Wiener Studien 135/2022, pp. 225-253, 2022/07/29
Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition
The first complete poetic translation of Seneca’s tragedies into German was made in Bohemia, at the time part of the Habsburg monarchy, in the years 1821–1830 by the Czech national revivalist poet and philologist Václav Alois Svoboda (1791–1849). His translation of the Roman playwright raises several important questions. It is not only interesting that the author was strongly influenced by the “Sturm und Drang” movement and wrote radical freethinking poems in the group of patriotic students. One must also consider the influences of Neo- Humanism, which promoted Greek culture, since Svoboda translated Schiller, Goethe and the poetry of German Romanticism and corresponded with de la Motte-Fouqué, Goethe, and Wilhelm Humboldt. Why did Svoboda fight against contemporary contempt for Seneca’s tragedies? Why did he not choose some Classical Greek plays in accordance with the general preferences of the period and current stereotypes about “perfect Greece” and “decadent Roman culture”?
