest water,
To the Kimmerian lands and peopled cities
Covered with close-webbed mist, unpierced ever
With glitter of sun-rays,
Nor with stars stretched, nor looking back from heaven,
Swartest night stretched over wretched men there,
The ocean flowing backward, came we then to the place
Aforesaid by Circe.
Here did they rites, Perimedes and Eurylochus,
And drawing sword from my hip
I dug the ell-square pitkin,
Poured we libations unto each the dead,
First mead and then sweet wine, water mixed with white flour,
Then prayed I many a prayer to the sickly death's-heads,
As set in Ithaca, sterile bulls of the best
For sacrifice, heaping the pyre with goods.
Sheep, to Tiresias only; black and a bell sheep.
Dark blood flowed in the fosse,
Souls out of Erebus, cadaverous dead,
Of brides, of youths, and of much-bearing old;
Virgins tender, souls stained with recent tears,
Many men mauled with bronze lance-heads,
Battle spoil, bearing yet dreary arms,
These many crowded about me,
With shouting, pallor upon me, cried to my men for more beasts.
Slaughtered the herds, sheep slain of bronze,
Poured ointment, cried to the gods,
To Pluto the strong, and praised Proserpine,
Unsheathed the narrow sword,
I sat to keep off the impetuous, impotent dead
Till I should hear Tiresias.
But first Elpenor came, our friend Elpenor,
Unburied, cast on the wide earth,
Limbs that we left in the house of Circe,
Unwept, unwrapped in sepulchre, since toils urged other.
Pitiful spirit, and I cried in hurried speech:
'Elpenor, how art thou come to this dark coast?
Cam'st thou a-foot, outstripping seamen?'
And he in heavy speech:
'Ill fate and abundant wine! I slept in Circe's ingle,
Going down the long ladder unguarded, I fell against the buttress,
Shattered the nape-nerve, the soul sought Avernus.
But thou, O King, I bid remember me, unwept, unburied,
Heap up mine arms, be tomb by sea-board, and inscribed:
"_A man of no fortune and with a name to come._"
And set my oar up, that I swung mid fellows.'
Came then another ghost, whom I beat off, Anticlea,
And then Tiresias, Theban,
Holding his golden wand, knew me and spoke first:
'Man of ill hour, why come a second time,
Leaving the sunlight, facing the sunless dead, and this
joyless region?
Stand from the fosse, move back, leave me my bloody bever,
And I will speak you true speeches.'
And I stepped back,
Sheathing the yellow sword. Dark blood he drank then,
And spoke: 'Lustrous Odysseus
Shalt return through spiteful Neptune, over dark seas,
Lose all companions.' Foretold me the ways and the signs.
Came then Anticlea, to whom I answered:
'Fate drives me on through these deeps. I sought Tiresias,'
Told her the news of Troy. And thrice her shadow
Faded in my embrace."
It takes no more Latin than I have to know that Divus' Latin is not the
Latin of Catullus and Ovid; that it is _illepidus_ to chuck Latin
nominative participles about in such profusion; that Romans did not use
_habentes_ as the Greeks used _ἔχοντες_, etc. And _nos_ in line 53 is
unnecessary. Divus' Latin has, despite these wems, its quality; it is
even singable, there are constant suggestions of the poetic motion; it
is very simple Latin, after all, and a crib of this sort may make just
the difference of permitting a man to read fast enough to get the swing
and mood of the subject, instead of losing both in a dictionary.
Even _habentes_ when one has made up one's mind to it, together with
less obvious exoticisms, does not upset one as
"the steep of Delphos leaving."
One is, of necessity, more sensitive to botches in one's own tongue than
to botches in another, however carefully learned.
For all the fuss about Divus' errors of elegance Samuelis Clarkius and
Jo. Augustus Ernestus do not seem to have gone him much better---with
two hundred years extra Hellenic scholarship at their disposal.
The first Aldine Greek Iliads appeared I think in 1504, Odyssey possibly
later.[4] My edition of Divus is of 1538, and as it contains Aldus' own
translation of the Frog-fight, it may indicate that Divus was in touch
with Aldus in Italy, or quite possibly the French edition is pirated
from an earlier Italian printing. A Latin Odyssey in some sort of verse
was at that time infinitely worth doing.
Raphael of Volterra had done a prose Odyssey with the opening lines of
several books and a few other brief passages in verse. This was printed
with Laurenzo Valla's prose Iliads as early as 1502. He begins:
"Dic mihi musa virum captæ post tempora Troiae
Qui mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes
Multa quoque et ponto passus dum naufragus errat
Ut sibi tum sotiis (sociis) vitam servaret in alto
Non tamen hos cupiens fato deprompsit acerbo."
Probably the source of "Master Watson's" English quantitative couplet,
but obviously not copied by Divus:
"Virum mihi dic musa multiscium qui valde multum
Erravit ex quo Troiae sacram urbem depopulatus est:
Multorum autem virorum vidit urbes et mentem cognovit:
Multos autem hic in mare passus est dolores, suo in animo,
Liberans suamque animam et reditum sociorum."
On the other hand, it is nearly impossible to believe that Clark and
Ernestus were unfamiliar with Divus. Clark calls his Latin crib a
composite "non elegantem utique et venustam, sed ita Romanam, ut verbis
verba." A good deal of Divus' _venustas_ has departed. Clark's
hyphenated compounds are, I think, no more Roman than are some of Divus'
coinage; they may be a trifle more explanatory, but if we read a shade
more of color into _αθέσφατος οἶνος_ than we can into _multum vinum,_ it
is not restored to us in Clark's _copiosum vinum_, nor does _terra
spatiosa_ improve upon _terra lata, εὐρυδείης_ being (if anything more
than _lata_): "with wide ways or streets," the wide ways of the world,
traversable, open to wanderers. The participles remain in
Clark-Ernestus, many of the coined words remain unchanged. Georgius
Dartona gives, in the opening of the second hymn to Aphrodite:
"Venerandam auream coronam habentem pulchram
Venerem
Canam, quae totius Cypri munimenta sortita est
Maritimae ubi illam zephyri vis molliter spirantis
Suscitavit per undam multisoni maris,
Spuma in molli: hanc autem auricurae Horae
Susceperunt hilariter, immortales autem vestes induere:
Capite vero super immortali coronam bene constructam posuere
Pulchram, auream: tribus autem ansis
Donum orichalchi aurique honorabilis:
Collum autem molle, ac pectora argentea
Monilibus aureis ornabant...." etc.
Ernestus, adding by himself the appendices to the Epics,
gives us:
"Venerandam auream coronam habentem pulchram
Venerem
Canam, quae totius Cypri munimenta sortita est
Maritimae, ubi illam zephyri vis molliter spirantis
Tulit per undam multisoni maris
Spuma in molli: hanc autem auro comam religatae Horae
Susceperunt hilariter, immortales autem vestes induere:
Caput autem super immortale coronam bene constructam posuere
Pulchram, auream, perforatis autem auriculis
Donum orichalci preciosi:
Collum autem molle ac pectora Candida[5]
Monilibus aureis ornabant...." etc.
"Which things since they are so" lead us to feel that we would have had
no less respect for Messrs. Clarkius and Ernestus if they had deigned to
mention the names of their predecessors. They have not done this in
their prefaces, and if any mention is made of the sixteenth-century
scholars, it is very effectually buried somewhere in the voluminous
Latin notes, which I have not gone through _in toto_. Their edition
(Glasgow, 1814) is, however, most serviceable.