Friday, July 30, 2021
No Escape
Homer, Iliad 22.300-301 (tr. Richmond Lattimore):
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And now evil death is close to me, and no longer far away,Nicholas Richardson ad loc.:
and there is no way out.
νῦν δὲ δὴ ἐγγύθι μοι θάνατος κακός, οὐδ᾽ ἔτ᾽ ἄνευθεν,
οὐδ᾽ ἀλέη.
For 300 cf. 16.853 (Patroklos to Hektor) = 24.132 (Thetis to Akhilleus) ἄγχι παρέστηκεν θάνατος καὶ μοῖρα κραταιή. ἀλέη ('escape') occurs only here in Homer. Cf. Hes. Erga 545, and Hippocrates, Aer. 19; ἀλεωρή 3x Il.Cf. also the verb ἀλέομαι = avoid, shun, flee.
