Translation and Classical Reception

Translation has been central to engagement with the Greek and Roman worlds and their cultures ever since antiquity. The classic, as a concept that defines inseparably the canonical status of these cultures and the modes of reading them, has been mediated by the enterprise of translation. Roman literature and philosophy were not only shaped by translating Greek works, but constructed Greek culture as a classic through the medium of translation. Because of the importance of translations for the understanding and dissemination of Greek and Latin, interest in this field has preoccupied classical scholarship. Yet paradoxically, translation remained until recently under-theorized, restricted to an educational tool for those having no access to the originals. The development of classical reception studies in the 1990s marked a shift in the discipline by bringing translation into the heart of debates about the afterlife of classical antiquity. This new approach was grounded in discussions of translation advanced in the recently formed field of translation studies, but also in a long tradition of philosophical approaches, ranging from hermeneutics to poststructuralism, to a metaphorical concept of translation. Classical scholarship offered a distinct contribution to the above discussions by deploying, but also qualifying, concepts of translation elaborated in the above fields, such as the dismantling of the simple binary opposition between translation and source text, the sociopolitical role of translations, translators’ agency, and the ethics and politics of translation practice. So an increasing number of works illuminate and theorize the seminal role of translations in shaping both the “classical” image of antiquity and its repercussions in the different contexts of its reception. A key contribution of this debate to the wider discussion of translation has been an emphasis on the mutually constitutive relationship between translation and source text, which entails that each of them actively shapes the meaning and cultural identity of the other. This bibliography does not exhaust the multifarious history of modes and practices of translating Greek and Latin texts across time. Nor does it reflect on problems pertaining to the practice of translating. However, it includes tools for the study of translation practice in history (bibliographies, reference works, databases), which feature more extensive bibliographical information. The bibliography’s key focus is on concepts and frameworks deployed for debating translations as historically-specific works that interpret the classics in terms that are multiply intertwined with the ethical, aesthetic, social, and political debates of their time.