The "demotic Greek" in the translation I was taught (by Kazantzakis and
Kakridis) is a language made up by the translators and not the modern Greek
spoken by everdyay people, not even the translators' contemporaries. As far as
I understand it (you will struggle to find a clear discussion of this on the
English-speaking internet, and possibly not in the Greek-speaking one, also)
it is a language created for political reasons, from bits and pieces of the
speech of farmers in the countryside, but without being a specific local
dialect, just a patchwork of local dialects; it is the language that
proletarians would speak, at least in the confused imagination of the
translators. Incidentally, the same translators destroyed my attempt to read
Dante's Inferno, in high school, when I asked for a translation and was given
one of their own (or I think it was just Kakridis) in the same style.
Just to be clear, I grew up reading Katharevousa because my family was
right-leaning and my father considered Katharevousa to be a "correct" Greek,
closer to the ancient Greek. Which of the ancient Greek dialects, I never
asked, but that was also a fake, made-up, politically-motivated langauge that
nobody spoke in everyday life, and never will.
There are plenty of very silly people in Greece that carry around unrealistic
ideas about what "proper Greek" means, for example I've seen folks use the
polytonic system in internet posts, which uses accents inherited from Koine
Greek meant to teach barbarians proper Gerek pronounciation... that we no
longer use.
It's all a bit like the French Academy's attempt to control how French is
spoken: a futile, misguided and ill-thought out attempt, entirely politically
motivated, that will never work. Ηuman language is an expression of the
freedom of the human spirit and no idiot can control it, try as they might.
Btw, this is the translation of the Iliad I was taught at school:
And here's a short excerpt (my transcription, and [sic]'s)):
Του Δία και της Λητώς τους έσπρωξεν [sic] ο γιος που με το ρήγα [sic]
χολιάζοντας [sic] κακιά εξεσήκωσεν [sic] αρρώστια και πέθαιναν [sic]
στρατός πολύς' τι [sic] δε σεβάστηκεν [sic] ο γιος [sic[ του Ατρεά το Χρύση,
του θεού το λειτουργό· στ' Αργίτικα γοργά καράβια είχε έρθει
με λύτρα αρίφνητα [sic], την κόρη του να ξαγοράσει πίσω [sic],
του μακροσαγιτάρη [sic] Απόλλωνα κρατώντας τα στεφάνια
πα [sic] στο χρυσό ραβδί, και πρόσπεφτε μπρος στους Αγίτες όλους,
ξεχωριστά στους δυο πολέμαρχους υγιους [sic] του Ατρέα γυρνώντας"
Sorry about the sics, but it's that kind of language that pissed me off as a
high-schooler: nobody. Nobody speaks that way in modern Greek. No. Body.
There was an older version by Iakovos Polylas, in katharevousa, or
katharevousa-like demotic, not sure. I think the two books have been used
interchangeably at differen times. Why? Why can't we have an ordinary,
easy-to-read translation for school kids? Is it any wonder they prefer to
watch One Piece and read Spider Μan than this incomprehensible nonsense?
