A Hungarian Priest from the 19th Century who Translated Homer

Abstract István Szabó was considered the most outstanding Hellenist of Hungary in the 19 th century. He was the first who translated the two great Homer’s epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey into Hungarian, as well as the fables of Aesop. István Szabó began his service as a priest in the villages of Nógrád. Ferenc Kazinczy also noticed the young priest during his traveling in Northern Hungary, in Palócföld. In 1863, the Historian Frigyes Pesty presented his intention to collect Hungarian toponyms to the Hungarian Royal Council of Governor-General. He collected the toponyms of all the settlements in the Carpathian Basin. The handwriting and correction of the priest-translator István Szabó can be found in the text of the toponym-collection. In my study, on one hand, I will write about the significance of the Pesty’s collection, as well as about the literary activity of István Szabó, and his contribution to the collection of toponyms in Nógrád.