Terms: a thunderbolt, a lightning and a thunder and difficulties in translation of Latin ancient writings, with special regard to religion and legal matters (selected examples)

Abstract

Translators of the 1st century B.C. and 1st century A.D. Latin authors all the time are faced with difficulties in translation of the words: a thunderbolt (piorun), a lightning (błyskawica) and a thunder (grzmot). This is connected with a few things. First, there are the lack of accurate definitions in specialist literature and in dictionary of Polish language, etymological, synonymous and phraseological. There is also the lack of unambiguous translation in Latin and Polish dictionary. The difficulty is greater because of the word grom, which is the synonym of thunderbolt and thunder.

The correct translation of aforementioned words is important because in ancient Rome these phenomena were connected with religion, precisely with divination, one of the oldest was auspicial ex caelo. Priests took into consideration what they heard and saw. The divination was connected with the political life. We have to remember, that oversight or ignoring of things related to cult had religious and legal consequences. According to Cicero, supreme principle during assemblies was: Iove tonante, fulgurante comitia populi nefas („Kiedy Jowisz grzmi i ciska pioruny (by Rykaczewski „błyska”), nie godzi się odbywać zgromadzeń ludowych” – in Kornatowski’s translation).

The specialists in literature concentrated on discussion about these phenomena in various context (i.a.: T. Zieliński M. Jaczynowska, J. Linderski, H. Kowalski) but did not study terminology. The purpose of this article was reading three dictionaries (Plezia, Korpanty, Sondel) and finding Latin words that were translated into Polish language as: a thunderbolt, a lightning, a thunder and grom. Next, more than 70 words were collected. Morever, some fragments were analysed. The word grom is the biggest problem so if we need it during translation I think we should mention whether thunderbolt or thunder we have in mind. And it is important to take into consideration the scientific definition. In further consideration it will be worth to research these words in the Greek languages and also compare some fragments with other translations into modern languages such as: English, German and French.