Monday, April 09, 2018
A Good Land
Homer, Odyssey 15.403-411 (tr. Richmond Lattimore):
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There is an island, called Syria, you may have heard of it,Note that line 406 (εὔβοτος, εὔμηλος, οἰνοπληθής, πολύπυρος) consists entirely of adjectives in asyndeton. For similar hexameter lines see:
lying above Ortygia, where the sun makes his turnings;
not so much a populous island, but a good one, good for 405
cattle and good for sheep, full of vineyards, and wheat raising.
No hunger ever comes on these people, nor any other
hateful sickness, of such as befall wretched humanity;
but when the generations of men grow old in the city,
Apollo of the silver bow, and Artemis with him, 410
comes with a visitation of painless arrows, and kills them.
νῆσός τις Συρίη κικλήσκεται, εἴ που ἀκούεις,
Ὀρτυγίης καθύπερθεν, ὅθι τροπαὶ ἠελίοιο,
οὔ τι περιπληθὴς λίην τόσον, ἀλλ᾽ ἀγαθὴ μέν, 405
εὔβοτος, εὔμηλος, οἰνοπληθής, πολύπυρος.
πείνη δ᾽ οὔ ποτε δῆμον ἐσέρχεται, οὐδέ τις ἄλλη
νοῦσος ἐπὶ στυγερὴ πέλεται δειλοῖσι βροτοῖσιν·
ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε γηράσκωσι πόλιν κάτα φῦλ᾽ ἀνθρώπων,
ἐλθὼν ἀργυρότοξος Ἀπόλλων Ἀρτέμιδι ξὺν 410
οἷς ἀγανοῖς βελέεσσιν ἐποιχόμενος κατέπεφνεν.
- Some Lines in Lucretius
- Asyndeton Filling Hexameters
- Asyndeton Filling Hexameters in Sidonius
- Verse-Filling Asyndeton
- Verse-Filling Asyndeton: Some Greek Examples
- Another Greek Example of Verse-Filling Asyndeton
- More Examples of Asyndeton Filling Hexameters
- Asyndeton Filling Hexameters in Corippus
- Twelve Gods
- Seven Cities
- A Hexameter Consisting of Nouns in Asyndeton
- More Hexameters Consisting of Words in Asyndeton
- Hexameters Consisting of Words in Asyndeton: Dracontius
- Zopyrus' Victims
- A Latin Hexameter Consisting of Adjectives in Asyndeton
- Hexameters Consisting Entirely of Words in Asyndeton: More Greek Examples
- A Sojourn in the Country
- Destruction
- Hexameters Consisting Entirely of Words in Asyndeton: A Horatian Example
- Asyndeton Filling Hexameters: Bernard of Cluny, De Contemptu Mundi, Book I