Lines 28-32
μή νὺ τοῖ οὐ χραίσμῃ σκῆπτρον καὶ στέμμα θεοῖο
τήν δ'ἐγώ οὐ λύσω. πρίν μιν καὶ γῆρας ἔπεισιν
ἡμετέρῳ ἐνὶ οἴκῳ ἐν Ἀργεϊ, τηλόθι πάτρης
ἱοτὸν ἐποιχομενην καὶ ἐμὸν λέχος ἀντιόωσαν
ἀλλ'ἴθι, μή μ'επεθίζε, σαώτερος ὤς κε νέηαι.
No help will the scepter and wreath of the god be to you
Her I shall not free. Sooner old age will overtake her
in our house in Argos, far from her native land
plying the loom and sharing my bed,
but be gone and vex me not, so the safer you may return
One small note: the trill of that double "L" sound at the beginning of the last line adds so much to the sinister tone of Agamemnon's final words to the priest. Reading this in the original it is amazing how the poet uses the sounds of the language to affect the mood of his tale. It is truly remarkable and more proof that the Iliad was composed to be heard and not read.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Day 11: Climbing the Mountain
Ok, I have to admit the work is getting harder, and the grammar is getting more difficult to master. Difficult, but not impossible... I will hold myself to a certain standard of ability in the language of the particular set of lines before I post and translate them, so I will be posting less frequently, perhaps two or three times a week maybe. I will attempt to put together a regular schedule for this blog in order to keep a following, but this task requires lots of work, and I won't sacrifice quality for speed, but the posts will keep on coming so bear with me please. Thank you so much to those of you around the world who have visited the site and I hope that you will continue to do so. This is an amazing experience, and thank you again for sharing it with me...
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Day 10: Agamemnon and the Priest
Lines 22-27
ἔνθ' ἄλλοι μὲν πάντες ἐπευφήμησαν' Αχαιοὶ
αἰδεῖσθαι θ' ἱερῆα καὶ ἀλγαὰ δέχθαι ἄποινα
ἀλλ' οὐκ Ἀτρείδῃ Ἀγαμέμνονι ἥνδανε θυμῷ
ἀλλὰ κακῶς ἀφίει, κρατερὸν δ'ἐπὶ μῦθον ἔτελλεν
"μή σε, γέρον, κοίλῃσιν ἐγὼ παρὰ νηυσὶ κιχήω
ἣ νῦν δηθύνοντ' ἢ ὕστερον αὖτις ἰόντα
Then all the other Achaeans shouted their assent
Revering the priest, and accepting his shining ransoms,
But not Agamemnon, this did not please the mind of the son of Atreus
And he sent him away with cruel malice, imparting a harsh command:
"No old man, let me not come upon you by the hollow ships,
lingering now, or coming back another time
ἔνθ' ἄλλοι μὲν πάντες ἐπευφήμησαν' Αχαιοὶ
αἰδεῖσθαι θ' ἱερῆα καὶ ἀλγαὰ δέχθαι ἄποινα
ἀλλ' οὐκ Ἀτρείδῃ Ἀγαμέμνονι ἥνδανε θυμῷ
ἀλλὰ κακῶς ἀφίει, κρατερὸν δ'ἐπὶ μῦθον ἔτελλεν
"μή σε, γέρον, κοίλῃσιν ἐγὼ παρὰ νηυσὶ κιχήω
ἣ νῦν δηθύνοντ' ἢ ὕστερον αὖτις ἰόντα
Then all the other Achaeans shouted their assent
Revering the priest, and accepting his shining ransoms,
But not Agamemnon, this did not please the mind of the son of Atreus
And he sent him away with cruel malice, imparting a harsh command:
"No old man, let me not come upon you by the hollow ships,
lingering now, or coming back another time
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Day 9: On the Majesty of the Greek Language
I've reached Lesson XVIII of Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners and there is no section of the poem here. Instead Pharr is beefing up vocab and grammar skills for the coming spurning of Apollo's priest by Agamemnon.
Going through the Greek verb is something that I feel will either drive me completely into the arms of Achilles' mania or lead mind to someplace ethereal. The language is so nuanced and one can be hyperspecific or studiously vague depending on the situation. There are somewhere over 200 principle parts to the Greek verb. So many shades of meaning!! A Greek with excellent rhetorical skills must have ranked as a speaker like Van Gogh did as a painter. I am reminded of Gibbons observation about the Christological controversies of late antiquity: in the Greek speaking provinces of the empire the controversies were carried down to the lowest strata of society whereas in the Latin provinces the issues barely penetrated the popular mind because Latin lacked the words to describe them...
Going through the Greek verb is something that I feel will either drive me completely into the arms of Achilles' mania or lead mind to someplace ethereal. The language is so nuanced and one can be hyperspecific or studiously vague depending on the situation. There are somewhere over 200 principle parts to the Greek verb. So many shades of meaning!! A Greek with excellent rhetorical skills must have ranked as a speaker like Van Gogh did as a painter. I am reminded of Gibbons observation about the Christological controversies of late antiquity: in the Greek speaking provinces of the empire the controversies were carried down to the lowest strata of society whereas in the Latin provinces the issues barely penetrated the popular mind because Latin lacked the words to describe them...
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Day 8: A Breather
Real life sometimes intrudes upon ancient dreams of epic heroes and deathless gods, so I will not be posting again until Tuesday...
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Day 7: A Note on Memory
Today I'm attempting to memorize the first twenty lines of the Iliad. And I've managed to nail about five lol. Oh well, Rome wasn't built in a day...
On a serious note I can say that the effort required to recite these poems from memory (even if there was a great deal of improvisation) must have been astounding. Memory is simply not a skill that we cultivate today, but, I think that three thousand years ago it was a different story. I am reminded of Socrates saying that he did not think that the art of writing was much of an advance because it caused human memory to atrophy. At such a long distance from the invention of writing, it is difficult for us to conceive of a world without it, especially now that most of what were once preliterate cultures out on the fringes of the settled world have now been thrust pell mell into the internet age. But there was a time when memory was the only way of retaining information, though even today it is a mark of honor throughout the Muslim world if one has memorized the length and breadth of the Quran, but this is still based on a written text. The fact that a poem with the complexity of the Iliad came out of a circle of orally composed and remembered legends and it is a tribute to what human beings are capable of if we only try.
On a serious note I can say that the effort required to recite these poems from memory (even if there was a great deal of improvisation) must have been astounding. Memory is simply not a skill that we cultivate today, but, I think that three thousand years ago it was a different story. I am reminded of Socrates saying that he did not think that the art of writing was much of an advance because it caused human memory to atrophy. At such a long distance from the invention of writing, it is difficult for us to conceive of a world without it, especially now that most of what were once preliterate cultures out on the fringes of the settled world have now been thrust pell mell into the internet age. But there was a time when memory was the only way of retaining information, though even today it is a mark of honor throughout the Muslim world if one has memorized the length and breadth of the Quran, but this is still based on a written text. The fact that a poem with the complexity of the Iliad came out of a circle of orally composed and remembered legends and it is a tribute to what human beings are capable of if we only try.
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