‘Theseus’ Project Website

The main goal of the Theseus Project is to create an electronic database of Bulgarian translations of Greek literary works serving and facilitating the comparative studies on the characteristics of the Greek-Bulgarian translation and also on the general reception of the Greek culture and literature considering the possibilities provided by the virtual space and the computer education.

The first stage of the project includes digitalising approximately 1000 pages of selected works and their analysis considering the interpretation of Greek names and cultural elements in Bulgarian. The underlying approach is the comparison between the Bulgarian versions of the corresponding Greek names and cultural elements in the different translations. Thus the translators’s methods will be classified and compared to the existing standard of transcription, in order to have it actualised and standartised.

The expected results of this project are not to be considered apart from the previous achievements in digitalising the basic working texts for the field of the Classical studies in Bulgaria. On the contrary, we hope that ‘Theseus’ will function as a continuation of the Romulus Bulgaricus Project, developed since 1997. The digital database ‘Theseus’ will be a necessary addition to the research of the reception of the Greek literature in Bulgaria and it can be used by specialists and a broader readership as well along with the more and more increasing number of websites, which offer similar topics in other languages.

The exact reason why the sequel of ‘Romulus’ was named ‘Theseus’ is the traditional connection between the two kings, the founder of Rome and the uniter of Athens. But Theseus is also the hero, who escaped from the labyrinth of the Minotaur, and so we hope that the project that bears his name will help the readers orientate in the labyrinth of Bulgarian translations of Greek authors, and will also be a guide to the future translators towards the better translation technique.

Theseus Project team: Dorothea Tabakova, Nevena Panova, Nedjalka Georgieva, Nicolay Sharankov

Department of Classical Studies, Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology, Sofia University 'St. Kliment Ohridski'

 

 Translation: Tzvetomira Todorova