Sunday, June 02, 2024
Friends and Enemies
Homer, Iliad 9.613-615 (Achilles to Phoenix; this man = Agamemnon; tr. Richmond Lattimore):
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It does not become youTheognis 869-872 (tr. Douglas E. Gerber):
to love this man, for fear you turn hateful to me, who love you.
It should be your pride with me to hurt whoever shall hurt me.
οὐδέ τί σε χρὴ
τὸν φιλέειν, ἵνα μή μοι ἀπέχθηαι φιλέοντι.
καλόν τοι σὺν ἐμοὶ τὸν κήδειν ὅς κ᾽ ἐμὲ κήδῃ.
May the great wide bronze sky fall upon me from above, the fear of earth-born men, if I do not aid those who are my friends and cause my enemies pain and great misery.Archilochus, fragment 23 West, lines 14-16 (tr. Laura Swift):
ἔν μοι ἔπειτα πέσοι μέγας οὐρανὸς εὐρὺς ὕπερθεν
χάλκεος, ἀνθρώπων δεῖμα χαμαιγενέων,
εἰ μὴ ἐγὼ τοῖσιν μὲν ἐπαρκέσω οἵ με φιλεῦσιν,
τοῖς δ' ἐχθροῖσ' ἀνίη καὶ μέγα πῆμ' ἔσομαι.
Indeed, I know how to love my friend
and hate and attack my enemy,
like an ant. There is truth, then, in my words.
ἐπ]ίσταμαί τοι τὸν φιλ[έο]ν[τα] μὲν φ[ι]λεῖν[,
τὸ]ν δ' ἐχθρὸν ἐχθαίρειν τε [κα]ὶ κακο[στομέειν
μύ]ρμηξ. λόγῳ νυν τ[ῷδ' ἀλη]θείη πάρ[α.