Friday, December 23, 2022
A Square Peg in a Round Hole
Euripides, fragment 360 Kannicht, lines 7-13 (from Erectheus; tr. Edward M. Harris):
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Above all, our people have not come as aliensSee Maurizio Sonnino, Euripidis Erechthei quae exstant. Introduzione. Testo Critico. Commento. Traduzione (diss. Rome, 2009), pp. 189-196.
From elsewhere, but we are born from this earth.
Other cities, founded by migrations with men imported
From here and there, are thrown together like dice.
Whoever leaves a city and dwells in another,
Like a poor bolt driven into a piece of wood,
Is a citizen in word, but not in deeds.
ᾗ πρῶτα μὲν λεὼς οὐκ ἐπακτὸς ἄλλοθεν,
αὐτόχθονες δ' ἔφυμεν· αἱ δ᾽ ἄλλαι πόλεις
πεσσῶν ὁμοίως διαφοραῖς ἐκτισμέναι
ἄλλαι παρ' ἄλλων εἰσὶν εἰσαγώγιμοι. 10
ὅστις δ' ἀπ' ἄλλης πόλεος οἰκήσῃ πόλιν,
ἁρμὸς πονηρὸς ὥσπερ ἐν ξύλῳ παγείς,
λόγῳ πολίτης ἐστί, τοῖς δ' ἔργοισιν οὔ.
