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languageratherthantoproduceanewGreektextandalsotoshowthecapacity
ofthemodernidiomtoactasavehiclefortheloftyideasofthepast.Talkingat
theliteraryremembranceserviceforAlexandrosPallisin1939,Manolis
Triandafyllidis(1883–1959),aleadingmemberofthesocalled‘Education
Society’andauthorofastatecommissionedgrammarofdemoticGreektobe
publishedin1941,notedhowinallnationsthetranslationoftheancientclassics
oftheparticularliterarytraditionisseenasauniquesourceforrejuvenatingthe
nation’sculture.HelamentedthatforalongtimeinGreecetherehadbeena
lackofwritersabletotranslateandthattherewasatendencytowardsarchaism
andaninsistenceonapureformofthelanguage,whichstifledeveryattemptto
maketheancienttextsavailabletopeopleintheirownmoderntongue.This
explainswhysomanymajorGreekwritersandscholarshaveengagedinthe
translationofancienttextsintothemodernidiom.
Since1526,whenthefirstparaphraseoftheIliadwaspublished,450
translatorshavetranslatedthepoeticworksof425poets(Economouand
Angelinaras1979).Thenumberoftranslatorshasactuallyincreasedinthe
1980sand1990stoincludesomeofthebestscholars,writers,theatredirectors
andcritics:PhanisKakridis,YorgosYatromanolakis,PavlosMatessis,Costas
Tachtsis,DimitrisMaronitisandYorgosHeimonas,amongothers.Pallis(1851–
1935)translatedEuripides,Shakespeare,ThucydidesandevenKantto
demonstratethepossibilityofusingdemoticGreekforsodifficultatext.
However,heismainlyrememberedforhistranslationsoftheGospelsandthe
Iliad.Thelatterwasbothpraisedandcondemned.Heproceededfromthe
assumptionthattheHomericpoemswereapopularcreation,andboldlyturned
theepicintoacontemporarydemotic(folk)song,usingthelanguageandother
featuresoftheGreektraditionalsong.AccordingtoonehistorianofGreek
literature(Politis1973:173),‘thistranslationoftheIliadisperhapsthemost
significantachievementofthegenerationofthefirstdemoticists’.Nikos
KazantzakisandIoannisKakridisalsoproducedatranslationoftheHomeric
epics.Theirefforttoemployversificationandrhythmseasilyrecognizablebythe
laymanfromtherichtraditionofGreekfolksongswasanattempttomakethe
worksavailablebutalsoattractive.Itisalsonoteworthythatafterfourteenyears
ofwork,theydidnothesitatetostateonitspublicationin1962that‘itwasonly
atemporaryformoftranslation’.
Publishingtrends
Translationwasnot,however,limitedtotheintralingualvariety,asabrieflook
atsomerecentstatisticswillshow.ThevarietyoftextstranslatedbyGreek
scholars,clergymen,teachers,doctorsandothersbetweenthesixteenthand
nineteenthcenturiesisquiteimpressive,especiallyinviewoftheunconducive
circumstancesduringtheyearsofTurkishoppression.Zaviras(1972)records
translationsofanamazingnumberofforeignworkswritteninLatin,Arabic,
French,English,German,Russian,Italian,Slavonicandotherlanguages.Thelist
includesagreatvarietyofreligioustextsandphilosophicalworks,mainlyby
AristotleandPlato,andalsoworksbyCicero,Virgil,Plutarch,Cornelius
Nepos,Shakespeare,Descartesandmanyothers.Thereiteratedaimofthe
translatorsistoeducatethesubjugatedGreeks,andlater,following
independence,toshapetheidentityoftheliberatednation.Inadditiontomaking
someofthewealthoftheirheritageavailabletotheircompatriots,Greek
scholarstranslatedworksonastronomy,geography,history,mathematics,law,
physics,arithmetic,geometry,biography,metaphysics,medicine,theology,
philology,psychology,archaeologyandothertopics.Theywereeagerto
transmittheknowledgetheyhadacquiredforthemselvesintheEuropean
countrieswheretheystudiedorworkedorhadmadetheirhomes.
Kassinis(1995)providesstatisticsforpublishedliterarytranslationsinbook
formoverthelastfivecenturies,andthisisindicativeofthehistoryoftranslation
inGreece.Onlyonepublicationisrecordedinthesixteenthcentury,fiveinthe
seventeenth,fiftysevenintheeighteenth,3,000inthenineteenth,2,500
between1901and1950and13,000between1950and1990.Intermsof
literarygenre,theemphasisshiftedfromtheatricalworkstonovelstopoetry.In
theeighteenthcentury,therewere16translationsoftheatricalworks,13
narratives(fiveinverseform),and29worksofpopularliterature.Thenames
thatpredominateinthisperiodof