Archilochos Sappho Alkman
Archilochos, Sappho, Alkman. Three Lyric Poets of the Late Greek Bronze Age. Translated, with an Introduction, by Guy Davenport. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1980.
This new edition includes a recently deciphered long lyric of Archilochos and two newly deciphered fragments of Sappho. (dust jacket, inside front flap)
"Versions of these translations have appeared before: Archilochos in . . . Poetry and Arion and as a book, Carmina Archilochi (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1964); Sappho as a book, Sappho: Songs [sic, in recte Poems] and Fragments (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1965); Alkman in Arion (Winter 1969). Lukas Foss and Richard Swift have separately set some of the Archilochos fragments to music, and Swift has made a song of Alkman's 'The valleys are asleep and the mountaintops.'" (Introduction, p.16)
Texts:
For Archilochos: Archiloque: Fragments, Texte établi par François Lasserre, traduit et commenté par André Bonnard. Paris: Collection des Universités de France, publiée sous le patronage de l'Association Guillaume Budé, 1958; 2d ed. rev., 1968.
For Sappho: "I have generally followed the text as given by [Edgar] Lobel and [Denys] Page, Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta (Oxford, 1963), with additions from Page's Supplementum Lyricis Graecis (Oxford, 1974), and am indebted to his Sappho and Alcaeus (Oxford, 1959)." (Introduction, p. 14)
For Alkman: "My translations were made from Antonio Garzya's Alcmane: I Frammenti (Naples, 1954) and in part from Bruno Lavagnini's Aglaia: Nuova Antologia della Lirica Greca da Callino a Bacchilide (Turin, 1964)." (Introduction, p. 16)
Acknowledgements: "I am indebted to many friends and colleagues for help, criticism, and encouragement: Cedric Whitman, Hugh Kenner, Garry Wills, Keith Aldrich, Donald Carne-Ross, Arnold Post, and Robert Zachary. To approach the emotions of ancient poets is a matter helped along by more than halting Greek, dictionaries, and history books; my dept therefore extends to Mary Ann Wilson, Steven Diamant, Tom Markos, Max Montgomery, and Bonnie Jean Cox, all of whom with immeasurable love and friendship have deepened my understanidng of Archilochos, Sappho, and Alkman.
Dedication: For Eudora Welty
Note: This edition of GD's previously-published ancient Greek translations omits all of his drawings, except for that of a soldier armed with spear and shield, which served as the cover drawing for his Carmina Archilochi.
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