The Tension of Phi l ol ogy and

Phi l osophy in the Translations of

Henri Estienne
KENNETH LLOYD-JONES
This article considers the translations from Greek to Latin of the Renaissance humani st
and philologist Henri Estienne (Stephanus). It argues that Estienne's philological approach
to translation stems from his conviction that ideation occurs beyond the formalized struc-
tures of articulation. This understanding of the tension between t hought and language,
paralleling the tension between philosophy and rhetoric, governs Estienne' s translative
priorities. His translations of some Greek historians, philosophers and poets are studied,
as well as one of Estienne's own renderings of Propertius into Greek. Conclusion: we know
only through interpretation, and for Estienne, philology is the prerequisite for philosophy.
Sed aliud est imitari, aliud interpretari . . . .
(H. Estienne, Moschi, Bionis, Theocriti . . . Idyllia, 1555).
I
n 1569, Henr i Est i enne publ i s hed hi s t r ansl at i ons of a n u mb e r of sententiae he ha d
chosen f r om t he Gr eek comi c aut hor s. 1 In j ust i f yi ng hi s sel ect i on, he not es:
Ant i qui ssi mae sunt, quae proprie, quanvis omnibus idem si t nomen, Sententiae
vocantur, quas Graeci rvo~l~a appellant. Ut runque aut em nomen ex eo acceperunt,
quod similes sunt consiliis aut decretis. Est autem haec vox universalis, quae etiam
citra compl exum causae possit esse laudabilis. (fol. 202
At t he hear t of t hi s l ast di st i nct i on lies t he key to Est i enne' s u n d e r s t a n d i n g of t he
anci ent res-verba pr obl em, a nd t hus of t he nat ur e of l a ngua ge itself. He par t i t i ons t he
i ssues be t we e n t he "vox universalis" (in whi c h i deat i on ma y be t aken to occur wi t hout
a ny r educt i on ei t her to cat egori es of t hought or to a ny par t i cul ar l i ngui st i c f or mul a-
tion), and t he "causa" (the par t i cul ar i zed occasi on of t he i deat i on, a nd t her eby t he for-
mal i zed s t r uct ur e of its art i cul at i on). Such a di st i nct i on, i nvol vi ng t he essent i al b o n d
1. Comicorum Graecorum Sententiae, id est I~vr~l~aL, Latinis versibus ab Henr. Stephano redditae, &
annotationibus illustratae... (Geneva: H. Estienne, 1569 [Biblioth6que Nationale, Paris: Yb
5217]).
2. Quotations are generally provided verbatim, but in one or two cases silent corrections have
been made: these are limited to obvious printing errors, or in order to bring breathings and
accentuation in the Greek into line wi t h modem typographical practice.
Kennet h Ll oyd- Jones, Depar t ment of Mo d e r n La ngua ge s a nd Li t er at ur e, Tr i ni t y Col -
lege, Har t f or d, Connect i cut 06106.
International Journal of the Classical Tradition, Vol. 1, No. 1, Summer 1994, pp. 36-51.
Lloyd-Jones 37
b e t we e n t hought a nd l anguage, can be al i gned wi t h t he l i nk b e t we e n p h i l o s o p h y a nd
r het or i c, exempl i f i ed i n Ci cer o' s r e qui r e me nt t hat t her e mus t a l wa ys be gener al i ssues
be hi nd t he " c i r c u ms t a n t i a e " of a ny gi ven " c aus a. "3 As wi t h t he n o u me n o n a nd t he
p h a i n o me n o n , uni ver s al pr i nci pl es t r ans cend speci f i c cases, a nd not i onal t hought ma y
be c ons i de r e d to ha ve bei ng i n d e p e n d e n t l y of t he par t i cul ar l i ngui st i c f or m of its
ut t er ance.
In pos i t i ng t hat t hought is uni ver sal , a nd t he r e by di st i nct f r om t he wo r d s us e d to
expr es s it, Est i enne l eads us, of cour se, t o t he c r ux of t he di l e mma t hat has gener al l y
char act er i zed Wes t er n r ef l ect i on on t he r el at i ons hi p of t hought a nd l anguage. Ho w
" p u r e " can our t hought r e ma i n ( how " good, " h o w " wi s e" ) wh e n we " t r ans l at e" it
f r om i deat i on to ar t i cul at i on? Ho w can t r ut h wi t hs t a nd o u r s peaki ng it? 4 The pur pos e of
t hi s art i cl e is t o e xa mi ne h o w t he edi t or i al a n d t r ans l at i ve pr act i ces of t he f or e mos t
Hel l eni s t a nd one of t he gr eat est huma ni s t s of hi s d a y s r e s p o n d t o t he fact t hat , si nce
o u r onl y access t o i deas ( t hose of ot her s, at l east ) is t h r o u g h wor ds , t he shi f t f r om one
di s cour s e to a not he r is a ma t t e r of wo r d s be f or e it is a ma t t e r of i deas. No t h i n g was
mor e f unda me nt a l to t he huma ni s t ve ne r a t i on of phi l ol ogy, nor e ve n pe r ha ps t o mu c h
of t he Renai ssance a ppr oa c h to t he anci ent wor l d, t han t he r eal i zat i on t hat i f t o s ay is
to mean, to s ay a ne w is t o me a n anew.
Recour s e t o s uch mat t er s as e t y mo l o g y a n d hi st or i cal cont ext as keys to unde r -
s t a ndi ng t he Gr eek s e n t e n t i a e in t hei r ne w gar b exempl i f i es Es t i enne' s de e p convi ct i on
t hat t he sol ut i on, if any, is t o be f ound at t he l evel of t he wo r d s t hems el ves , a c onc e r n
t hat is r ef l ect ed i n t he vol ume ' s ve r y title: Co mi c o r u m g r a e c o r u m Se nt e nt i ae , i d e s t Fv6~tc~t,
Lat i ni s v e r s i bus ab He n r . S t e p h a n o reddi t ae, & a n n o t a t i o n i b u s i l l us t r at ae . . . . The r eveal i ng
pr es ence of a wo r d set i n Gr e e k f ont ser ves t o s ymbol i z e Es t i enne' s f ocus on l exi cal
pr eci si on, i dent i f yi ng hi s pr act i ce of t r ans l at i on as bot h a l i ngui st i c obl i gat i on t owa r d
t he a ut hor i t y of t he s our ce l anguage, a nd a c onc e pt ua l ser vi ce r e n d e r e d to, a nd s ha pe d
by, t he t ar get l a ngua ge ' s i nher ent i nsuf f i ci enci es. Thi s pr act i ce is e xe mpl i f i e d mo r e
f ul l y i n hi s ha ndl i ng of a coupl et f r om t he f r a gme nt s of Alexis:
06K i~O'ttV 06"re xeiXog, o6"re Xprilactxa
oa31:' d~L~o 8vod~a3kc~n'rov oa361~v d3g yvv~. (p. 9)
3. In the De oratore (II. 133--41), Cicero criticizes those who fail to see this crucial link, and his
remarks on forensic strategy are intended to be equally applicable both to rhetorical under-
takings in general and to philosophical inquiry itself: " Nam etsi i ncur r unt tempora et personae,
tamen intellegendum est, non ex eis, sed ex genere quaestionis pendere causas" (II. 139).
4. Aristotle (Sophistical Refutations, 168.A. 35--169. B. 1: Topica et Sophistici Elenchi, ed. W.D. Ross,
[Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958], p. 204) clearly doubt ed that it could. Plato, on the ot her
hand, seemed quite sure of the congruence of t hought and speech when he asked, in the
Sophist, " . . . are not thought and speech the same--except that the silent, inner dialogue
that the soul has with itself, this itself is named ' t hought ' by us?": Plato's Sophist, 263.E, ed-
ited and translated by William S. Cobb (Savage, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 1990), p. 108.
5. For general information, see Louis Cl6ment, Henri Estienne et son ceuvrefrancaise (Paris: Picard,
1898) and Henri Estienne (Cahiers V.-L. Saulnier no. 5 Collection de I'E.N.S.J.F., no. 43, Paris:
Presses de l'Ecole Normale Sup6rieure de Jeunes Fiiles, 1988). For an introduction to the
matters discussed here, see also J. B. Trapp, "The Conformi t y of Greek and the Vernacular:
the History of a Renaissance Theory of Languages," in Classical Influences on European Cul -
ture, A. D. 500-1500, ed. R. R. Bolger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971), pp.
239--44.
