Wednesday, June 15, 2022
Spear and Bow
Calvert Watkins (1933-2013), How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 21-22:
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Anyone who knows by heart the couplet of the Greek soldier-poet Archilochus (2 IEG):ἐν δορὶ μὲν μοι μᾶζα μεμαγμένη, ἐν δορὶ δ᾽ οἶνοςwith its triple figure of anaphora of the weapon, will surely recognize and respond to the same figure of anaphora, this time five-fold, of another weapon in Rigveda 6.75.2:
Ἰσμαρικός, πίνω δ᾽ ἐν δορὶ κεκλιμένος,
In my spear is my kneaded bread; in my spear
Ismarian wine; I drink leaning on my spear,dhánvanā gā́ dhánvanājíṃ jayema
dhánvanā tīvrā́ḥ samádo jayema
dhánuḥ śátror apakāmáṃ kṛṇoti
dhánvanā sárvāḥ pradíśo jayema
With the bow may we win cattle, with the bow the fight;
with the bow may we win fierce battles.
The bow takes away the enemy's zeal;
with the bow may we win all the regions.
