Translation is the paradox of good faith and betrayal. It allows the world to be opened past the stark boundaries of language, but it simultaneously betrays the work of the original author. No translation can be perfect; all translation is biased in its own interpreters intent on top of the original bias of the author. Meaning, as a reader, you get some opinions made for you. Fortunately, there’s a cure for this —beyond learning the language of the original work— and that’s reading many versions of the same thing.
While pursuing further knowledge in the stories of Greek mythology and literature, I became well accustomed to this issue with translation. As such, I never consider my opinion valuable until I’ve read multiple versions of a piece.
Arachne & Athena
Arachne, a beautiful weaver, boasts she is better than even the goddess Athena. Athena appears, claiming she is the better weaver and bestowed her gifts upon Arachne in the first place. A challenge ensues. In the first prominent version of this myth, Arachne weaves an exquisite piece, leaving Athena the loser. In rage, Athena curses Arachne to weave forever as a spider. In the second, Arachne loses, and her shame leads her to the point of suicide. Athena, however, brings Arachne back to life as a spider, allowing her to weave for eternity. In the final version, Zeus judges the contest, asserting that the loser may never touch a spindle or loom again. Arachne loses, and Athena, pitying the weaver, turns her into a spider so she may continue to weave without requiring the tools she may no longer use.
Icarus & The Sun
Icarus’ flight too close to the sun is not the only interpretation of the story. In a second version, Icarus does not fly at all, but simply escapes the labyrinth on water by boat with his father Daedalus. In this depiction, the pair is described as “flying,” but instead of in the air, the word simply describes the rate at which they were sailing over the water. In this version, Icarus still dies and his father lives, but it is to the boat either capsizing or Icarus simply falling overboard. The more widely known version is certainly more metaphorical, but it is interesting to see that there are always others, and always up to the interpretation of translation.
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