38 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / Summer 1994
This typical piece of comedi c mi s ogyny is t hen t ransl at ed, and t he t ransl at i on itself
fol l owed by a second version:
INTERP.
Nul l i us arcis, nullius pecuniae
Custodia aeque difficilis quam foeminae.
VEL SIC
Muni men omne, quae libet pecunia
Cust odi unt ur facilius quam foemina. (p.9)
Such provi si on of an al t ernat e t ransl at i on underscores t he i nnat e inability of the t arget
l anguage to sustain direct equi val ency wi t h t he source. The first versi on adheres closely
to t he original t hought order, as muc h as di fferi ng synt ax allows, and endeavor s to
mai nt ai n t he forceful charact er of t he Greek ( embodi ed in no less t han six el ement s of
negation, i ncl udi ng the negat i ng prefix 6~o-) by t he hi ghl i ght i ng of t he emphat i c
adjective "nul l us. " The epi gr ammat i c qual i t y of t he Gr eek is mai nt ai ned by suppres-
sion of all verb-forms in the Latin, but t he terseness of t he adjective ~oq~hKaKTo(~) is lost
in t he t wo-part " c us t odi a. . . difficilis," and no provi si on is made for t he t hi rd cat egor y
of unprot ect abl e things that provi des the Gr eek wi t h its el ement of uni versal reference,
~ . o . On t he ot her hand, t he t hrust of t he maxi m is pr eser ved by ar r angi ng to have
t he epi gr ammat i c barb of t he Latin cor r espond to that of t he Greek, t hr ough mai nt ai n-
i ng " woman" as the final word.
The second versi on reveals a di fferent appr oach to t he i ssue of replicability. The
absence of all negat i ng el ement s in the Latin t ransforms what mi ght be seen as t he
comi c despai r of t he Greek into a decl arat i ve t ype of general verity, in whi ch t he
br oadl y referential "quae libet" echoes G~.~.o, al t hough its act ual reference is l i mi t ed to
"pecunia." Potentially emphat i c comi c t one is repl aced by one of mor e st at el y uni versal
assertion: the di st ract i ng "aeque" of the first versi on is mor e succi nct l y absorbed into
the comparat i ve adverb "facilius," itself made possible by recourse to an original verb-
form whi ch, in conj unct i on wi t h its adverb, neat l y handl es t he pr obl em of the densi t y
of t he Greek "unprot ect abl e. "
Taken together, t hese t wo versi ons reveal Est i enne' s under s t andi ng of t he ten-
sions that beset any sensitive t r ansl at or - - t he bal anci ng of obligations to source and tar-
get, lexicon and concept, semantics and rhetoric. Faced wi t h t he et ernal l y elusive ques-
tion of what constitutes "good" translation, Est i enne falls back on t he sol ut i on of
Solomon, and moves to di vi de t he i nfant in half. The first t ransl at i on bespeaks pr i mar y
allegiance to the initial el ement in t hese pairs of categories (source, lexicon, semantics),
wher eas t he alternative translation seeks mor e to honor t he needs of t he second (tar-
get, concept, rhetoric). As a translative strategy, such r ecour se to bi furcat i on echoes t he
di l emmas previ ousl y del i neat ed: whi l e translations are sur el y possible, t ransl at i on
mi ght not be.
To furt her explore the probl ems that arise when t heor y is conf r ont ed by practice,
we shall now consi der how t hese issues are refl ect ed in some of Est i enne' s t ransl at i ons
f r om the separat e genres of orat ory, phi l osophy and poet ry. Both his popul ar i zi ng
concerns as a humani st publ i sher (balancing civic commi t ment wi t h commerci al pur -
poses), and his engagement as a scholar (for whom t ransl at i on pr ovi des t he oppor t u-
ni t y for linguistic and textual emendat i on and exegesis), are for exampl e evi dent in his
1570 edi t i on of a number of Greek and Latin oratorical works, the title of whi ch ful l y
Lloyd-Jones 39
i l l u s t r a t e s hi s a t t r a c t i o n t o t r a n s l a t i o n a s a t ool f or p h i l o l o g i c a l e d i t i n g : Conci ones sive
Or at i ones ex Graeci s Lat i ni s que hi st ori ci s excerpt ae. Quae ex Graecis excerpt ae s u n t ,
i nt erpret at i onem Lat i nam adi unct am habent, nonnul l ae novam, aliae iam ant ea vul gat am, sed
nunc de mum plerisque in locis recognitam. 6 Es t i e n n e ' s La t i n v e r s i o n o f t h e o r a t i o n o f
S a n d a n i s ( He r o d o t u s , 1.71), a d v i s i n g C r o e s u s n o t t o g o t o w a r a g a i n s t t he P e r s i a n s ,
wi l l i l l us t r a t e Es t i e n n e ' s t r a n s l a t i v e t act i cs w h e n f a c e d wi t h t he d e m a n d s of o r a t o r i c a l
s t yl e:
" S c i n ' t u v e r o r e x a d v e r s u s qual e
h o mi n u m g e n u s expedi t i onem pares?
Qui bus suae braccae, coriaceae, caetera
quoque vest i ment a, coriacea s unt : qui
non qui bus vol unt , cibis, sed quos sua
illis aspera regio suppedi t at , vescunt ur:
qui vi no mi ni me ut unt ur , sed aquae s u n t
potores: qui ne f i cus qui dem habent quas
esi t ent : q u i b u s de ni que ni hi l r e r u m
bonarum est. Hos si qui dem superaveris,
qui d eis eripies, q u u m ni hi l possi deant ?
si n ab iis superat us f ueri s, quot bonorum
iacturam clades ea tibi allatura sit, t ecum
reputato. Qu u m eni m semel bona nostra
gus t av e r i nt , ita illis adhaerescant ut
avel l i nul l a r at i one pos s i nt . A d me
qui dem certe quod at t i net , diis habebo
grat i am quod Persarum ani mi s n u l l u m
suscipiendi expedi t i onem adversus Lydos
desi deri um i n d u n t . " (p. 3)
" " Q 13c~otXe~, ~n' ~tvbpetg x o t o 6 x o v g
oxpa ' t e a Se o0c t t x 0 ~p c t o Ke v d ~s a t , o'~
oKv ' t [ v ag pt~v d v a ~ v p [ S a g , oraax[VrlV
8~ x~lv dkZ. r l v ~ o 0 f i ' r a ~ o p ~ o v o t "
ot x~ovxct t 8~ oa3K boot ~0~Lovot , dkZ.'
b o a ~ X o v o t , Xc6prl v ~ Xo v x s g
xpr l Xe ~r l v, r l p 6 g 8g o 6 K o[ v~9
8taXp~0Jv' rat, &L~& abbponox~ovot , 0 6
oa3Kct 6~ ~ Xo s o t xp~b~,etv, o6K &hko
d , / 0 t 0 b v oa3b~v. Toa3"ro bt~v 8r], e~,
v t Kr i o a g , x~ o ~ a g d ma t p f i o s a t , xoi o~
~oxt ~trlS~V; Toa3xo 8~, ~ v vtKrl0fig,
~t dOs 8 o a d y o t Od d ~o j 3 o t X~e t g .
F e v o d ~ t e v o ~ "dp xo3v r~l xex~pt ov
&Tct0~v n s p t ~ o v x a t , o138~ dm0o' t o' t
~o o v x a ~. ' Ey 0 b g~v vary 0eo~o~ [Xco
x d p ~ v , o'~ o 6 K ~x~ v d o v xot ea3o~
Fl ~porl Ot oxp0t xe6eo0ct t ~ ' t AvSoa3g."
A c o mp a r i s o n wi t h t he or i gi na l s h o w s h o w Es t i e n n e ' s e f f o r t s a t r e p l i c a t i o n h a v e b e e n
s h a p e d b y c o n s i d e r a t i o n s o f a p p r o p r i a t e r h e t o r i c a l ef f ect . Th e c l a u s a l a n d p e r i o d i c
s t r u c t u r e o f t h e Gr e e k i s f o l l o we d c l o s e l y i n t he La t i n, a s i s t h e u r g e n t , p l a i n - s p o k e n
s t yl e , wh i c h is e s s e n t i a l t o t h e e f f e c t Sa n d a n i s , o r mo r e p r o p e r l y H e r o d o t u s , i s s e e k i n g
( si nce o n e of hi s p u r p o s e s is t o c o n t r a s t " t h e s i mp l i c i t y o f t h e e a r l y P e r s i a n s " w i t h hi s
o w n t i me s , i n t h e c o u r s e of wh i c h " t h e P e r s i a n s h a d b e c o m e n o t o r i o u s f o r l u x u r y ' 7 ) .
