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Monday, August 19, 2024

Dance Party

Homer, Odyssey 23.142-147 (tr. A.T. Murray):
First they bathed and put on their tunics,
and the women arrayed themselves, and the divine minstrel
took the hollow lyre and aroused in them the desire
of sweet song and goodly dance.
So the great hall resounded all about with the tread
of dancing men and of fair-girdled women.

πρῶτα μὲν οὖν λούσαντο καὶ ἀμφιέσαντο χιτῶνας,
ὅπλισθεν δὲ γυναῖκες· ὁ δ᾽ εἵλετο θεῖος ἀοιδὸς
φόρμιγγα γλαφυρήν, ἐν δέ σφισιν ἵμερον ὦρσε
μολπῆς τε γλυκερῆς καὶ ἀμύμονος ὀρχηθμοῖο.        145
τοῖσιν δὲ μέγα δῶμα περιστεναχίζετο ποσσὶν
ἀνδρῶν παιζόντων καλλιζώνων τε γυναικῶν.