Saturday, November 15, 2008
Why do the Spartans Talk like that?
Lysistrata i have always wondered why the Spartans talk with such a southern drawl. I personally think that it is quite foolish, but there has to be some major cause or reason that the translator put that drawl in for the modern translation, i doubt that aristrophanes wrote that spartans line with an asterisk and then put, all of these lines will be spoken in a southern drawl, think georgia or alabama in the United States around the time of1990. The main reason that i think the translator who changed the Spartans lines from Greek to english made such a drastic change was to highlight the main differences between the Spartans and the rest of the characters. Their language change was probably used to highlight the spartans in a light that would characterize them the best. Typically people from the south are less educated, but are harder manual laborers. They are stubborn when it comes to challaneges, and have a work ethic and determination that no one can rival. They also, while being stupid, realize the extent of their abilities, and know when they are out of their leage, but as they are stubborn, they still try their best. Most of these things could be applied to the spartans, as they were historically speaking, very stubborn and had a glorious work ethic and a determination that wouldnt exist amongst normal human beings, them being not normal is a compliment here. However they werent stupid, but were infact smart, logical, and very very ahead of their times, but i digress. Finally the language was proably inserted in the Spartans lines to show the geographical barrier between the groups that convened at lysistratas conference. It showed the extent to which people came, and to show that people came from all around. Also it is jsut entertaining to read their lines, but eventually it gets exhausting trying to decipher what the hell they actually mean.
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2 comments:
I had a post just like it today. Basically, the editor wanted an easier way to discern who was what character instead of us having to memorize names. Now we will always know who is a Spartan because they talk like hillbillies. I thought it was a great way to see that difference (especially because Spartans probably didn't have any discerning things between them and Athenians anyway).
in the back of the book, Parker mentioned that it was only done to show how the Athenians were supposed to view the Spartans.
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