6. Geneva: H. Estienne, 1570 [Bib. Nat., Paris X 1760]. Not all of t he t ransl at i ons are b y Estienne,
but t he correct i ons are, as he makes sure we realize wi t h his r emar k on t he excerpt s he
pr ovi des from t he first b o o k of Thucydi des: "eadem Latine, ex interpretatione Laurentii Vallae
ab Henr. Stephano nonnullis in locis recognita" (p. 55). The phi l ol ogi cal funct i on of t ransl at i on
emerges from Est i enne' s i nsert i on into t he Latin of a n u mb e r of correct i ons br ought to
Valla' s fi ft eent h-cent ury r eadi ng of t he original, b u t it is not onl y a mat t er of r ect i f yi ng
mi sunder st andi ngs: t he f r equent parent het i cal "aliquot in locis," offered as j ust i fi cat i on for a
numbe r of emendat i ons, i ndi cat es once mor e t he use of t ransl at i on as a means of expl or i ng
variants, and t hus of st abi l i zi ng t he source text. Similarly, Est i enne capitalizes on t he use of
translation as gloss; the expressi on x& ~t~v ' Oxdvrlg e~xe x~13ctwtSa nct6orv ( Her odot us, III. 81),
for exampl e, occasi ons t he move from t ransl at i on to expl anat i on: "Ea quidem quae Otanes ad
abolendam tyrranidem (id est unius dominatum) pertinentia dixit . . . " (Est i enne' s italics: p. 8).
7. W.W. Ho w and J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus (Oxford: Cl ar endon Press, 1912), vol. 1,
p. 92.
40 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / Summer 1994
Estienne has in fact sought to preserve the characteristics of oratio media, wi t h regul ar cola
rat her t han al t ernat i ng l ong and short ones, whi ch mi ght bri ng t oo much var i et y to the
tone, and t hus go against the sense of smoot hness ai med for in "t he mi ddl e style. " But
he also makes certain translative choices that i ndi cat e his desi re to st ress t he effects of
the original. The openi ng sentence of the Latin, for exampl e, is cast as a rhetorical
quest i on, wher eas the Gr eek is a pl ai n st at ement of fact; the Latin st ruct ure Est i enne
has chosen then enabl es hi m to gain effect from t he cont rast bet ween the openi ng
dramat i c gest ure and t he subsequent references to such munda ne mat t er s as l eat her
breeches and figs. The fidus interpres is not a servile parrot , but one wh o br i ngs ele-
ment s of his own inventio to the translation, in har mony wi t h the affective nor ms of the
target language. The t ransl at i on as a whol e reveal s a concern for t hose qual i t i es of
facultas and aequalitas, whi ch epi t omi ze the most appr eci at ed feat ures of t he oratio me-
dia, reflecting the Ci ceroni an i dea of t ransl at i on as an ent erpri se i nvol vi ng the skills of
the orator at least as much as, and i ndeed, per haps mor e than, t hose of t he interpres (De
optimo genere oratorum, 14).
As Est i enne' s versi on shows, and as Cicero sur el y i nt ended, this is an appr oach
that has its origin in the stylistic qual i t y of the decus (initially the not i on of appr opr i at e-
ness of genre to subject mat t er, and t her eby of f or m t o content, mor e br oadl y under -
stood). It is t herefore apt t hat Estienne shoul d r epr esent Gr eek or at or y wi t h the nor ms
of Latin or at or y here. But t here is mor e to it t han that: in di rect i ng t he interpres t owar d
the role of the orator, Cicero grant s great er l eeway t o t he t ransl at or' s inventio t han a
philologist like Estienne mi ght fi nd comfort abl e. Indeed, "oratorical t ransl at i on" risks
pushi ng the target versi on t owar d that danger ous area wher e inventio (the di scover y of
argument s) bl ends into elocutio (the style in whi ch the ar gument s are made), and if we
reflect on the fact that one Gr eek t erm for elocutio was in fact ~p~trlV~tct, (al t hough, of
course, mor e usual l y K~ ) , the pr obl em is i mmedi at el y apparent : t he phi l ol ogi cal
translator must seek to convey what the original says, not to expat i at e on what it
ul t i mat el y means--but that is a distinction t hat our need to rel y on wor ds effect i vel y
deni es us. It is of course preci sel y at this poi nt t hat t he rhetorical di mensi ons of trans-
lation reveal bot h the posi t i ve and the negat i ve in the pr obl em of br i ngi ng el oquence
to bear on our at t empt s at replication. If the or at or ' s obl i gat i on to inventio is seen as
less a mat t er of original, creative thinking t han the appeal to est abl i shed and cat ego-
rized st ruct ures of argument at i on, t hen it may be l i kened to the t ransl at or' s obl i gat i on
to the original, as somet hi ng al r eady in pl ace and to whi ch the repl i cat ed ver si on is
behol den. Similarly, if the rhetorical val ue of elocutio lies in its expl oi t at i on as an
i magi nat i ve hermeneut i c, t hen it in t ur n ma y be l i kened to the t ransl at or' s effort to
bri ng into bei ng t hat whi ch ot herwi se woul d remai n uns a i d- - a nd that is the pr obl em
in a nutshell. As we shall now see, much of Est i enne' s ener gy is in fact devot ed, as a
philologist, to rei ni ng in t he t ransl at or' s drift t owar d inventio and elocutio.
Issues of style must yi el d to issues of connot at i onal accuracy, for exampl e, whe n
it comes to translating phi l osophi cal texts. Here, there are i nevi t abl y great er chal l enges
to the need for philological precision, part i cul arl y whe n the t hought is expr essed in
syntactical and morphol ogi cal forms whi ch, t hough characteristic of t he sour ce lan-
guage, are wi t hout direct equi val ent in the t arget l anguage. Est i enne' s st rat egi es are
clearly in evi dence in his edi t i on and t ransl at i on of t he wri t i ngs of Sext us Empi ri cus. 8
8. This publication was to have extensive influence on the subsequent development of Neo-
Scepticism, and it is difficult to imagine what the writings of thinkers ranging from Montaigne
Lloyd-Jones 41
Once more, the vol ume' s title engages us di rect l y in Est i enne' s t ransl at i ve emphasi s on
phi l ol ogy at the service of di dact i ci sm and phi l osophy: Sexti Philosophi Pyrrhoniarum
hypotypoJsecon libri III, Quibus in tres philosophiae partes severissime inquiritur: Libri magno
ingenii acumine scripti, variaque doctrina referti: Graece numquam, Latine nunc pri mum editi,
Interprete Henrico Stephano (Geneva: H. Estienne, 1562 [Bib. Nat., Paris: R 9320]). Her e
again, the care taken to ensure t hat translation mi srepresent not hi ng in t he original is
ext ended to the t ypogr aphy itself, wi t h Est i enne' s i nsert i on of a Gr eek charact er into
what is itself not a Latin t ransl at i on of the Gr eek term, but si mpl y its transliteration:
. . hypotypcosecon Libri III . . . . 9 Of necessity, translation, whet her of t hought , wor d, or
even of t ypographi cal character, alters, and alteration is t he first st ep al ong the pat h to
mi srepresent at i on.
In its ant i dogmat i c stance, emphasi zi ng the need for clear distinctions to be dr awn
bet ween what we may take for certain and what we ma y put in doubt , scepticism
requi res the most careful at t ent i on to wor di ng. Philip Hal l i e under scor es t he relation-
shi p of l anguage and t hought t hat such an appr oach implies: "The ul t i mat e pur pos e of
Scepticism is to make doubt i ng unnecessary, to let the cust oms of our count ry, our
needs for f ood and dr i nk and so forth, and our plain everyday speech t ake over the direc-
tion of our t hought and life after the doubt i ng is done" (emphasi s added) . 1 There are
f ew mor e pot ent symbol s of bal anced sceptical thinking, as Mont ai gne was to dis-
cover, t han the set of scales r epr esent i ng the refusal to enact an unsubst ant i at ed j udg-
ment , and Estienne' s t reat ment of the wor d Ea~Xco (Out l i nes of Pyrrhoni sm I. xxii) is
part i cul arl y striking. In a sense, he s us pends his own j udgment here, by not pr ovi di ng
a Latin equi val ent ; rather, he settles for pri nt i ng the wor d in its unador ned Gr eek
form, and then al l owi ng his ver si on of Sext us' s own gl oss to st and in for the mi ssi ng
translation:
Sumi mus autem ~r~xco pro eo quod est, Non possum dicere cui ex iis [sc. imaginibus,
sententiis] fidem adhibere . . . . (p. 51)
It is in this context of j udgment hel d i n abeyance that sceptical t hi nki ng exploits t he
subt l et i es of the particles of negat i on in Greek: "Sceptical doubt is not denial; it is t he
suspensi on of j udgment , the refusal to assert and the refusal to deny. The Sceptic says,
' Ouden mallon,' ' No mor e l i kel i hood t hat this is t rue t han that is t r ue' " (Hallie, p. 9:
9.
