Tuesday, October 04, 2022
Prayer
The first line of Aeschylus' Agamemnon is a neat, self-contained prayer, if taken in isolation (my translation):
Newer› ‹Older
I ask the gods for release from these toils...The Greek is so simple that most commentaries have nothing to say about the line, apart from the μὲν solitarium. Note the double accusative after αἰτῶ (LSJ "c. acc. pers. [θεοὺς] et rei [ἀπαλλαγὴν], ask a person for a thing").
θεοὺς μὲν αἰτῶ τῶνδ' ἀπαλλαγὴν πόνων...