1 They will note that the theme of the disguised prince - the child of apparently humble origins who is finally recognized as a true and leading member of a higher race - traces a long ancestry through Luke Skywalker, Kipling’s Kim and the young Wat of Arthurian legend.
#ANCIENT GREEK HARRY POTTER HOW TO#
Those who prefer Homer can find Rowling’s antecedents in Lewis, LeGuin, and Nesbitt (who first taught the world how to use children’s easy acceptance of the abnormal as a device for making magic matter-of-fact). You who would defend the Mantuan, beware of denigrating the skills of a successful popularizer. Her characters, themes, and incidents are all borrowed from a well-established tradition she has created a successful pastiche which has caught the public mood, and has herself been turned into a cultural phenomenon and media event out of all proportion to her genius - in other words, there is no slander that can be leveled at her, which does not equally apply to Virgil. I don’t suppose courses will be designed around it, but this book will certainly be a valuable auxiliary.Īs for the worth of Rowling’s opus, considered on its own merits, I have little to add to the reception it has met thus far. After the Xenophontic parasangs have lost their charm and the Euripidean trimeters are limping, students can refresh themselves with a bout of “ikarosphairik” (Wilson’s spot-on neologism for quidditch), or enjoy the bantering of Fred and George. It will also be of great value to teachers of mid-level Greek who are casting about for texts with which to encourage and entertain their students. But unlike most prose comp exercises, it is also a wonderfully good read.
In its entirety, it is an extraordinary work - a prose comp.
On nearly every page there is some felicity of composition to be admired, some construction that shows off the Greek language’s power and versatility, some turn of phrase that arouses admiration for the translator. It is also, in this reader’s opinion, a complete success. It is, of course, Andrew Wilson’s translation, into Ancient Greek, of J.K. It will be a delight to all Classicists, a boon to all teachers of Greek, and a possession for all time. The book under review is surely one of the most important pieces of Ancient Greek prose written in many centuries.
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