[ilds] Pope Joan vs.Papissa Ioanna

[Richard Pine]

My reason for including 'Pope Joan' in a provisional listing of LD's 'minor 
mythologies' is: that LD himself, in his own discussion of 'minor mythologies', 
lists several genres of popular literature to which his 'translation and 
adaptation' of 'Papissa Ioanna' as a 'romantic biography' seems to belong. This 
is in no way to denigrate Roidis' original, which, as Panaiotis points out, is 
far more profound and has far more resonances than LD detected (and now that our 
attention has been brought to the earlier (1935) translation by Kriton, we know 
considerably more about how this came about). 

Thanks to Panaiotis for pointing this out.
RP




________________________________
From: Panaiotis Gerontopulos <pan.gero at hotmail.com>
To: ilds at lists.uvic.ca; Jimmy <odos.fanourios at gmail.com>
Sent: Fri, February 18, 2011 7:14:03 PM
Subject: [ilds] Pope Joan vs.Papissa Ioanna


Dear James
    Thanks for answering my (empty) message. I remember with pleasure the 
evening spent at the Starbucks of Korais St. discussing with Beatrice Pope Joan 
vs.Papissa. It was in the autumn of 2003, I think, and you suggested that I 
should come to Rhodes and discuss my findings in Miracle Ground XIII. I did, but 
the presentation was a  disaster: no Power Point projector available, no 
discussion.  What we have discussed at the Starbucks and  what I tried to say in 
Rhodes reading the slides from my laptop is described in general in the abstract 
submitted  to the organizers of the Conference. (attachment 1) Three years later 
(this List Oct. 29, 2007), closing a brief debate on Durrell’s Homerics  you had 
me saying that Durrell used a “French translation” as a “translation bridge” 
from Papissa Ioanna to Pope Joan. A “curiosity” that you were inclined to 
believe. 
   The curiosity – a monumental imbroglio - is, that after more than half a 
century from its first appearance Pope Joan can still be described (Richard 
Pine, February 11) as one of LD’s  “minor mythologies” or according to the 
cover of the Owen Modern Classics edition “a  translation and adaptation from 
the Greek of Emmanuel Roidis”. Another book, another author. But the page title 
of the Derek Verschoyle edition (1954)  tells a quite another story (attachment 
2).  

Cheers
Panaiotis


      
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