Monday, April 04, 2022
Triple Blight
Atrahasis, Late Assyrian Version iv, in Benjamin R. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature, 3rd ed. (Bethesda: CDL Press, 2005), p. 272 (the god Enlil is speaking):
Related post: Threefold Blight.
Newer› ‹Older
“Let the fields reduce their yields,The same triple blight, on crops, livestock, and human offspring, can be seen in Greek literature, e.g. Sophocles, Oedipus the King 25-27 (tr. R.C. Jebb):
“The grain-goddess turn aside her bosom,
“Let the black fields whiten,
“Let the broad plain produce salts,
“Let the earth’s womb rebel,
“Let no plants come forth, no sheep fatten.
“Let a malady be laid upon the peoples, (50)
“That the womb be constricted
and give no safe birth to a child.”
A blight has fallen on the fruitful blossoms of the land, the herds among the pastures, the barren pangs of women.P.J. Finglass on the passage from Sophocles:
φθίνουσα μὲν κάλυξιν ἐγκάρποις χθονός,
φθίνουσα δ᾽ ἀγέλαις βουνόμοις τόκοισί τε
ἀγόνοις γυναικῶν.
