A 1918 list of English translations from ancient Greek

This evening I ran across F. M. K. Foster’s English translations from the Greek: a bibliographical survey, Columbia, 1918 (Google books here).  A book of this date ought to be of great interest, in that all the translations listed will be public domain in the USA.  There’s even a good chance that they will be on Google Books or otherwise accessible.

I’m rather enjoying my first browse.  There are many pages of translations of Aristotle, and Euripides, of course.

But how many of us have heard of Aristoxenus of Tarentum? (p. 34 — from where I learn of a translation of his Harmonics).  Not me, that’s for sure.  But his book is here.

Or Artemidorus of Ephesus, better known as Artemidorus of Daldi, a 2nd century AD interpreter of dreams?  All the translations of his book, The interpretation of dreams, are old — 1722 is the last reprint shown.  I could not find it online.

Hyperides, The orations against Athenogenes and Philippides, were translated by F. G. Kenyon in 1893, I see.  There are quite a few versions of Longinus On the sublime — a work that perhaps few of us today have read (not me, again).

The lately discovered fragments of Menander, by “Unus Multorum” were edited and translated in 1909.  I had no luck finding it online, tho.

The list does not look nearly complete to me.  Likewise it omits all except classical Greek.  But the thing was done as a PhD thesis, under the lash, as it were, so perhaps we should not complain!

Share

3 thoughts on “A 1918 list of English translations from ancient Greek

  1. Hi Roger,

    Interestingly, I typed the phrase “lately discovered fragments of Menander” into Google and an Internet Archive link to the volume popped up right away as the first result returned! Perhaps Google’s search algorithm works differently in the U.K. than in North America? Anyways, here’s the link:

    The lately discovered fragments of Menander (1909)
    http://www.archive.org/details/latelydiscovered00mena

    I also discovered that _English translations from the Greek_ is hosted on the Archive too.
    http://www.archive.org/details/englishtranslat00fostgoog

  2. Yes, the Google Books algorithm DOES work differently (and much worse) than in the US. I have noticed this in the past, but keep forgetting it.

    Thank you so much for the link! (and the reminder)

  3. I notice that the google books title says that it is volume 22. Is this part of a series of books which give English translations of ancient works?

Leave a Reply