Ein, “Grundschatz aller Kunst”: Goethe und die Vossische Homer-Übersetzung

Abstract

In the reception of Graeco-Roman antiquity during the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Homeric epics and their translations played an important role. Goethe, himself a lifelong admirer of Homer, studied intensively the translation by Johann Heinrich Voss, which in the realm of the German tongue was quickly to gain the stature of a ‘classic’ in its own right. Between Goethe and Voss there existed many fundamental agreements but also obvious differences. Despite certain reservations on matters of detail, Goethe increasingly valued Voss's translations of theOdyssey (1781, revised 1793) and of theIliad (1793), recognized them as models of translation in general, and showed their influence in his own poems and his translations. Especially in the rendition of Homeric similes in hisAuszug aus der Ilias [Excerpts from the Iliad] of 1820/21 did he base himself on Voss's translations.