10.
to Wittgenstein would have been, had not Estienne's versions of the primary texts been
published Richard Popkin aptly draws out the consequences for Western philosophy of
Estienne's work: "By uncovering the temerity of dogmatism, [he] discovered the dangers of
philosophers trying to judge all matters, and especially theological ones, by their own
standards" (The History of Scepticism form Erasmus to Descartes, Assen: Van Gorcum & Co.,
1960, p. 35). Rarely can the syncretic aspects of humanist translation have been so far-
reaching
Although somewhat uncommon, the insertion of Greek font, and on occasion Greek punc-
tuation, into Roman type is found elsewhere in Renaissance printing: see Robert Proctor,
The Printing of Greek in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford: The University Press, 1900) For those
interested in reading Renaissance Greek, the typesetting of which is often daunting to
modern eyes, William H. Ingram's excellent "The Ligatures of Early Printed Greek," Greek,
Roman and Byzantine Studies, 7 (1966), pp. 371-89, is highly recommended
Scepticism, Man and God: Selections from the Major Writings of Sextus Empiricus, ed. and intro.,
Philip P. Hallie, trans. Sanford G. Etheridge (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1964),
p. 7.
42 International Journal of the Classical Tradition/Summer 1994
original emphasis). Estienne remains true to the declaration of intent in his Annotationes,
"in quibus etiam de quarundam philosophicarum vocum interpretatione agit," as he grapples
with the translation of the various components of the question, u Clearly, for Estienne,
the requirement of interpretation here demands suppressing to the maxi mum any
attraction toward elocutio. Stressing the fact that the sceptic avoids dogmatizing (Out-
lines, I. vii), Sextus discusses the various formulae of doubt and nonassertion, and
Estienne translates part of this section as follows:
. . . quum voces Skeptikae institutionis pronunciat, ni mi rum vel hanc o~)~kv
i~6XXov, id est Nihilo magis: aut illam o~Skv 6pinto, id est Nihil di f i ni o. . , ut
haec vox, Omnia sunt falsa: cum aliis etiam se ipsam falsam esse dicit. Item illa,
Nihil est verum: eodem modo & hanc, Nihilo magis, cure aliis etiam seipsam dicere
nihil magis esse, & propterea una cure aliis se circumscribere (emphasis in origi-
nal: p. 12).
Such privileging of the Greek in the heart of the translation represents as much a tacit
acknowledgment of the latter's potential inadequacy as of the importance of the origi-
nal. The crucial formula o66~v 6p~o~, "I define nothing" (developed in Outlines, I.
xxiii), calls in fact for special attention on Estienne' s part. Sextus writes:
About the formula "I determine nothing," we have the following to say. We
believe that to determine means not simply to state something, but to bring
forward and to give assent to a view about a thing which is non-evident . . . . 12
Estienne gives:
De hac autem voce, o~)~kv 6pi~o, id est nihil definio, aut certo statuo, dicimus
huiusmodi. 6pi~etv, esse putamus, non simpliciter dicere aliquid, sed rem incertam
pronuntiare cure assensu . . . . (p. 51)
Here, not only is the Greek once more provided as a control on the Latin, but an
alternative translation is provided, one which, using a syntactically contrary approach,
actually interprets its predecessor: by turning the Greek one way (negatively) and then
another way (affirmatively), Estienne clearly endeavors to ensure that all possible
meanings are covered in the Latin. In his critical apparatus at the end of the volume,
he then goes on to develop this issue:
. . . 6pi~co vertere possumus definio, ad verbum, modo accipiamus definio in ea
signifi'catione qua M. Tullius definitum & certum, item definitum & constitutum
copulat. (p. 275)
11. Fran~oise Joukovsky, "Le Commentaire d'Henri Estienne aux Hypotyposes de Sextus
Empiricus," in Henri Estienne (see n. 5 above), pp. 129-45, aptly comments: "Ces discussions sur
les roots ont une fonction multiple: permettre ~ l'~diteur de corriger un manuscrit fautif, justifier sa
traduction latine, et surtout comprendre le Pyrrhonisme en confrontant diff&ents t~moignages." (p.
132)
12. "About the formula 'I determine nothing,' we have the following to say. We believe that to
determine means not simply to state something, but to bring forward and to give assent to a
view about a thing which is non-evident... " (translation by Etheridge [see n. 10 above], p.
83).
Lloyd-Jones 43
A f ur t he r c ompl e x el ement is t hus i n t r o d u c e d i nt o t he i ssue of h o w t he t ar get t ext
cont r ol s t he s our ce text, i n t hat t he a ppe a l to Ci cer oni an a ut hor i t y is n o w t h r o u g h t he
me d i u m of Ci cer oni an t r ansl at i on. Even Ci cer o was obl i ged t o of f er mo r e t ha n one
ver s i on of t he t ar get l anguage, a nd t hus cl assi cal pr e c e de nt is es t abl i s hed f or Est i enne' s
o wn f r e que nt r ecour s e t o dual ver s i ons i n or de r to c ove r t he s our ce mat er i al to t he
fullest.
Fe w t e r ms of s cept i c p h i l o s o p h y c ont a i n as mu c h c o mp l e x i t y as t he ve r b
q~ctvzd~o0ctt a nd its der i vat i ves, essent i al t o t he epi s t emol ogi cal bases of o u r cer t ai n-
ties a nd doubt s . Ref er r i ng to Sext us' s use of q~(xv'ccto~ctv ( Ou t l i n e s , I. vii), whi c h he
t r ansl at es as p h a n t a s i a m (p. 12), Es t i enne c omme nt s :
Graecam vocem phant as i am r et i nui , n o n quod nesci rem quomodo earn v e r t a t Cicero,
s ed n e q u i s i n a mb i g u i t a t e voci s La t i n a e f a l l e r e t u r . N a m v i s u m, q u o Ci cer o
( ~ a w : a a i a v reddi t , alia quoque s i gni f i car e s c i mus . Q u u m a u t e m var i i s i n Iocis
i nt e r pr e t e t ur v i s u m, al i cubi t a me n v i s i o n e m et i am v e r t i t i n Luc ul l o. 13 (p. 248)
He goes on t o de ve l op t he ques t i on f or sever al pa r a gr a phs , a nd concl udes :
A t ego ( ~ a v ~ o l ~ a t hi s i n Iocis exponer e mal i m apparere q u a m v i de r i . . . . Ho c
t a me n negare ne mo possi t : ~ a l v o ~ t a t (si v e r b u m verbo e x p r i me n d u m s i t ) pot i us
esse appareo q u a m cernor, seu vi deor. (p. 249)
The par ent het i cal " v e r bum verbo" is cr uci al , f or it r eveal s bot h t he es s ence of Es t i enne' s
pur pos e s a nd his r es er vat i ons as t o t hei r at t ai nabi l i t y. If t he t r ans l at i ve i deal is t o al t er
as little as possi bl e i n t he cour s e of t he t r ansl at i on, it wo u l d s eem t hat wo r d f or wo r d
t r ansl at i on wo u l d be t he safest; but wo r d s f er r y i deas, a nd si nce " i de a f or i dea" t r ans-
l at i on i ne vi t a bl y i nvol ves (at best ) a ppr oxi ma t i on, t he i deal r e ma i ns el usi ve. 14 In
Est i enne' s hands , t r ans l at i on be c ome s a me a ns of r es t or i ng t he pr i s t i ne qual i t i es of
mat er i al t hat t he pas s age of t i me, l i ke all ot he r ki nds of t r a ns f or ma t i on, has al t er ed.
