Odyssey Reading Group: Book 6 Lines 162-185

Are you reading Homeric Greek? Whether you are a total beginner or an advanced Homerist, here you can meet kindred spirits. Besides Homer, use this board for all things early Greek poetry.
Post Reply
seanjonesbw
Textkit Enthusiast
Posts: 527
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 7:06 pm
Location: Wales

Odyssey Reading Group: Book 6 Lines 162-185

Post by seanjonesbw »

Welcome to the Odyssey Reading Group! Anyone is welcome to join in at any time, regardless of their Greek ability. If you’re itching to explore Homer’s epic tale of survival, adventure, love, lust, kinship, betrayal and spooky dead people, hop on in, you’ll be very welcome. People who have some Greek but have never tried reading Homer before are doubly welcome.

Check the introductory thread for a description of how the group works.

We’re working from Geoffrey Steadman’s Odyssey Books 6-8, a freely-available pdf
Resources
Show
An introduction to Book 6 and a list of resources for deeper study are available in the group dropbox folder

I’ve also been making flashcards to go with Steadman’s text (vocab occurring >8 times in Books 6-8)
Next week (Friday 2nd August) we’ll be reading Book 6 Lines 186-210

seanjonesbw
Textkit Enthusiast
Posts: 527
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 7:06 pm
Location: Wales

Re: Odyssey Reading Group: Book 6 Lines 162-185

Post by seanjonesbw »

162 Δήλῳ δή ποτε τοῖον Ἀπόλλωνος παρὰ βωμῷ 163 φοίνικος νέον ἔρνος ἀνερχόμενον ἐνόησα· 164 ἦλθον γὰρ καὶ κεῖσε, πολὺς δέ μοι ἕσπετο λαός 165 τὴν ὁδὸν ᾗ δὴ μέλλεν ἐμοὶ κακὰ κήδε ̓ ἔσεσθαι. 166 ὣς δ ̓ αὔτως καὶ κεῖνο ἰδὼν ἐτεθήπεα θυμῷ 167 δήν, ἐπεὶ οὔ πω τοῖον ἀνήλυθεν ἐκ δόρυ γαίης, 168 ὡς σέ, γύναι, ἄγαμαί τε τέθηπά τε, δείδιά τ ̓ αἰνῶς 169 γούνων ἅψασθαι· χαλεπὸν δέ με πένθος ἱκάνει. 170 χθιζὸς ἐεικοστῷ φύγον ἤματι οἴνοπα πόντον· 171 τόφρα δέ μ ̓ αἰεὶ κῦμ ̓ ἐφόρει κραιπναί τε θύελλαι 172 νήσου ἀπ ̓ Ὠγυγίης. νῦν δ ̓ ἐνθάδε κάββαλε δαίμων, 173 ὄφρ ̓ ἔτι που καὶ τῇδε πάθω κακόν· οὐ γὰρ ὀΐω 174 παύσεσθ ̓, ἀλλ ̓ ἔτι πολλὰ θεοὶ τελέουσι πάροιθεν. 175 ἀλλά, ἄνασσ ̓, ἐλέαιρε· σὲ γὰρ κακὰ πολλὰ μογήσας 176 ἐς πρώτην ἱκόμην, τῶν δ ̓ ἄλλων οὔ τινα οἶδα 177 ἀνθρώπων, οἳ τήνδε πόλιν καὶ γαῖαν ἔχουσιν. 178 ἄστυ δέ μοι δεῖξον, δὸς δὲ ῥάκος ἀμφιβαλέσθαι, 179 εἴ τί που εἴλυμα σπείρων ἔχες ἐνθάδ ̓ ἰοῦσα. 180 σοὶ δὲ θεοὶ τόσα δοῖεν ὅσα φρεσὶ σῇσι μενοινᾷς, 181 ἄνδρα τε καὶ οἶκον, καὶ ὁμοφροσύνην ὀπάσειαν 182 ἐσθλήν· οὐ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ γε κρεῖσσον καὶ ἄρειον, 183 ἢ ὅθ ̓ ὁμοφρονέοντε νοήμασιν οἶκον ἔχητον 184 ἀνὴρ ἠδὲ γυνή· πόλλ ̓ ἄλγεα δυσμενέεσσι, 185 χάρματα δ ̓ εὐμενέτῃσι, μάλιστα δέ τ ̓ ἔκλυον αὐτοί.”

