Monday, November 19, 2018
That Glory Which Is Loveliest
Euripides, Trojan Women 386-390 (tr. Richmond Lattimore):
Id. 400-402:
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The Trojans have that glory which is loveliest:In line 387, spear is the subject, not the object, i.e. "whom the spear took..."
they died for their own country. So the bodies of all
who took the spears were carried home in loving hands,
brought, in the land of their fathers, to the embrace of earth
and buried becomingly as the rite fell due.
Τρῶες δὲ πρῶτον μέν, τὸ κάλλιστον κλέος,
ὑπὲρ πάτρας ἔθνῃσκον· οὓς δ᾿ ἕλοι δόρυ,
νεκροί γ᾿ ἐς οἴκους φερόμενοι φίλων ὕπο
ἐν γῇ πατρῴᾳ περιβολὰς εἶχον χθονός,
χερσὶν περισταλέντες ὧν ἐχρῆν ὕπο.
Id. 400-402:
Though surely the wise man will forever shrink from war,
yet if war come, the hero's death will lay a wreath
not lusterless on the city.
φεύγειν μὲν οὖν χρὴ πόλεμον ὅστις εὖ φρονεῖ·
εἰ δ᾿ ἐς τόδ᾿ ἔλθοι, στέφανος οὐκ αἰσχρὸς πόλει
καλῶς ὀλέσθαι.
