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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMI* THE LAST OFTHE HOMERIDAI: GOETHE’S ROADTOHERAIANN UND DOROTHEA DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Amy ElvaKaiulani Vail, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2001 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Duane W. Roller, Advisor Professor Barbara Becker-Cantarino Professor Kirk Freudenberg Advisor Professor Stephen Tracy Department of Greek and Latin UMI Number: 3011155 Copyright 2001 by Vail, Amy Elva KaiulanI All rights reserved. UMI' UMI Microform 3011155 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Copyright by Amy ElvaKaiulani Vail 2001 ABSTRACT Johann Wolfgang Friedrich von Goethe (1749-1832) studied Homeric epic for most his life. He first began to leam Greek in the summer of 1758, at the age of eleven. His earliest known readings of the Iliad and Odyssey took place in Strasbourg in the winter of 1770-1771. In the summer of 1772, he wrote various reviews of contemporary Homeric scholarship for the Frankfurter Gelehrte Aiizeigen, as well as a physiognometric analysis of a bust of Homer. He translated Pindar’s Fifth Olympian Ode in the spring of 1773. Homeric echoes abound in Die Leiden desJungen Werthers, published in 1774. After his move to Weimar in 1775, Goethe’s court duties kept him too busy for much classical study, but he did interest himself in the Homer translations of Gottfried August Burger and Johann Jakob Bodmer. His first trip to Italy (1786-8), a country he identified with the mythical Arcadia, reawakened his interestin the ancient world, inspiring him to write Ulysses aufPIiad, later retitled Nausikaa, an unfinished tragedy based on the Phaiakian section of the Odyssey. Versuch eine Hornerisclie dunkle Stelle zu erklaren, Goethe’s first and only piece of serious textual criticism of Homeric epic, was written upon his return to Rome from Sicily in 1788. His Rdmische Elegien, written when he came back to Weimar in 1789, display considerable Homeric influence. Stimulated by Johann Heinrich Voss’ 1794 visit to Weimar, he translated theHomeric Hymn to Apollo and passages from the Iliad and Odyssey into German hexameters. The following year, Friedrich August Wolf stayed in Weimar. His theories on the oral transmission of Homeric epic initially repelled Goethe, but ultimately made it possible for him to compose Hermann and Dorothea. ii Goethe’s creative response to the Iliad and Odyssey was typically personal. In Homeric epic, he found idealized Arcadian landscape and noble, deeply passionate characters. He imported sentimental love into his vision, and integrated into it the affectionate nostalgia that informs Hermann and Dorothea, a unique poem in which Homeric landscape coalesces into Arcadia and epic and idyll combine. m Dedicated to my family IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Duane W. Roller, for his steadfast help, patience and enthusiasm, without which this dissertation could not have been written. In addition, I would like to thank my committee members, Barbara Becker-Cantarino, Stephen Tracy, and Kirk Freudenburg, for their support, close reading, and valuable insights. Many people have generously helped in the preparation of this thesis. I am grateful to Ron Huber of the Columbus Lutheran Seminary, Jane Hathaway and Erik Eklund of the Ohio State University Department of History, Christopher Kenney of the University of Rio Grande, and Beau Case of the Ohio State University Library, all of whom have assisted me in research. I would also like to thank Bruce Heiden, Frank Coulson, and June Allison for their interest and encouragement. Thanks are due to Mary Cole and Betsy Tannehill, who have made every technical detail easier with their expertise and efficiency. I am grateful for all of the financial support I have received during the preparation of this dissertation. My aunt, Edith Lank, has been unstinting with both scholarly and financial help, the Vail Family Association kindly awarded me a scholarship in the summer of 1999, and my father, Rex Vail, makes my studies possible with his love and generosity. VITA August 17, 1962 ............................... Bom - Honolulu, Hawaii 1988.................................................... M.A. Latin, Queen’s University 1988 - 1991 ....................................... Post-graduate Research Student Classics Department The University of Durham, Durham, England 1995 - present.................................. Graduate Teaching Associate The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS Research Publication 1. Amy E. K. Vail, “On First Looking Into West’s Aeneid'' Tropos 25 (1999) 107. 2. Amy E. K. Vail, “Einstein’s Introduction to Diehls’ Edition of De Renim Natura.' CW S2 (1989) 435-6. 3. Amy E. K. Vail, ‘Translations of Three Epigrams of Martial.” Poetry Comer (Spring 1986) 14-15. HELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Greek and Latin VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page D edication ......................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ...............................................................................................................v Vita............................................................................................................................................. vi List of Figures ................................................................................................................... x List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................xi Chapters: 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................1 2. “Dies ist der Olymp!”............................................................................................ 7 Labores luvenilis, early linguistic studies ................................................. 7 Leipzig and Johann Gottlieb Bôhme ....................................................14 Strassb^ourg and Herder ..........................................................................17 Rede zum Shakespears Tag .......................................................................... 22 Merck and the Frankfiirter Gelehrte Anzeigen .............................................22 Review of Seybold’ s Schreiben über den Homer ..........................24 Review of Franken zur GriechischenLiteratur ................................26 Wetziar and the Gôttinger Hain......................................................................27 Translation of Pindar* s Fifth Olympian Ode ................................................31 Werther ........................................................................................................ 37 Werther as reader ...................................................................... 38 Werther as Odysseus .................................................................38 Werther, Ossian, and Homer .........................................................45 Homer nach einem in Constantinopel gefundnen Bruchstück. .................48 W eim ar 1775-1786 ..................................................................................52 Waldeck ..........................................................................................53 Gottfried August Bürger* s iZwrf translation .................................55 Visit to Johann Jakob Bodmer ...................................................56 vu 3. “Auch ich in Arcadien ! ”.............................................................................................73 Reisebeschreibungen ...................................................................................... 74 Carlsbad and the journey to Rome ...................................................... 76 Italy as Arcadia .................................................................................... 77 Die Familie Goethe in Schafertracht................................................