seanjonesbw
Textkit Enthusiast
Posts: 527
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 7:06 pm
Location: Wales

Re: Odyssey Reading Group: Book 6 Lines 162-185

Post by seanjonesbw »

Has everyone already read the Onion's "You Are No Longer Welcome In The Homer Reading Group"? Here it is if you haven't. Everyone is, of course, welcome in this one!

Not so much a question as a some vaguely connected observations - Odysseus' speech begins with γουνοῦμαί σε, ἄνασσα· θεός νύ τις, ἦ βροτός ἐσσι;

The three other instances of the γουνοῦμαί σε formula in Homer are identical with each other (apart from the name), with the suppliant begging for mercy:

γουνοῦμαι σʼ Ἀχιλεῦ· σὺ δέ μʼ αἴδεο καί μʼ ἐλέησον· Il. 21.74 (Lykaon - Achilles kills him)
γουνοῦμαί σʼ, Ὀδυσεῦ· σὺ δέ μʼ αἴδεο καί μʼ ἐλέησον· Od. 22.312 (Leiodes - head chopped off by Odysseus as a result)
γουνοῦμαί σʼ, Ὀδυσεῦ· σὺ δέ μʼ αἴδεο καί μʼ ἐλέησον· Od. 22.340 (Phemios the bard - spared)

I thought that it was interesting, in the light of Paul's comment in the previous thread about Odysseus promising to pray to Nausicaa as a god, that Phemios says that if Odysseus saves him then he will sing to him like a god (ἔοικα δέ τοι παραείδειν ὥς τε θεῷ·).

Can ὥς θεῷ/θεῷ ὣς mean both "in the same way I would to a god" and "as if you were a god"? I'm aware this is rambling and not really connected to this week's passage so feel free to wrest my hand from the tiller!

User avatar
Barry Hofstetter
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 1739
Joined: Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:22 pm

Re: Odyssey Reading Group: Book 6 Lines 162-185

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

seanjonesbw wrote: Fri Jul 26, 2019 2:16 pm
I thought that it was interesting, in the light of Paul's comment in the previous thread about Odysseus promising to pray to Nausicaa as a god, that Phemios says that if Odysseus saves him then he will sing to him like a god (ἔοικα δέ τοι παραείδειν ὥς τε θεῷ·).

Can ὥς θεῷ/θεῷ ὣς mean both "in the same way I would to a god" and "as if you were a god"? I'm aware this is rambling and not really connected to this week's passage so feel free to wrest my hand from the tiller!
That's okay. The weekly readings are a pleasant supplement to my daily Iliad readings. Let's see, what potentially outrageous thing can I claim to attract our list demi-gods into the discussion? Not thinking of anything at the moment, but in response to ὥς θεῷ/θεῷ ὣς I can see no other meaning in context.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter

Cuncta mortalia incerta...

User avatar
Paul Derouda
Global Moderator
Posts: 2292
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 9:39 pm

Re: Odyssey Reading Group: Book 6 Lines 162-185

Post by Paul Derouda »

How dare you call me a demi-god?

Aetos
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 1041
Joined: Sat May 19, 2018 6:04 pm

Re: Odyssey Reading Group: Book 6 Lines 162-185

Post by Aetos »

Paul Derouda wrote: Sat Aug 03, 2019 9:25 pm How dare you call me a demi-god?
That's because he said it half jokingly!

Post Reply