Saturday, April 06, 2024
Slaughter
Homer, Odyssey 11.412-415 (Agamemnon to Odysseus; tr. A.T. Murray):
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So I died by a most pitiful death, and round about me the rest of my comradesGreek Anthology 10.85 (by Palladas; tr. W.R. Paton):
were slain unceasingly like white-tusked swine,
which are slaughtered in the house of a rich man of great might
at a marriage feast, or a joint meal, or a rich drinking-bout.
ὣς θάνον οἰκτίστῳ θανάτῳ· περὶ δ᾽ ἄλλοι ἑταῖροι
νωλεμέως κτείνοντο σύες ὣς ἀργιόδοντες,
οἵ ῥά τ᾽ ἐν ἀφνειοῦ ἀνδρὸς μέγα δυναμένοιο
ἢ γάμῳ ἢ ἐράνῳ ἢ εἰλαπίνῃ τεθαλυίῃ. 415
We are all kept and fed for death,The same (tr. Tony Harrison):
like a herd of swine to be slain without reason.
πάντες τῷ θανάτῳ τηρούμεθα, καὶ τρεφόμεσθα
ὡς ἀγέλη χοίρων σφαζομένων ἀλόγως.
Death feeds us up, keeps an eye on our weight
and herds us like pigs through the abattoir gate.
