Monday, October 12, 2026
Eumaeus
Homer, Odyssey 14.55 (tr. Daniel Mendelsohn):
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You spoke to him then in reply, Eúmaios my swineherd:The line, or something very like it, occurs 15 times in the Odyssey (according to commentators), and Mendelsohn always translates "my swineherd." The possessive pronoun "my" doesn't occur in the Greek original, and I don't understand the reason for its intrusive presence in the English translation. It smacks of the colloquial "my man" and sounds out of place to me. Cf. Richmond Lattimore's rendering:
τὸν δ᾽ ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφης, Εὔμαιε συβῶτα·
Then, O swineherd Eumaios, you said to him in answer:W.B. Stanford ad loc.:
Some editors follow Eustathius' suggestion that it is a mark of the poet's special affection for Eumaeus (cp. scholium on Il. 16, 787). This, however, is highly uncharacteristic of H.'s very impersonal style. Hayman remarks that it may be a vestige of a primitive ballad-singer's phrase.Eustathius on Odyssey 14.55:
Ὅτι ἐν Ἰλιάδι μὲν Ὅμηρος πολλαῖς χρῆται ἀποστροφαῖς ἐπὶ προσώπων ἀξίων λόγου, οἷον· οὐδὲ σέθεν Μενέλαε θεοὶ ἐλάθοντο, καὶ, τὸν δὲ προσέφη Πατρόκλειε ἴππεῦ, καὶ ἕτερα δὲ ὅμοια· ἐν δὲ τῇ Ὀδυσσείᾳ ἐπὶ μόνου Εὐμαίου σχηματίζει οὕτως ὁ ποιητής, φιλῶν τῆς εὐνοίας τὸν δοῦλον καὶ τοῦ εἰς πολλὰ χρησιμεύειν ἐνταῦθα τῇ ποιήσει. καὶ ἀρξάμενος ἐντεῦθεν λέγει ὁ περ πολλαχοῦ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἑξῆς· τὸν δ’ ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη Εὐμαῖε συβῶτα.Related posts:
