ABSTRACT
Looking to one of the earliest documented instances of intralingual translation worldwide – the practice of rendering the Homeric epics into different forms of ancient Greek – this chapter aims to establish the central hermeneutic function of intralingual translation in the premodern period. By studying pedagogical, rhetorical, and literary rewordings produced by Greek speakers in antiquity, it is argued that translations of the Iliad and Odyssey dating from the seventh century BCE onward were the direct result of the poems' unique combination of cultural prestige and linguistic obscurity. Moreover, through fresh analysis of ancient commentary on textual transformations, it is revealed that classical writers applied terms such as hermēneuein ("interpret") and metaphrazein ("reformulate") to acts of translation occurring both within and across languages. Consequently, this chapter not only antedates the practice and theorization of intralingual translation by a millennium but also shows that ancient texts can advance the study of translation today by challenging the very distinction between intralingual and interlingual textual practices.
