Wednesday, July 02, 2025
A Missing Modifier
Euripides, Helen, Phoenician Women, Orestes. Edited and Translated by David Kovacs (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002 = Loeb Classical Library, 11), pp. 396-397 (Phoenician Women 1764-1766):
Newer› ‹Older
ὦ μέγα σεμνὴ Νίκη, τὸν ἐμὸνThe translation omits μέγα σεμνὴ (greatly revered), modifying Νίκη (Victory). The same lines occur at the end of Euripides' Iphigenia Among the Taurians (1497-1499) and Orestes (1691-1693). Kovacs includes the modifier in his translation of Iphigenia Among the Taurians:
βίοτον κατέχοις
καὶ μὴ λήγοις στεφανοῦσα.
Victory, may you have my life in your charge and never cease garlanding my head!
O most august lady Victory, may you have my life in your charge and never cease garlanding my head!
