BMCR 2009.01.32, Jeffrey Henderson, Aristophanes: Frogs

Jeffrey Henderson (trans.), Aristophanes: Frogs. Translation with
Introduction and Notes. Focus Classical Library.  Newburyport, MA:
Focus Publishing, 2008.  Pp. 107.  ISBN 9781585103089.  $9.95 (pb).

Reviewed by Erin K. Moodie, The Ohio State University
([email protected])
Word count:  983 words
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Henderson has produced a charming translation of one of Aristophanes'
most beloved plays. Although for the most part identical to the
translation in his 2002 Loeb edition, the Focus Classical Library
version will be useful for Greekless readers (undergraduates or general
audiences) who will not require the Greek text or appreciate the higher
cost of the Loeb edition.[[1]] Henderson's detailed introduction in
particular will be quite valuable for undergraduate or general readers
as well.

Henderson's introduction includes brief and clear discussions of many
topics that provide the reader with general knowledge about the poet,
the play, and the context in which it was performed. Discussion topics
include Aristophanes' (limited) biography, the festival context of
Aristophanic performance at the Greater Dionysia and Lenaia, as well as
common subjects and themes of Old Comedy. Henderson also describes how
the plays were produced and paid for, and discusses the derivation of
<greek>kwmwidi/a</greek> from <greek>kw=mos</greek>--although all Greek
has been transliterated in the text. He continues by covering the role
and purpose of Old Comedy, presenting the figure of the comic hero, and
describing comic poets' freedom of speech and its limits. A section on
the specifics of comedic performance discusses the lack of stage
directions or designation of speakers in the Greek text, the masking
and costuming traditions of the male actors, the number of actors and
chorus members involved in a performance, as well as the stage area
itself. Henderson includes a diagram of the fourth century B.C.E.
Theater of Dionysus, which gives the reader an idea of the performance
location although one not strictly appropriate for Aristophanes' plays.
After discussing the structure of most Old Comedies and that of the
Frogs in particular, Henderson turns to the political and literary
performance context of the Frogs. He provides a plot summary of the
comedy, gives a brief history of Dionysus' appearances on stage, and
discusses the Frogs as an early example of literary criticism. Finally,
Henderson ends by discussing his own translation style--to go
line-by-line and to translate Aristophanes' obscenities properly (i.e.,
obscenely). Henderson has used the Greek text from his 2002 Loeb
edition, but has incorporated some of the emendations made by Wilson in
his 2007 Oxford Classical Text.[[2]] The introduction is followed by a
good, up-to-date (2007 and 2008) beginning bibliography, which is
divided into sections on the Frogs, Aristophanic comedy, and Attic
Comedy in general. The introduction in large part reproduces the
general introduction to Henderson's Focus Classical Library translation
of Aristophanes' Birds from 1999 and the introduction to the Frogs in
Henderson's 2002 Loeb edition. The translation of the Frogs itself
seems to be a slightly revised (i.e., more colloquial) version of
Henderson's Loeb translation.

In addition to the comprehensive introduction, Henderson has also
provided the reader with many explanatory footnotes. These notes offer
pertinent information on the many people mentioned in the play, on
general aspects of Greek culture, or on the original source for
Aristophanes' many quotations and parodies. (And, I would argue,
offering such remarks in footnotes is particularly helpful, since
students may not go to the trouble of looking up the information in
endnotes.) The footnotes are so comprehensive that one even remarks
that lines 1206-8 (deriving from Euripides' Archelaus) preserve the
original text of the tragedy before it had been altered by Euripides or
even by the actors in a re-performance--it seems that these lines did
not appear in the version of the play studied by ancient scholars of
tragedy. Overall, I enjoyed Henderson's translation--he employs lofty,
tragic language when appropriate, but has also produced appealing
translations of some quintessentially Aristophanic comic moments. These
lines in particular occasioned a chuckle as I read: e.g., "bubbly
ploppifications" (for <greek>pomfolugopafla/smasin</greek>, line 249),
"My butt runneth over; let us pray" (for <greek>e)gke/xoda. ka/lei
qeo/n</greek>, line 479), "massy Parnassus" (for <greek>*parnassw=n
mege/qh</greek>, line 1057), and "you fool for folderol" (for
<greek>w)= katestwmulme/ne a)/nqrwpe</greek>, lines 1160-1).

I have only a few minor quibbles with some of Henderson's translation
choices. The first is the translation of <greek>fe/rein</greek> (line
12 and 15) as "to hump." While the term does combine the sense of
"lugging around on one's back" with Aristophanes' own propensity for
obscenity, I worry that today's undergraduate will not understand the
word in its non-obscene sense. Next, Henderson's "Nonsense, my good
woman, and ignorant of the facts" (lines 555-6) seems either
ungrammatical or excessively loose for the Greek <greek>lhrei=s, w)=
gu/nai, kou)k oi)=sq) o(/ ti le/geis</greek>. In addition, I found
Henderson's explanation of lines 1437-53 to be less clear than his
explanation of the same in his Loeb edition. Similarly, only in his
Loeb does Henderson make clear that he is following Sommerstein's
re-ordering of lines 1437-53 into two possible answers by Euripides.
Furthermore, the lack of horizontal lines separating the possible
answers in the Focus Classical Library translation (they appear in his
Loeb edition) makes the translation quite confusing at this point.

Finally, typographical errors are relatively frequent in such a small
book. I found examples of missing words or punctuation ("They were
credited with pioneering poetic styles invective, obscenity and
colloquialism," p. 6); lack of capitalization at the start of a
sentence ("brekekekex," p. 37); and lack of bold face type to indicate
a change of speaker (Euripides p. 73, Aeschylus p. 76). There are also
several places where a word or two seems to have dropped out during the
type-setting process: "its members impersonated a mixed (male and
female, and perhaps young and old) initiates of the Eleusinian
Mysteries" (p. 6) and "Now each of pray before you say your piece" (p.
72). Some errors, such as the first error from p. 6, reproduce the
errors in earlier versions of introductions to Henderson's translations
of Aristophanic comedy.

Overall, however, I find this translation of the Frogs to be
entertaining and very readable. Furthermore, Henderson's comprehensive
introduction makes this translation quite useful for general readers or
students at any level.


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Notes:


1.   Jeffrey Henderson (ed.), Aristophanes : Frogs, Assemblywomen,
Wealth. Loeb Classical Library 180. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 2002.

2.   N.G. Wilson (ed.), Aristophanis : Fabulae I. Oxford Classical
Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.