Lines 86-92
οὐ μὰ γὰρ Ἀπόλλωνα διίφιλον, ᾧ τε σύ, Καλχαν,
εὐχόμενος Δαναοῖσι θεοπροπίας ἀναφαίνεις,
οὔ τις ἐμεῦ ζῶντος καὶ ἐπὶ χθονὶ δερκομένοιο
σοὶ κοίλῃς παρὰ νηυσὶ βαρείας χεῖρας ἐποίσει
συμπάντων Δαναῶν, οὐδ' ἢν Ἀγαμέμνονα εἴπῃς,
ὅς νῦν πολλὸν ἄριστος Ἀχαιῶν εὔχεται εἶναι."
καὶ τότε δὴ θάρσησε καὶ ηὔδα μάντις ἀμύμων·
For I swear by Apollo who is dear to Zeus,
And to whom you pray Calchas, reveal the oracle
To the Danaans and while I live and look upon the earth
No Danaan will lay heavy hands upon you by the hollow ships,
Even if you should say Agamemnon,
Who now often boasts of being the best of the Achaeans."
From then the noble seer took heart and spoke:
Happy New Year to all. This is a magnificent passage of the poem with Achilles making his dramatic oath before the seer. This changes the entire course of the epic for the seer now has the courage and the backing to reveal the oracle which robs Agamemnon of his prize and will divide the two chiefs for the remainder of the tale. I appreciate the ancient bard's decision here to put a slight towards Agamemnon on the lips of the Achilles at the end of his oath to forshadow the coming conflict.
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In the previous verse, it's almost as if Calchas demanded the split between the two. Even if he didn't foresee Briseis, he knew enough to to warn Achilles that speaking the truth would mean trouble with Agamemnon, and Achilles was wise enough to both understand what he meant *and* make sure the entire assembly knew that he understood it.
ReplyDeleteMore than a bit of foreshadowing, I think- it's another way that Homer shows the tragedy of great men and hubris.
Thank you for your comment! Maybe foreshadowing was a poor choice of words. I think though that Calchas of course did have an excellent motivation for securing Achilles to his cause, Homer's primary motivation was to give a sense that there was already a rivalry not so far under the surface between Achilles and Agamemnon. Calchas was keen to exploit that to gain Achilles protection and the result of his revelation and the rift between Achilles and Agamemnon is due their tragic flaws as human beings: unchecked ambition on one part and an overwhelming sense of personal pride on the other. Once again, thank you for participating.
ReplyDeleteNo worries! I wish I had been following you since the beginning; this is a great project. I hope to reread all of these in Greek in a few years-- right now I'm settling for doing so in translation.
ReplyDeleteTonight, I wrote a little more about this particular scene, prompted by your post here. You might enjoy it, and maybe you can add a little wisdom from the original -- something Homer may have said that just doesn't come across well in English. http://readingthegreatbooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/back-to-book-1.html