Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Prayer to the Trinity
Homer, Iliad 4.285-289 (Agamemnon speaking; tr. A.T. Murray):
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Ye Aiantes, leaders of the brazen-coated Argives, to you twain, for it beseemeth not to urge you, I give no charge; for of yourselves ye verily bid your people fight amain. I would, O father Zeus and Athene and Apollo, that such spirit as yours might be found in the breasts of all...I generally like Murray's translation, despite the archaic English, because it is so literal. Here, however, I was taken aback by "as yours". Agamemnon addresses the two Ajaxes in line 285, but then turns and addresses Zeus, Athena, and Apollo in line 288. I would have expected "as theirs" (i.e. "as the two Ajaxes") instead of "as yours". Apparently Murray regarded the address to the gods as purely parenthetical. William F. Wyatt kept "as yours" in his revision of Murray's translation. Neither "as yours" nor "as theirs" occurs in the Greek, of course, and I would just leave the phrase out when translating.
Αἴαντ᾽ Ἀργείων ἡγήτορε χαλκοχιτώνων,
σφῶϊ μέν — οὐ γὰρ ἔοικ᾽ ὀτρυνέμεν — οὔ τι κελεύω·
αὐτὼ γὰρ μάλα λαὸν ἀνώγετον ἶφι μάχεσθαι.
αἲ γὰρ Ζεῦ τε πάτερ καὶ Ἀθηναίη καὶ Ἄπολλον
τοῖος πᾶσιν θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι γένοιτο...
