Homer,
Odyssey 2.1 (tr. A.T. Murray):
Soon as early Dawn appeared, the
rosy-fingered...
ἦμος δ᾽ ἠριγένεια φάνη ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς...
W.B. Stanford ad loc.:
'Rosy-fingered', as Eustathius explains, probably refers to the spreading crimson rays of the rising sun. The suggestion that being an Oriental lady she would have her finger-nails dyed red is too far-fetched.
The line appears 20 times in the
Odyssey. In her translation, Emily Wilson renders it differently each time it occurs:
- 2.1 The early Dawn was born; her fingers bloomed
- 3.404 When newborn Dawn appeared with rosy fingers
- 3.491 When rosy-fingered Dawn came bright and early
- 4.306 Soon Dawn was born, her fingers bright with roses
- 4.431 When Dawn appeared, her fingers bright with flowers
- 4.576 When early Dawn appeared and touched the sky with / blossom
- 5.228 When vernal Dawn first touched the sky with flowers
- 8.1 Soon Dawn appeared and touched the sky with roses
- 9.152 When early Dawn shone forth with rosy fingers
- 9.170 But when the rosy hands of Dawn appeared
- 9.307 Early the Dawn appeared, pink fingers blooming
- 9.437 When early Dawn revealed her rose-red hands
- 9.560 Then when rose-fingered Dawn came, bright and early
- 10.187 Then the roses of Dawn's fingers / appeared again
- 12.8 When Dawn came, / born early, with her fingertips like petals
- 12.316 When rosy-fingered Dawn / appeared
- 13.18 Then Dawn was born again; her fingers / bloomed
- 15.189 When rosy-fingered Dawn / the early-born appeared
- 17.1 When newborn Dawn appeared with hands of flowers
- 19.428 When early Dawn, / the newborn child with rosy hands appeared
Peter Green always translates the line in the same way:
When Dawn appeared, early risen and rosy-fingered
M.L. West,
Indo-European Poetry and Myth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 220:
Related post:
Telemachus Inhaled.
