Theseus
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Karl Reinhardt in a memorable phrase about the Greek gods in Homer’s Iliad talks of them as displaying—in a wonderful oxymoron--‘a sublime frivolity—ein erhabener Unernst”.The gods are a paradox of great beauty and excellence whilst also being light-hearted and spontaneous, not caring about mankind since they do not feel human suffering and on Olympus ‘“no sound of human sorrow mounts to mar/ their sacred everlasting calm” [Tennyson]. What would be the best Greek rendering of this memorable phrase, which I first heard long ago and which still sends shivers down my spine. And, as an inheritor of Athens and Jerusalem—religion and rational philosophy— for I love both, how would today’s Greeks, with their wonderful heritage of both disciplines translate this phrase?
‘Sublimity’, it seems to me, doesn’t have much traction nowadays and there is perhaps too much frivolity. But the Greek book by Longinus ‘On the Sublime’ translates merely to Περί Ύψους—On Height— and begins with the majestic opening of Genesis: Athens AND Jerusalem! (It is a side comment but Longinus is both the name of the author of ‘On the Sublime’ and a different Longinus who was the centurion who pierced Christ’s side to ensure that He was indeed dead.)
‘Sublimity’, it seems to me, doesn’t have much traction nowadays and there is perhaps too much frivolity. But the Greek book by Longinus ‘On the Sublime’ translates merely to Περί Ύψους—On Height— and begins with the majestic opening of Genesis: Athens AND Jerusalem! (It is a side comment but Longinus is both the name of the author of ‘On the Sublime’ and a different Longinus who was the centurion who pierced Christ’s side to ensure that He was indeed dead.)
