Discussion on Exercising Caution When Studying Fragments

Another big issue with fragments, especially from Philodemus, is whether a particular fragment expresses Philodemus' own view or that of an opponent.

In terms of the creativity of translators, you can pick any passage from Lucretius and compare the various translations, and the variation in details is shocking -- even where the texts are very reliable and there's no questions about lost words or whole phrases.

So as I see it this is a problem where it's important to keep all these issues in mind, but there's no "solution" other than build from the ground up with a basic understanding of the fundamentals, and then consider any translations in the context of what we are confident is true. That way we can separate out what is likely a good translation from one that's got so much discretionary flourish as to mean totally different things.

And to think how many people over the years have gotten wrapped up in controversies over every detail of the King James and other translations of the Bible .

Lucretius Side-by-Side