Swimming with Translators

What does Ovid mean when he writes: "rapid he, having slapped [his] body with hollow palms / dives into liquids and leading alternate arms / [he] gleams through liquid waters..."? He means swimming. And in fact, he is very specific about what kind of swimming: "hollow palms," "alternate arms" must mean the breast stroke––or does it?

Then why do translations, from Melville to Golding, describe a completely different kind of swimming? Through a deep dive on these particular lines and their various translations, Kates will enter into a broader discussion about how different translators approach the same lines of an original text through their own culture and experience.