Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Glory
Homer, Odyssey 8.147-148 (tr. Richmond Lattimore):
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For there is no greater glory that can befall a man livingNeither speed nor strength is in the Greek. The same (tr. A.T. Murray):
than what he achieves by speed of his feet or strength of his hands.
οὐ μὲν γὰρ μεῖζον κλέος ἀνέρος ὄφρα κ᾽ ἔῃσιν,
ἤ ὅ τι ποσσίν τε ῥέξῃ καὶ χερσὶν ἑῇσιν.
For there is no greater glory for a man so long as he lives than that which he achieves by his own hands and his feet.W.B. Stanford ad loc.:
147-8 are lines worth memorizing as an expression of the Greeks' intense love and admiration of athletics, as illustrated also in the Victory Odes of Pindar and the athletic sculptures of the fifth century.
