Laudator Temporis Acti

Homer, Odyssey 13.242-247 (on Ithaca; tr. Peter Green):

It’s rough terrain, not fit for the driving of horses,
Yet not wholly worthless, even if lacking broad plains.
Grain grows there abundantly, wine too is a product,
there’s always rain and dew to keep it fertile, it’s good
pasture for goats and cattle, there’s also fine ground cover
of every sort, together with all-year watering-places.

ἦ τοι μὲν τρηχεῖα καὶ οὐχ ἱππήλατός ἐστιν,
οὐδὲ λίην λυπρή, ἀτὰρ οὐδ᾽ εὐρεῖα τέτυκται.
ἐν μὲν γάρ οἱ σῖτος ἀθέσφατος, ἐν δέ τε οἶνος
γίγνεται· αἰεὶ δ᾽ ὄμβρος ἔχει τεθαλυῖά τ᾽ ἐέρση·        245
αἰγίβοτος δ᾽ ἀγαθὴ καὶ βούβοτος· ἔστι μὲν ὕλη
παντοίη, ἐν δ᾽ ἀρδμοὶ ἐπηετανοὶ παρέασι.

A.M. Bowie ad loc.:

242 ἦ τοι μέν: this combination of particles is used of strong expressions of opinion (GP 389).

243 λυπρή ‘poor’, from λύπη ‘pain, poor condition’, is a hapax in Homer, like βούβοτος (246), but the presence of two such words is not a strong argument for deletion of the lines: cf. 14.10n. for a similar collocation of hapaxes in one passage. τέτυκται: the perfect of τεύχομαι regularly means no more than ‘be’ (GH ii.6; cf. 14.138, 234).

244 ἀθέσφατος ‘unlimited’; lit. ‘that which has not been stated or decided by a god’, and so ‘something that does not fit in a given order’ (Fraenkel 1923: 281–2).

W.B. Stanford ad loc.: