Entre Claudio y Clodio: Fonética y política en la traducción de Plutarco, ‘Luc.’ 21, 1

Abstract

This paper deals with the Greek transcription of Latin names Claudius and Clodius in the Life of Lucullus by Plutarch, recently translated into Spanish in Gredos Classical Library, and considers several options for translators of Classical languages when facing problems of ambiguity. Two different ways of writing nomen Claudius, which pointed out both learned and popular pronunciation, were used by the time of the late Roman Republic signifying also political differences between the members of that family, the Pulcher. However, in Plutarch’s writings, one of the sources for biographical information about the members of this family, such difference, both phonetical and political, has created some ambiguities that have survived in modern translations of the Parallel Lives (into English, French, German, Italian, Catalan and Spanish). The aim of this paper, between the fields of Greek Philology and Translation Studies, is to clarify such variations and to propose a way to face them in the practice of translation.