Samhain New (Winter) Moon
Today I finished translating the story of Lycaon in Ovid. Most of it anyhow. Some still awaits consultation with Greg. I plan to go back and forth through this story until I have a clean, idiomatic and interesting text. That’s the next couple of days, maybe more. Probably more. Lycaon’s tale is the origin of the word Lycanthrope, a coined word for werewolf. Lycanthropy is the study of werewolves.
In this story Jupiter, angered by an Arcadian king’s (Lycaon) human sacrifices, comes to earth to investigate. When Lycaon tries to serve him human flesh, a test to see if he is truly divine, Jupiter in a rage turns King Lycaon into a wolf, but a wolf with human feet, eyes, grayish hair and the former king’s wild and fierce countenance.
Translating it word by word, line by line, idea by idea and then going back to create a polished English version is the task I set myself so long ago, producing a translation of Metamorphoses so I can embed these stories in my own consciousness. Yes, there are over 15,000 verses in total, and I’m only at verse 235 (plus several hundred other verses I translated, stories I chose to keep me interested) but I’m now beginning to see myself as a translator and not only a student. That’s a big transition.
I will post the text when I finish.
