Q: In The Skin of Our Teeth, Act I, Wilder includes two quotations, one in Greek by Homer and one in Hebrew by Moses. Can you identify these two quotations and translate them into English for me?
A: The speech by Moses in Hebrew is the beginning of the Bible:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." (Genesis 1:1,2 KJV)
The speech by Homer in Greek is the first 3 lines of "The Iliad"; I only have a prose translation, so this is the quote without line breaks:
"Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles Peleus' son, the ruinous wrath that brought on the Achaians woes inumerable, and hurled down into Hades many strong souls of heroes..." (trans. S.H. Butcher and Andrew Lang)
Perhaps future productions of The Skin of Our Teeth can have the actors playing Moses and Homer say the speeches in English, rather than skipping over them, as most productions do, I think.
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Professor Lincoln Konkle, our resident Wilder expert, is an Associate Professor of English at The College of New Jersey. He teaches courses in American drama and creative writing, as well as an undergraduate seminar on Thornton Wilder's drama and fiction. He has published articles and reviews on Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee and a number of American writers. Currently he is working on a book showing the influence of American literary and cultural traditions, beginning in the seventeenth century, on Wilder's drama and fiction. If the questions seem of interest to our general audience, we will post both the question and answer here. One way or the other, you will get a response. We hope you enjoy this addition to our site, one which many of you have requested.