On 22 September the first book of the series dedicated to a heritage that does not run out with the newspaper will be on sale. We publish the presentation of the two curators
The question returns cyclically at various levels and in various locations: What is the point of studying Greek and Latin today? A question often rekindled by cloying controversies and specious arguments: what is the use of knowing dead languages?
We could answer that only that which leaves no inheritance of affection is truly dead, to quote Ugo Foscolo: and this certainly cannot be said of classical languages, which have left us an immense linguistic and cultural heritage on which our civilization rests and on which we continually draw. Italian, like many of the languages spoken in the world, has in its lexicon countless words derived from Greek. Italian literature, and European literature in general, has since its origins dialogued with antiquity, deriving models, themes, ideas, entire literary genres such as the epic or the theater: Dante would not be Dante without Virgil (who in turn would not exist without Homer), and the theater of the modern age was born with the rediscovery, in the Renaissance, on the one hand of the Attic drama and Poetic of Aristotle, on the other of the tragedies of Seneca and of the comedies of Plautus and Terentius.
Going back to the sources of this heritage means better understanding not only the language we speak, but also the civilization to which we belong. It means understanding ourselves better. And to the easy objection that trying to understand the Greek and Latin literary texts by addressing them in their original language is a useless effort because there are already translations, we could reply that between a translation and a text in the original language there is the same difference that passes between a photograph or a film and reality: the photo or film can also be works of art, but they are not the reality of the text. Reading a text in translation, without even being able to cast an eye on the original in front of it, precludes us from breathing the authentic air of the ancient text. with its perfumes, to listen to its musicality meaning its rhythms, tones, prosody, to touch it as we touch real objects, to move in that space freely and at the same time attentive to detail, and not according to the perspective of the translator who performs the functions of the photographer or cameraman. A translation gives us back the meaning and content of a passage, but it can hardly reproduce its sonority with its refined effects, puns, the richness of meanings and semantic links that each word carries with it. Reading the classics in the original language means feeding on that food that solum mio, as Niccol Machiavelli wrote in the years of his exile from his Florence. We could answer like this, as has already been done several times by other voices.
Or, provocatively, we could say that actually studying Greek is useless. And precisely for this reason, precisely because it is useless, that this knowledge is of no use to anyone: it makes us free, at least in the area of care and nutrition of our ani
mato do something that does not respond only to the crushing logic of the market, of practical utility at all costs, of knowledge, skills and skills that can be spent in the world of work, which have now become the main concern of those who govern and direct the school and the university aiming – at least, this is the impression that is obtained – to train diligent executors of tasks and not strong characters of knowledge and trained in a critical sense.
We learn from the Grecsimasters of freedom, of speech, of thought, of beauty: we learn their words and their way of reading the world. If we have the patience to listen to their voice, we will surely have something useful, beautiful and true that is useful to us, to our life.
This necklace an alphabet of the Greek civilization: 24 volumes, one for each letter of the Greek alphabet, each of which is associated with a word beginning with that letter. A series of strong words, not only representative of fundamental aspects of Greek culture and civilization (politics, emotional and social relationships, daily life, poetry, science, mythology, philosophy, history …) but also relevant to the modern languages that have them inherited in various forms. (…)
Each volume consists of two parts. The first, thematic in nature, includes an essay on the topic represented by the keyword and an anthology of texts by Greek authors in translation. The second contains linguistic insights: a glossary of Greek words relating to the topic dealt with in the first part, which illustrates the etymology, meanings and possible outcomes in Italian and other modern languages; a section of grammar, ordered progressively (not an ancient Greek language course but a guide and orientation for those who intend to approach or reconnect directly with Greek culture); finally a series of graded exercises, complete with solutions.
The first volume. The figures of the heroes and their deeds sung by poets
The first volume of the new Greco series is released on Thursday 22 September with Corriere della Sera. Language, history and culture of a great civilization, at a price of € 6.90 plus the cost of the newspaper. The book, unpublished like all the others in this review, is entitled The hero and signed by Maria Grazia Ciani and Monica Centanni. Centanni herself, a professor at the Iuav University of Venice, is the curator of the entire series together with Paolo B. Cipolla, who teaches at the University of Catania. The text published on this page is an excerpt from the presentation written by the two editors and placed at the beginning of the first volume to focus on the meaning and characteristics of the entire work. The series structured as an alphabet of the Hellenic civilization. There are twenty-four outputs in all, just like the letters of ancient Greek. And each volume deals with a theme associated with the relative letter, which is the initial of the key word that gives the book its title. For example, the first volume recalls the letter and, which is the initial of the word hero in ancient Greek. The content divided into two parts. The first focuses on the topic evoked by the title, with an essay by the author and an anthology of translated passages from the Hellenic classics. The second offers a glossary, some grammar notions and a series of exercises with relative solutions. The second volume of the series will be The philosophy by Giovanna Rita Giardina, out with Corriere della Sera on 29 September, always at the same price. Followed by: Mattia De Poli, Theater (October 6); Luca Antonelli and Lorenzo Braccesi, The power (October 13); Francesco Massa, The myth (October 20); Daniela Sacco, The sport (October 27).
September 20, 2022 (change September 20, 2022 | 20:48)
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