Sunday, April 02, 2023
Prayer to Athena
Homer, Iliad 5.115-120 (Diomedes speaking; tr. Peter Green; Greek text after Martin L. West's Teubner edition):
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Hear me, unwearying child of Zeus of the aegis!G.S. Kirk on Iliad 2.157:
If ever with kindly heart you stood beside my father
in the madness of battle, now befriend me too, Athēnē!
Let me take down this man, let him come within my spear cast,
whose shot caught me unawares, who now boasts over me, who
swears that not for much longer shall I look on the sun's bright light.
κλῦθί μοι, αἰγιόχοιο Διὸς τέκος, Ἀτρυτώνη· 115
εἴ ποτέ μοι καὶ πατρὶ φίλα φρονέουσα παρέστης
δηΐῳ ἐν πολέμῳ, νῦν αὖτ᾽ ἐμὲ φῖλαι, Ἀθήνη·
τόνδέ τέ μ᾽ ἄνδρα ἑλεῖν καὶ ἐς ὁρμὴν ἔγχεος ἐλθεῖν,
ὅς μ᾽ ἔβαλε φθάμενος καὶ ἐπεύχεται, οὐδέ μέ φησιν
δηρὸν ἔτ᾽ ὄψεσθαι λαμπρὸν φάος ἠελίοιο. 120
ἀτρυτώνη occurs 5x Il., 3x Od. as an epithet for Athene and as part of the formula (αἰγιόχοιο) Διὸς τέκος, ἀτρυτώνη as here. Derivation is uncertain, but probably from τρύω, cf. τείρω, 'wear out', and therefore 'unwearied' as in Aeschylus, Eum. 403, ἄτρυτον πόδα; in which case the capital letter adopted in many modern texts is unjustified.Y. Gerhard on Ἀτρυτώνη in Lexikon des frühgriechischen Epos: