We are pleased to share this segment in the series on reading Homeric epic in ancient Greek. In each installment we read, translate, and discuss a small passage in the original Greek in the most accessible way. If you’ve ever dreamed of reading Homer in the original, here is your chance to do so with teachers who have spent a lifetime thinking about this poetry. With their guidance even new readers can enjoy “the poetry of grammar and the grammar of poetry” that make Homeric epic so exquisite and rewarding.
In this segment, Douglas Frame (CHS), Leonard Muellner (Brandeis University), and Gregory Nagy (Harvard University), continue their discussion of Odyssey 1.169–177. Topics include: the power of the conjunction epei to conjure myth; keĩnos in epiphanies; and Athena’s travels.
Mentioned in this video: Mark Schiefsky, Pierre-Yves Jacopin; Hippocrates, Herodotus, Thucydides
Odyssey 1.169–177[1]
ἀλλ᾽ ἄγε μοι τόδε εἰπὲ καὶ ἀτρεκέωςκατάλεξον:
τίς πόθεν εἰς ἀνδρῶν; πόθι τοι πόλις ἠδὲτοκῆες; 170
ὁπποίης τ᾽ ἐπὶ νηὸς ἀφίκεο: πῶς δέ σεναῦται
ἤγαγον εἰς Ἰθάκην; τίνες ἔμμεναιεὐχετόωντο;
οὐ μὲν γὰρ τί σε πεζὸν ὀίομαι ἐνθάδ᾽ἱκέσθαι.
καί μοι τοῦτ᾽ ἀγόρευσον ἐτήτυμον, ὄφρ᾽ ἐὺεἰδῶ,
ἠὲ νέον μεθέπεις ἦ καὶ πατρώιός ἐσσι 175
ξεῖνος, ἐπεὶ πολλοὶ ἴσαν ἀνέρες ἡμέτερονδῶ
ἄλλοι, ἐπεὶ καὶ κεῖνος ἐπίστροφος ἦνἀνθρώπων.
[1] Homer. The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
Odyssey 1.125–177 on Perseus
Odyssey 1.169–177 on Scaife