Translation Notes by Prof. Barker
This poem concerns some of the lesser known heroes of the later mythology period. Like most tales from that time, the stories were brought back by soldiers and collected and retold by orators, often embellishing the tales for the benefit of the audience.
Right away, we see the propaganda of the time with the descriptions of the Xersians. The tendency to dehumanize opponents in a war is as old as civilization. In point of fact, the actual Xersians were quite civilized, with a complex empire of dozens of conquered cultures. And while they were militarily aggressive, most accounts by their subjugated peoples paint them as no more or less murderous than any other faction of the time.
The description of the four heroes listed here is clearly exaggerated. First you have the anachronistically named Gaylord (also called Gaylor in some translations). The man’s original name is now lost to us, as we have only surviving documentation from the Hundred Years War period, during which many tales were altered to try and inspire the French people.
This was further exacerbated in the 20th century, when the name became linked with crude jokes about the man’s sexuality. While some of the older translations had Gaylord with both men and women, later ones exclusively focused on his relations with young men, causing some even to be banned as obscene (see The United States vs. Prof. Reginald Cousins, 1948). The less said about the “new translation” released in Greenwich Village in 1973 that re-purposed him as a hero to the gay pride movement, the better.
The hero Dion is perhaps the most exaggerated of the men. His physical characteristics grow increasingly unrealistic over the course of the poems, making him nearly superhuman by the end. And while the man came from the more tribal region of Epoli, he was likely simply less accustomed to the niceties of the city life and more at home in the country land with his goats (again, refer to 1947 translation for the more lurid tales).
Not much is said in the initial poems about Chrysostomos as they focused on the more colorful characters of Gaylord and Dion. In story terms, he appears to take on the role as the straight man of the group, the more typical citizen of the Free Cities that everyone else in the group is contrasted against.
This translation of the poems restores Artemisia to her proper role as a sorceress hero in the group. Older translations tended to be misogynistic, often leaving out her character or suggesting she was a relative or spouse of one of the others. Particularly bad was the 1930s translation that suggested she was a prostitute hired by the ship for the benefit of the entire crew, likely a product of the times with conflict over women’s right to vote.
As mentioned before, the tale of soldiers heading out to fight the bloodthirsty Xersians is quite a common one. A more likely scenario is that Xersian expansion was interfering with the spice trade between Athegara and the Bedab kingdoms and the archons levied small groups of soldiers to protect their investments.
The common theme of long voyages at sea with brutal storms and shipwrecks is present here as well. The crash landing on an exotic island is a particular favorite, seen in everything from Shakespeare’s The Tempest to the television series Lost. Note that this translation removes the 1950’s revision where the ship was sunk by the gods to punish the Hellasians for not rejecting homosexuality.
The afterlife was important to the ancient Hellasians, as can be seen in the explanation of the treatment of the bodies on the shore. In reality, it is unlikely the men of a crashed ship would bother to do anything with the dead. Although the Free Cities had elaborate funeral and burial rituals, out in the wild the dead were usually buried in shallow graves or cremated without great fanfare.
The size and nature of the island change dramatically over the years. I have attempted with this translation to be as accurate as possible, though I am still a little unsure about using the term “jungle”. While it is a more accurate translation to the original poems, the actual island was likely a semi-tropical forest with a Mediterranean climate.
Sea monsters often frequent the stories of the ancients, and this one is no exception. Much debate has occurred over the years, as some believe the description to match a plesiosaur (which, paleontologically speaking, would be impossible) while others suggest a large sea snake of the tentacle of a giant squid or octopus. In any event, it is likely all the group of heroes really did was back away slowly from such a dangerous threat.
Finally, the story turns to a scene of violence and a suggestion of a monster. This is also quite common in the epic tales – the introduction of a vile creature that the heroes will need to overcome.