Ti me s ur el y des t r oys , as t he huma ni s t s fel t all t oo s t r ongl y. The h u ma n sci ence of
phi l ol ogy, howe ve r , pr ovi de s a me a n s of r est i t ut i on, a nd t hat is not wi t h o u t its vi ct or i -
ous si de. No r s houl d we f or get t hat , if p h i l o s o p h y r eveal s t hat it is t he pr obl e ma t i c
nat ur e of l a ngua ge to conf er a pr i or i af f i r mat i on on t he v e r y t hi ng wh o s e na t ur e we
seek to quer y, phi l ol ogy br i ngs us t he wi s d o m t o keep it all i n pr opor t i on: as Es t i enne
t eases his f r i end He nr i c us Me mmi u s i n t he l i mi nar y epi st l e,
13.
14.
Estienne' s reference is no doubt to Cicero' s Academica, where (I. 40) he speaks of Zeno' s idea
of "[a sort of impact offered from outside] quam ille q~ctwracrlav, nos vi sum appellemus licet . . . . "
Further allusions may be found in II. 8 and II. 111, for example. For those interested in the
linguistic dimensions of Cicero' s approach to translating Greek, a topic of much interest to
humanists like Estienne, Roland Poncelet' s Cic&on Traducteur de Platon (Paris: E. de Boccard,
1957), is a difficult but invaluable tool.
As Jean Irigoin intimates, Estienne underst ands the full i mport of the fact that we cannot
talk about language without recourse to the very tool we should not be using: " . . . la traduction
rivdle le scepticisme original, celui de Pyrrhon, t ourni vers la recherche de la sagesse, t out diff&ent
du scepticisme des Nouveaux Acadimiciens, ni gat eur de la philosophie . . . . Il fallait la vaste i rudi t i on
d' un Henri Estienne pour se lancer clans une pareille entreprise oh la recheche du l angage--l a
sceptica l oquendi forma--l e sddui t par "cette dalliance envers ce que le langage i mpl i que
d'affirmations i~ priori." Jean Irigoin, "Conclusion" (Henri Estienne . . . . pp. 157--63: see n. 5
above), p. 162; his quotation is from Joukovsky (ibid., p. 133).
44 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / Summer 1994
Quid? (dices statim, s i t e bene novi), modestiane quadam & verecundia hoc facis,
ut tuum hunc libellum nugas appelles . . . . Hic libellus seriane tractat, an nugas?
~z~XW. Ad hoc saltem responde, Estne philosophicum eius argumentum? o~
pcavc~al~fldvco. Age, quid definitum constitutumque tibi de illo est? o66kv 6plOw.
Tr ans l at i on of poe t r y br i ngs us back t o i ssues of r het or i c, si nce t he chal l enge to
o v e r c o me l i ngui st i c r ecal ci t r ance is n o w c ompl i c a t e d b y t he ne e d t o r e pr e s e nt t he
mor e st r i ct l y f or mal qual i t i es of t he ori gi nal . I n or de r f or t he pr oces s t o be f ul l y moni -
t or ed, mor e t han one i nt e r me di a r y ver s i on ma y be b r o u g h t f or wa r d her e t oo, a nd bot h
s our ce a nd t ar get mus t a l wa ys be kept in vi ew, to act as a ki nd of cont r ol on each
ot her . As Est i enne put s it i n a s hor t p o e m a ddr e s s e d t o t he r e a de r i n one of hi s
n u me r o u s ant hol ogi es of anci ent wr i t i ngs,
Ut varia utroque scripta sermone hic vides,
Quae varia variis exarata autoribus,
Ita brevitatis hic & elegantiae
Spectare varia tibi datur certamina. ~5
Si nce t he v o l u me cont ai ns ove r a h u n d r e d pages of Gr e e k t ext s f ol l owe d by t hei r
t r ansl at i ons i nt o Lat i n, we can be sur e t hat Es t i enne' s r ef er ences to " cont es t s " r ef er s
her e not t o t he c ompe t i t i ve t r e a t me nt of c o mmo n t opi cs b y t he di f f er ent wr i t er s, but
mor e pr ope r l y to t he chal l enge of put t i ng Gr e e k t h o u g h t i nt o Lat i n. In r het or i cal
t er ms, "elegantia" is c ons i de r e d a proprietas linguae (a p r o p e r t y of t he l anguage, a nd
t hus a qual i t y of st yl e, r a t he r t han an i ssue of cont ent ) , whe r e a s "brevitas" es s ent i al l y
def i nes t he sel f - suf f i ci ency of t he ori gi nal , i n t he s ens e t hat we ma y s uppos e its cr eat or
t o ha ve sai d exact l y no mo r e a nd no less t han was des i r ed: elegantia is at t ai ned t h r o u g h
art i st i c skill i n t he d e p l o y me n t of brevitas. Es t i enne' s f or mul a t i on once mor e r eveal s hi s
concept i on of t he chal l enge of t r ans l at i on as t he ef f or t t o me di a t e t he cont es t b e t we e n
an or i gi nal cont ai ni ng t he essent i al , a nd an i mi t at i on d e v o i d of st yl i st i c s uper f l ui t y. 16
Thes e per s pect i ves ar e c onf i r me d in t he cri t i cal a p p a r a t u s a c c o mp a n y i n g an ear -
l i er bi l i ngual edi t i on of t he s ame Gr e e k bucol i c poet s i n c l u d e d i n t he pr e vi ous l y me n-
t i oned ant hol ogy. 17 Bot h hi s l i mi nar y a nd c onc l udi ng r e ma r ks ar e r e ve l a t or y of hi s
a ppr oa c h as a phi l ol ogi cal corrector. He st r esses hi s p u r p o s e s t o t he dedi cat ee, Ar ch-
bi s hop Casa:
15. Epistolia, Dialogi Breves, Oratiunculae, Poematia, ex variis utriusque linguae scriptoribus (Geneva:
H. Estienne, 1577 [Bib. Nat., Paris: Z 14161]), unnumber ed title page.
16. Frederic M. Rener, in his Interpretatio: Language and Translation from Cicero to Tytler
(Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1989), pp. 232-33, discusses how brevitas was frequent l y
held to be one of the major challenges faced by translators, and quotes observations on the
subject by a number of writers, including Vives, Lipsius, Luis de Le6n and Dryden. While it
is of course Greek that Estienne has in mind, and while in most of the cases cited by Rener,
it is Latin that is appreciated for its brevitas, it is wort h not i ng that bot h Hebr ew and Spanish
are also accorded this distinction. It can then be argued, in my opinion, that the translators'
valorizing of brevitas as a rhetorical quality stems less from a linguistic distinction (between
ancient and moder n tongues, say, or bet ween sacred and vernacular discourse), t han from
what amount s essentially to the privileging of an original. Simply put: once somet hi ng has
been said, can it ever again be replicated as well, let alone better?
17. Moschi, Bionis, Theocriti Elegantissimorum Poetarum idyllia aliquot, ab Henrico Stephano Latina
facta (Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1555 [Bib. Nat., Paris: Yc 683]).
Lloyd-Jones 45
Non mul t o vero post adhibita quant a max i ma adhiberi a me pot ui t diligentia, illas
in h o mi n u m venus t i or em grat i am edere non recusavi. Ut aut e m et i am Graecae
l i nguae ignaris commodarem, easdem Lat i nas f act as c u m Graecis copul avi : non
omnes qui dem ( non eni m id pat i ebat ur l i t i um mear um i mport uni t as: Is quae sibi
opt i mas horas max i mo meo dolere vi ndi cabat . . . ). (fol. I r)
In l i ght of t he subj ect ma t t e r of ma n y of t he poems , it is n o t e wo r t h y t hat Es t i enne' s
t r ansl at i ve cr i t er i a her e ha ve not hi ng t o do wi t h mor al pr opr i et y, but wi t h t he corrector' s
concer n f or phi l ol ogi cal accur acy, a nd t hi s poi nt is e mp h a s i z e d a pa ge l at er i n hi s
i nt r oduc t i on t o t he p o e t r y of Moschus:
Hoc p r i mu m Mos chi i dyl l i um, ut el egant i s s i mum, ita depr avat i s s i mum in libro
Graecum est. Quar e Lat i na haec non ad ea quae illic l egunt ur , sed ad ea quae legi
debent, exami na. De qui bus di cemus in calce hui us libeUi. (fol. 2 9
Thi s desi r e to ma ke of an una voi da bl y i mpe r f e c t Lat i n ver s i on t he me a n s of pe ne t r a t -
i ng an equal l y i mper f ect Gr e e k or i gi nal 19 u n d e r g o e s f ur t he r d e v e l o p me n t i n t he con-
c l udi ng Annot at i ones :
Et haec qui dem s u n t quae per t empori s angus t i as de Graecis t ransf erre mi hi licuit,
non si ne aliqua certe molestia, dum & fidelis interpretis officio f ungi , & conci nni t at em
Graeci poetae, q u a n t u m Latina l i ngua pat i t ur, expri mere studeo. (fol. 27 v)
The sense of obl i gat i on t o bot h s our ce a n d t ar get is e vi de nt in t he c o mp e t i n g pr e s s ur e s
fel t by t he f i dus i nt erpres wh o wi s hes t o r es pect t he f or mal aspect s of t he or i gi nal . It is,
howe ve r , t he c onc l udi ng r i der t hat car r i es t he mos t ext ens i ve i mpl i cat i ons , wi t h its
conces s i on t hat each l a ngua ge has its o wn g e n i u s - - a n d its o wn l i mi t at i ons. 2
18.
