2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Study of Metaphorical Use of Compound Epithets by Aescylus
| Project/Area Number |
11610580
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
文学一般(含文学論・比較文学)・西洋古典
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| Research Institution | JUNTENDO UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
IKEDA Reitaro Juntendo University, Department of Medicine, Professor, 医学部, 教授 (80053106)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1999 – 2001
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| Keywords | dramas / Greek tragedies / Aeschylus / compound words / epithets / elements / metaphor / concordance |
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| Research Abstract |
Aeschylean dramas are notorious among the ancients for the difficulty in understanding because of his tendency to use too many new fangled and hyperbolic epithets. His tendency and fondness of using! Lengthy compound words were severely criticised by Aristophanes, his contemporary comedy writer, and are still more great obstacles to the students m modern tunes. We have no other recourse than consulting in imperfect lexicons which were compiled after many centuries from the days when the poet thought of those epithets. The writer has long struggled with this difficulty he faces in trying to translate Greek tragedies into a modern language. He has come upon a conclusion that those compound words must be studied in relation with other parallel cases, namely to consult in a concordance, and examine the elements and roots which make up those words. He has collected thousands of compound epithets which appear in the extant tragedies by Aeschylus and has analysed those words from the aspect of the elements. The result of the analysis and his proposition of new translation are made into a list in this report. To show several instances from the list ; the chorus of "Agamemnon" formed by Argive soldeirs unable to serve in the expedition lament their weakness as "phantoms-ppearing-in-the-day". And again the chorus in "Choephoroe" struck by terror when they learned of the horrible plot of assassination feel like their "saffron-color-blood-funning-around". This sort of expression is difficult when we want to understand it as a single word but sounds natural when broken into its elements and taken as a simple metaphor. So the writer has analized all those compounds into elements and made a long list of those words in this respect.
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