Translation as Narrative and Translator as Active Guide: Rufinus' Process of Translating Origen's Narrative of the Soul's Descent

This dissertation is invested in an interdisciplinary approach to the study of translation in the antique world. From this perspective, the project demonstrates how the study of the translator Rufinus of Aquileia can be informed by relevant modern translation theories. Rufinus’ project of translating the works of Origen takes place in a time when charges of “Origenism” were synonymous with charges of heresy, and thus Rufinus was engaging in a very sensitive endeavor. Informed by modern translation theorists such as Lawrence Venuti, Roger Bell, Tejaswini Niranjana, and Eugene Nida, the dissertation studies translation as a process and highlights the role of the translator as interpreter and active agent. The emphasis is on uncovering the overall narrative of the translation process, viewing translations as rewritings, and recommending a more mindful approach to using translations in research today. Rufinus’ translations have been subject to a substantial amount of critical work, and many scholars use his Latin texts in place of Origen’s lost Greek versions. I argue that this approach to Rufinus’ Latin texts has resulted in a misconception about how Origen viewed thought formation, and that a fresh look at Rufinus’ translation process reveals that he has undermined Origen’s moral psychology. Due in part to Rufinus’ reliance on the philosophy of thinking developed by his contemporary Evagrius Ponticus, the line between thoughts and emotions is blurred in translation, and so thoughts, conflated with passions, themselves become sinful. Rufinus’ translation resulted in a radical shift in the history of consciousness and the concept of thoughts as constituting sinful states, in and of themselves.PhDClassical StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145960/1/lloehn_1.pd