Monday, September 16, 2013
An Uncompanionable, Disagreeable Person
Samuel Butler (1835-1902), The Way of All Flesh, chapter XIX:
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Homer tells us about some one who made it his business αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν καὶ ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι ἄλλων—always to excel and to stand higher than other people. What an uncompanionable, disagreeable person he must have been! Homer's heroes generally came to a bad end, and I doubt not that this gentleman, whoever he was, did so sooner or later.I'm re-reading The Way of All Flesh in the Perennial Classic paperback edition (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965), which I bought long ago new for 50 cents. In this edition, the Greek αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν is misprinted as αἴεν ἀρωτεύειν (p. 82). The line occurs twice in the Iliad, at 6.208 and 11.784.
Labels: typographical and other errors