19.
20.
The reference to legal difficulties here is not specific enough to be clear, but we know that
Estienne was later to find himself frequent l y in trouble with the Calvinist authorities in
Geneva, who found his choice of texts for publication not always to their taste. Both he and
his father Robert experienced similar difficulties before leaving France for Switzerland.
This use of an imperfect replication to verify the correctness of an original may be likened
to the procedure of selecting the lectio difficilior as a means of establishing textual accuracy.
It is precisely this insight that brings Estienne to offer to show "(q)uanto certe minor sit labor
in transferendis in Graecum sermonem Latinis" (fol. 27v), by produci ng his own Greek version
of an elegy by Propertius. A brief consideration of the openi ng four lines of Estienne' s
Greek version (alongside Propertius' s original) will serve to illustrate how he approaches
the task of balancing the desire to be a faithful interpreter wi t h the effort to preserve
concinnitas:
Quicumque ille fuit, puerum qui pinxit Amorem,
nonne putas miras hunc habuisse manus ?
is primum vidit sine sensu vivere amantes,
et levibus curis magna perire bona.
(Elegiae, II. 12. 1-4)
6~ ~o~ v~l~mxbv ~p&,:o~ "~bv ~por~c( xdpa~ev,
bv 5' o~) a x ~v 5oK~et; 5c~L~ov~ov; xaXd~,cc~;
ovzo~ tSe np00zov Keveo~povc~ e~p.ev ~pc~ozd~,
Ka't ,e~.eS~ot ~:ev~t~ a~azc~ noXK& mt 0~v.
(fol. 27 ~)
46 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / Summer 1994
Estienne's own renderings of Greek poetry are not ewort hy in that they engage
him in problems of figurative language and formal arrangement. The publication, with
Estienne' s own Latin translations, of the pseudo-Anacreontic odes, ANAKPEONTO~
Trl~ov I ~ . r h Anacreontis Teij odae, Ab Henrico Stephano luce & Latinitate nunc primum
donat ae. . . (Paris: H. Estienne, 1554 [Bib. Nat., Paris: Yb 219]) changed dramatically
the way in which Greek verse woul d henceforth influence Renaissance poetics; we
need only compare, for example, Ronsard' s Amours of 1552 with the Continuation and
Nouvelle Continuation des Amours (1555 and 1556) to have a sense of his seminal influ-
ence. 21 The title itself, as usual, reveals his own perspectives: the translation is under-
taken primarily for the purpose of i l l umi nat i on--not to engender literature, but to
provide an entry into the Greek for the readers of Latin. The scope for interpretatio (and
therefore, even more so, for inventio) is thus restrained by the corrector for whom
translation is not itself the occasion of poetic creation; rather, it is the act of the humble
toiler who brings the materials he has quarried, in a modified and more easily acces-
sible form, to the forge of a Ronsard, for example, whose fureur podtique will then
transmute them into gold. It is interesting to note, in this regard, that the volume
closes with a paragraph entitled Henricus Stephanus lectori S. (p. 63), in which he briefly
discusses his choice of target language, and concludes by inviting the reader to sup-
port his endeavor, " accipiens eas Anacreontis odas, quas iam ante Gallicas feceram, in aliquot
amicorum gratiam Latine quoque aggressus sum vertere . . . . " Why the Latin translations
came to be published, but not the French, is doubtless something we shall never know;
but what matters is that even when contemplating vernacular translation, Estienne
evidently considered the passage via Latin to be a valid step in the process. His
concession of an intermediary stage of this type symbolizes perfectly his sense of
translation as a negotiation between different linguistic structures, in which the thought
itself constitutes a "vox universalis," transcending the aleatory aspects of its articula-
tion.
An example of Estienne' s approach to poetic translation may be seen in the
concluding section of the poem E~ Tb ~)66ov (Anacreontea, 44):
Z' ~0ov o~v g.E, K~ K~placo
I-Ic~p& ao't~ at6v~a~ a~lKO~,
Mez& KoOprl~ I~c~0~K6K~o~
Agedum, ergo, me corona
Pater 6 Lyaee, templis
Modulans tuis ut adstem:
(The following plain version of the Greek is meant to facilitate comparison): "Whoever,
once, first depicted Eros as being a child, don't you think him to have had god-like hands?
He first saw lovers to be empty-minded, and to consider empty trifles as being great
calamities."
The translation retains the elegiac couplets of the original, but does not follow the Latin
word order too literally. Propertius's syntax, marked here by frequent use of infinitives, is
closely mirrored in the Greek, but without any more artificiality than the genre itself calls
for. Although Estienne has generally kept the vocabulary of his translation as conversa-
tional as the original, his desire to render the Greek in as authentic (or as literary?) a
manner as possible may be noted in his use of the somewhat rare form ~E$.~6~ot, and the
compound adjective "empty-minded," which gives a somewhat more artificial effect than
Propertius's plain-spoken "sine sensu vivere."
21. See the extensive analysis in Isidore Silver, Ronsard and the Hellenic Renaissance in France, 3 vols.
(St. Louis and Geneva: Washington University Press and Droz, 1961-1987).
Lloyd-Jones 47
' Pobl, vot ot ol:eCavl, oKot g
l -I8~vK0t o~vog Xope~oc0. 22
Roseis comasque sert i s
Redi mi t us, at que pul chra
Comi t ant e me puella
Choreas & ipse ducam. (p. 89)
Whi l e it is not o u r p u r p o s e her e t o assess t he l i t er ar y mer i t of Es t i enne' s wor k, it is f ai r
to s ay t hat , accor di ng to t he canons of Lat i n ver se, t he t r ans l at i on s ucceeds i n mai n-
t ai ni ng t he t onal si mpl i ci t y and dance- l i ke qual i t i es of t he or i gi nal , i n ke e pi ng wi t h t he
cri t eri a pr e vi ous l y def i ned. Brevitas is gener al l y r es pect ed ( al t hough s uch ampl i f i cat i ons
as t r ans l at i ng Xvp~oo~ b y "modul ans ads t em, " or t he a ddi t i on of "pat er" l ead to t wo ext r a
l i nes i n t he Lat i n), a nd t he r et ent i on of i ambi cs l eads t o c ompa r a bl e met r i c effect s a n d
t he ma i nt e na nc e of elegantia. 23 Mor e i mpor t a nt , howe ve r , is t he ma n n e r i n whi c h
Est i enne has deal t wi t h t he l exi cal compl exi t i es of t he Gr eek, si nce t hat is wh e r e t he
pr obl e m of al l owi ng t oo mu c h i nvent i o i nt o t he i nt er pr et i ve act can be det ect ed. I n
s ome cases, a me a s ur e of ampl i f i cat i on i n t he Lat i n i ndi cat es Es t i enne' s desi r e t o spel l
out connot at i ons t hat t he or i gi nal pr es ent s wi t h conci si on. Whi l e we t o d a y - - a t l east i n
t he Engl i s h- s peaki ng wo r l d - - mi g h t pe r ha ps f i nd it s o me wh a t pe da nt i c to fail to con-
ver t Gr e e k Di onys us i nt o Lat i n Bacchus, Es t i enne' s c ont e mpor a r i e s wo u l d ha ve f o u n d
nei t her di f f i cul t y nor f aul t wi t h hi s choi ce of "Pat er Lyaeus, " a f or m ba s e d on Avc~o~, an
epi t het st r essi ng t he wi ne - god' s r ol e as de l i ve r e r or unl eas her , a nd t hus ent i r el y ap-
pr opr i at e in t hi s cont ext . 24 Si mi l ar l y, to t r ansl at e Xop~oo~ by "Choreas & ipse duc am"
( wi t h its a d d e d e mpha s i s on t he par t i ci pat i on of t he nar r at or ) bet t er capt ur es t he
pr ocessi onal a nd cer emoni al sense of t he Gr e e k t han, say, a mo r e di r ect e qui va l e nt
such as "saltabo, " a f or m mor e r e dol e nt of t i ps y f ool i s hnes s t ha n Di onys i ac c hor e ogr a -
phy. On t he ot he r hand, Es t i enne fails t o r e nde r t he epi c adj ect i ve " d e e p - b o s o me d , "
ot her t han wi t h t he whol l y c o mmo n p l a c e "pul chra, " a l apse no d o u b t wo r t h y of con-
d e mn a t i o n on t he est het i c l evel , but at l east c ons ona nt wi t h hi s concer ns as a phi l ol o-
gist wh o k n o ws t hat Lat i n l yr i c v o c a b u l a r y t ypi cal l y r ebel s agai nst s uch cr eat i ons. 2s
The expl oi t at i on of t r ans l at i on as a me a ns of cr eat i ng neol ogi s ms is s ur el y at t r act i ve to
such poet s as Rons ar d a nd Du Bel l ay; 26 i n Es t i enne' s case, howe ve r , whi l e t he r e c our s e
to l exi cal ampl i f i cat i on is occas i onal l y t he safest wa y t o c onve y t he or i gi nal ' s c ompl e x-
i t y of t hought , he is chi ef l y gui de d by hi s r es pect f or t he n o r ms of t he t ar get l anguage.
