{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2386",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2386,
    "subject": "Names in Soldier Series Again",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2000-09-07T20:48:14+00:00",
    "last": "2000-09-07T20:48:14+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0029-0212@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Jeremy W. Crampton",
        "address": "gegjwc at panther.gsu.edu"
      },
      "date": "2000-09-07T20:48:14+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Names in Soldier Series Again",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Hi,\n \nThe following authoritative list of names from the Soldier series was\nposted by alga a while back (I also discussed other names, including\npeople's names, in my fanzine The Book of Gold in 1988-89). If you examine\nthe translations carefully, you can see some of the strategies Wolfe took.\nThe premise is that \"Latro\" an early Latin farmer-mercenary can understand\nspoken Greek but not read it (he writes in proto-Latin which Wolfe has\nhimself translated into English). \n \nThe first strategy is to more or less literally translate names from Greek\nto Latin so that \"Boeotia\" becomes \"Cowland.\" There is some additional\nleeway here because of Wolfe's own translation (not remarked upon much in\nreviews). So for example, my favorite is \"Clay\" from Plataea ('broad\" or\nflat, L. platus \"plate\"). Wolfe has imaginative fun with some of these so\nperhaps \"literally\" is not the right word--quirkily? For example Eurykles\n= \"well reported\" but who is doing the reporting (or boasting)?\n \nAnyway, the second strategy is to translate based on some characteristic\nof the place or person. What this shows is that Latro (or the fictional\n\"Wolfe\" who translated these scrolls) can use some additional background\nknowledge of the geography and culture. Take \"Tieup\" for example, which is\nthe name given for Piraeus, the port near Athens. Someone spoke of this in\nenough detail within the last 12 hours (length of Latro's memory) or he\nremembers passing through it and seeing the boats tied up. Or, the\nfictional Wolfe is adding in information, depending on what level you want\nto work at:\n \n1. Spoken word (Athenian Greek)\n2. Translations by \"Latro\" into proto-Latin (written down)\n3. Translations by \"Gene Wolfe\" who obtains scrolls, into English\n4. Real Gene Wolfe creating above three\n5. Translations into French, Italian, Greek (etc.) for foreign editions of\nthe Soldier series by third party translators, perhaps in conjunction with\nWolfe (foreign readers can operate at this level)\n \nYou can see that Wolfe is really problematising the question of\ntranslation! I think it would be especially lovely if there was a Greek\nedition of these books.\n \nHere are my votes for translations most in need of tracing through:\n \nAdvent--Eleusis (Advent is the coming of Christ, Eleusis is where\nDemeter/Persephone's return [rebirth] from Hades was celebrated; is Wolfe\nmaking a connection to pre-Christian worship?). Latro must go here (?) to\nbe healed; he offended her in her temple at Clay during the fight.\n \nThought--Athens (explained by Wolfe as a corruption of a-thanatos, or\nnot-dead, immortal, ie \"thought\", two and two is always four even if the\nman dies. But Orwell might dispute this.)\n \n\"House of the Sun\"--Temple of Apollo (Apollo gives the prophecy around\nwhich the books revolve). An epithet of Apollo was lukeios or wolf-killer.\nSo Apollo is both \"Sun\" and wolf-slayer, two aspects of life-giving. Wolfe\nmakes him a Good Guy in the series.\n \n\"The wolf's tooth\"--? I speculated in BoG 1 that this was a symbol of\namnesia, but we don't know much about it. More likely, perhaps it's just a\nreference to his real name Lucius Cassius (lukeios). He bears the mark of\nthe wolf(e), ie his name.\n \nOther names not listed by alga:\n \nBoat--Lemnos\nCircling Isles--The Cyclades\nCopais--an ancient lake in Attica, now dried up\nEuxine--the Black Sea\n \nAlga gives Redface Island as Achaia (actually spelled Achaea) but I prefer\nto equate it with the whole Peloponnesus island.\n \n________________________________\n \nFrom: \"Alice Turner\" <al at interport.net>\nSubject: (urth) SOLDIER-Place Names\nDate: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 09:21:02 \n \n\n[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other\nworks]\n \nPLACE NAMES\n \nAdventEleusis\nBearlandArcadia \nClayPlataea\nCowlandBoeotia\nCrimson Men--Phoenicians\nDolphinsDelphi \nFennel FieldMarathon\nGoodcattle IslandEuboea  \nHillThebes\nHorselandThessaly \nHot GatesThermopylae \nHundred EyedArgos\nLong CoastAttica \nPeaceSalamis\nRedface IslandAchaia\nRiverlandEgypt  \nRopeSparta\nSign-of-ThraceSamothrace \nSilent CountryLaconia \nThoughtAthens \nTieupPiraeus \nTower HillCorinth"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}