Tr ans l at i on is not to be t aken f or or i gi nal l i t er ar y or l i ngui st i c cr eat i on, no ma t t e r wha t
t he bl a ndi s hme nt s of i nvent i o a nd elocutio.
22. "And so crown me, and I shall pl ay the lyre alongside your shrines, Dionysus, and together
with a deep-bosomed girl, envel oped in rose garlands, I shall dance."
23. A complete analysis of Estienne' s concern for the imitation of concinnitas woul d call for ex-
tensive scansion of both Greek and Latin texts, which limitations of space preclude here.
For some of the issues involved, see Kees Meerhoff, Rhdtorique et Po~tique au XVI e si~cle en
France: Du Bellay, Ramus et les autres (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986), pp. 4-14 and passim.
24. Many modern editions prefer the reading Avcc~e to at6vvoE. It is certainly possible that
Estienne was aware of this manuscript variant when composing his Latin translation; all
that matters here, however, is his decision to render Dionysus by Lyaeus.
25. It is of course important to remember that Estienne is translating into Latin, not French: as
something of a Ciceronian, he woul d hardl y have granted himself the right to create Latin
forms. On balance, however, his approach to matters such as t he generation of neologisms
is consistently conservative. Were he to have translated the Greek into French, his strategies
woul d doubtless have been much the same.
48 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / Summer 1994
The most influential of the Anacreontea was surely the one he entitled E[g "Epor~a
(published in modem editions as no. 35):
"Epcog ~oz' iv ~65otot
Kot~tco~dvrlv ~t~Xtvtav
o~K e15ev, dk,%' ~xpcb0rl"
~bv 5dKxvXov 5~ 5aX0Lg
6pa~t&v 5~ Kdt xe'taoOe'tg
,6tg Xetpbg cbX6Xv~e
xpbg ~v Kak~lV KvO~prlv.
o~.00~.a, ~t~zep, etz~ev,
&~t~ ~ ~We ~ttKpbg
n'~spco~6g, 8v KouXo~3ot
~dk~ct v ok ,/ecop~ot.
?
& 5' e~nev, ~ ~6 K~v~pov
;~ove~t z6 z&g ~te~.'t't'zaq,
~6oov 5oKeig ~ovo~3otv,
"Epc0g, ~oovg ab ~d~et g;
(p. 36-7) ~7
Inter rosas Cupido
Api cul am iacentem
Non vidit, estque punct us.
Manumque sauciatus
Mox eiulare coepit.
Et cursitans volansque
A d candidam Cytheren:
Heu occidi, occidi, inquit,
Vitamque, mater, efflo.
En me mi nut a serpens
Pennata vulneravit:
Apem vocant coloni.
Tunc ilia: Api s si acumen
Tant um facit dolorem,
Quant um putas dolere
Quos tu feris, Cupido?
(pp. 104-5)
Not only did this poem provide material for many other poets, 28 but it was clearly a
topos that was to fascinate Estienne himself. In his edition of the Greek bucolic poets,
he cites a variation on the Anacreontic text (ascribed to Theocritus, but which modern
editors ascribe to the corpus of pseudo-Theocritean poetry29), which he then also trans-
lates into Latin. The Greek and Latin "Theocritean" versions merit our attention along-
side the "Anacreontic" text and its translation, since they afford us further insight into
Estienne' s negotiation of the conflicting claims of (philological) imitation and (philo-
sophical) translation. The "Theocritean" version is as follows:
Tbv KX~ztzotv ~oz'" Epcozct KctK& K~vzotae ~t~Xtaact
t r i p' or ~K a~q3Xmv av~x~tevov, ~r pa 5~ Xetpcbv
26. See Joachim Du Bellay, La Deffence et Illustration de la Langue Fran~oyse [Paris: Arnoul
l'Angelier, 1549], ed. Henri Chamard (Paris: S.T.F.M. [1948] 1966), passim, on this question.
27. "Once, Eros did not see a bee resting in the roses, and so was stung. Having been hurt in
the finger, and having run off and spread out his hands, he wailed to th e beautiful Cythera,
'I am undone, mother, I am undone, and I die. A tiny winged snake, which the farmers call
a bee, wounded me.' And she laughed, 'If a bee's sting distresses you, Eros, how much do
you think those whom you strike are distressed?'"
28. Paul Chary (Traducteurs d'autrefois, 2 vols., Paris-Geneva: Champion and Slatkine, 1988),
vol. I, pp. 80--82, for example, provides samples of translations, or adaptations, of this text
by Ronsard, R6my BeUeau, Jean Doublet and Jean-Antoine de Baif.
29. See for example Bucoliques Grecs, ed. and trans. Philippe E. Legrand (Paris: Les Belles Lettres,
1927), Introduction, vol. I, pp. i-xi and 34-7. See also Bucolici Graeci, ed. A.S.F. Gow (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1952), # 19, p. 52, and Theocritus, ed. and comm. A.S.F. Gow (Cambridge:
University Press, 1950), vol. I, p. 146 for text and apparatus, and vol. II, pp. 382-5 for
commentary and attribution.
Lloyd-Jones 49
Ka't z&v y(~v ~J~dza~r Ka't 8~.azo, T~ 8' 'A~poS[zq
5g~ev k&v 68~vav nat g~.ezo, 8~zt ~e vuz06v
01qp~ov ~vx'L ~t~Mooa Ka'L dXbca zpeta31xaza Jtotg.
Xd . dz~p ys~.daaaa" z~ 8'; o~K '~ao~ ~ad~ gs Maaat q;
8S w' cObs ~; v ~vq, "c& 8e T p a ~ t a z a d~.~Ka ~OtgG; 30
Improba apis quondam f urem confixit Amorem,
Dum rapit ille favos alvearibus: articulosque
Undique perstrinxit summos. Dolet ille, manumque
Ore affians, pede pulsat humum, laesumque parenti
Ostendit digitum: & queritur quod tantula visu
Bestia quum si t apis, t ant um det acumine vul nus.
Cui turn subridens mater, Quid? non apis & tu
Es similis, qui tantillus das vulnera tanta? 31
Directly after this translation, Estienne notes, "Non dubito quin hoc idyllium ex Anacreontis
elegantissima ode manaverit . . . . Est autem sic a nobis inter reliquas Latina facta" (fol. 6v).
Estienne's use of the verb "manare" is particularly striking here. It does not seem to be
a verb commonly used in either classical or humani st terminology for the process of
imitatio (whether we understand by this term either intralingual imitation or interlingual
translation), 32 but it aptly represents his approach to the res-verba question, and thus to
the issues of replicability and translation. The thought, or meaning, of a text may then
be likened to the liquid contained in a vessel, whose shape it necessarily adopts:
pouring it into another vessel alters its form, but not its essence or nature. Similarly,
"meaning" will necessarily be shaped by its linguistic "container," but its essence is
independent, and not a function of any given form.
A consideration of these two pairs of Greek originals and Latin translations re-
veals how Estienne' s understanding of imitatio enables him to give due attention to the
claims of both brevitas and elegantia. Both Anacreontic iambics and Theocritean dactylic
hexameters are retained for the Latin versions, in keeping with Estienne' s desire to
preserve formal unity between source and target. The Anacreontic text provides a
plain and mostly unadorned narrative, and leads to a similarly straightforward, virtu-
ally line by line version that closely adheres to the syntactic units of the Greek. The
seemingly periphrastic " v i t a m . . . efflo," translating the verb 6ao0v~oKto, reflects
Estienne's careful attempt to capture the precise sense of the prefix d~o-. The allitera-
tive Kct~.~lv Kv0r~prlv is neatly echoed in "candidam Cytheren." Similarly, the delicate
irony of the Theocritean text (we learn from the start that the bee is malicious and that
Cupid is larcenous, details that help raise the Anacreontic narrative to the level of
30. "Once, a wicked bee stung Eros stealing honeycomb from a hive, and hurt all the fingertips
on his hands. He was in pain, and was blowing on his hands, and stamped the ground and
jumped about, and showed his wound to Aphrodite, and complained what a tiny beast the
bee was, and how great the wounds it caused. And his mother laughed, "What, are you not
like the bees, you who were born tiny, yet who cause such great wounds?"
31. Moschi, Bionis, Theocriti... idyllia (see n. 17 above), fol. 6v; also in 1554 edition (pp. 80--81),
but without the ensuing commentary.
32. Rener (Interpretatio... ; see n. 16 above), p. 266, notes, in addition to vertere, such forms as
transferre, transvertere, transcribere, Latine exprimere, Latino sermone tradere, mutare and
interpretari. See also his discussion of "Translation and Imitation" (p. 293-313).
50 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / Summer 1994
poet i c conceit: "t he bi t er bit") is apt l y refl ect ed in Est i enne' s l i ght ness of t ouch as he
convert s the goddess' s l aught er into a s omewhat mor e wor l dl y- wi se smile. And, in
t erms of elegantia, it is i nt erest i ng to not e that wher eas the 1554 edi t i on had on line 4
the wor d "exsufflans" (Anacreontis Teij odae . . . . p, 80), a late Latin form t hat mus t ulti-
mat el y have di st ur bed the Ci ceroni an in Estienne, the 1555 text repl aces it wi t h the
mor e Classical "ore afflans": once again, we see Est i enne' s recourse to i nt er medi at e
translation in a cont i nui ng at t empt to strive for phi l ol ogi cal accuracy.
Yet even Est i enne' s desi re to respect what ever he can of the original is not al ways
successful. Occasionally, the desi re to respect can bl end excessi vel y into t he desi re to
preserve, as we can see from this final exampl e of his effort s at r ender i ng Theocri t us.
Her e are the openi ng lines of his t ransl at i on of what is t oday publ i shed as Idyl l III, in
whi ch the l over compl ai ns of his bel oved' s col dness t owar d him:
"f~ Xapt eao A~cq~uKK~, zt ~' abK~xt zo$zo Kc~z' avzpov
aapK(~a' cotaa KaK6~, x b v ~po~-6~.ov;'H i~d ~e gt a~g;
" H Ib~ ys z o t ot~,bg Ka'~o~ba~vo~at ~yy~Oev " ~p.ev,
Cur Amar yl l i caput non, ut prius, exeris antro,
Deliciasque tuas vocitas me? haud s um tibi grat us ?
A n nares simae, porrectaque acumi ne longo
Te barba offendit? t u me ad suspendia coges?
(Moschi, Bionis, Theocriti . . . idyllia, fol. 4v.)
Once again there is ampl e evi dence of Est i enne' s i nt ent i on to respect the forms and
or der i ng of the original (dactylic hexamet ers in bot h), but what strikes us here is t he
heavy and graceless Latin if we compar e it to the badinage of the Greek. When the Latin
Amaryl l i s is deni ed her qual i fyi ng adjective, the suppl i cat i ng qual i t y of the original is
lost, and the l over' s puzzl ement t urns into a fiat quest i on, one that is couched i n such
a cont ri ved manner that we mus t suppose Estienne to have act ual l y want ed us to hear
the Gr eek behi nd the Latin. The si mpl e Gr eek adj ect i ve "snub- nosed" yi el ds, not un-
happi l y, a compound Latin "ape' s nose" (no doubt by et ymol ogi cal associ at i on of
ot ~bg wi t h "simia"); the r ender i ng of t he c ompound adj ect i ve "l ong- chi nned" by the
ver bose "porrectaque acumi ne I o n g o . . . barba" is, however , far less felicitous. The pseudo-
Homer i c at t empt at t mesi s (the injection of eris into the const ruct i on ex antro), and t he
heavy- handed accusative of specification caput (also known in Latin, in fact, as the Gr eek
accusative, and mor e appr opr i at e to epic poet r y t han to erotic banter), succeed nei t her
in capt uri ng the brevitas of the original nor in br i ngi ng any elegantia to the translation.
But it is in the Annot at i ones to this text that we fi nd one of Est i enne' s most suc-
cinct, and in a sense, most poi gnant at t empt s to medi at e the t ransl at i ve conflict. Al-
t hough his r emar k bears on a rel at i vel y recondi t e poi nt of syntax, its i mpor t is great:
In Theocriti Idyllis. Te barba offendit? t u me ad suspendia coges? ~ d ? ~ a o O a t ~e
~O~lO~g. Poteram ira versum hunc scribere, Of f endi t te barba? mori me deni que
coges [?]. (fol. 260
33. "Oh, sweet Amaryllis, peeping out from your cave, why do you no longer call me your
darling? Do you hate me then? Do I, close up, appear snub-nosed and long-chinned to you?
Will you have me throttle myself?"
Lloyd-Jones 51
The i ssue t ur ns on t he fact t hat t he mi ddl e voi ce of hadyxo) has t he r ef l exi ve s ens e of
"t o ha ng onesel f , " whe r e a s t he Lat i n f or m us e d by Est i enne ("ad suspendia") does not
necessar i l y car r y t he i dea of sui ci de. Tr ue to f or m, Es t i enne e s pous e s t he caus e of both
par t i ci pant s i n t he t r ansl at i ve cont est . As he i ndi cat es, one s ol ut i on wo u l d ha ve be e n
to set t l e f or a t r ans l at i on ad sensum, a nd to s ay t hat t he l over ' s at t i t ude f or ces t he
nar r at or "t o d i e ' - - f o r t hat is s ur el y wha t t he Gr e e k means . The ot he r sol ut i on, t he
t r ansl at i on ad verbum, is to wr i t e t hat t he na r r a t or wi l l be dr i ve n t o ha ng hi msel f , f or
t hat is also wha t t he or i gi nal s a y s - - b u t Lat i n s ynt a x does not r eadi l y al l ow t he sel f-
r ef er ent i al sense of t he Gr eek mi ddl e. 34 Recour s e to c omme nt a r i e s a nd apologiae (just as
to mul t i pl e ver si ons) mi ght be a wa y to al l ow us to do bot h, a nd t hus c o n v e y brevitas
wi t h elegantia; but t he ne e d to c ome to t ext ual cl os ur e f or ces us all t oo of t en t o c hoos e
be t we e n i nel egant r e pr oduc t i on a nd wo r d y expl anat i on. As Es t i enne concl udes , wi t h
an unmi s t akabl e bl e nd of r egr et a nd r esi gnat i on, "Sed aliud est imitari, aliud interpretari"
(fol. 26r). And t hat is becaus e it is one t hi ng to mean, a nd a not he r t hi ng t o say. The
t r ansl at or ' s t ask ought i deal l y t o be to r epr es ent , t o r ei mage, t o imitate: but as l ong as
i deas ar e t r a ns mi t t e d t hr ough wor ds , we wi l l ha ve to expl i cat e, t o unf ol d, t o i ns er t
our s el ves be t we e n s our ce and t arget . We ha ve no choi ce but to deal i n wor ds ; ul t i -
mat el y, we k n o w onl y t hr ough i nt er pr et at i on. As huma ni s t s like He nr i Es t i enne un-
de r s t ood so we l l - - a n d as our o wn age, i n its eager nes s t o s ubs t i t ut e a p p r o x i ma t i v e
i deat i on f or ver bal pr eci si on, occas i onal l y ne e ds r e mi n d i n g - - p h i l o l o g y is t hen t he
condi t i on of phi l os ophy. Bef or e t her e can be l ove of wi s dom, as t he Gr eeks k n e w all
al ong, t her e mus t be l ove of t he wor d.
34. It is certainly true that Latin deponent verbs do sometimes carry the Greek mi ddl e sense of
an action reflecting back on the subject, but there are no inherently reflexive overt ones to
the verb morior.