[B-Greek] Understanding? Greek?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Mar 12 13:21:24 EDT 2008
On Mar 12, 2008, at 10:30 AM, Randall Buth wrote:
>> People, we poor slobs who who slaved over Greek and still cannot read
> it are evidently not alone. ...
> http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2008/03/understanding-greek.html
> ... and weep -- or sigh, or return to the grindstone.
> Carl W. Conrad
>>
>
> some of that is the stuff of urban legend,
>
> so for your morning pre-elevensies pickup,
> run your eyes over this,
> no stopping:
>
> ...
> ἔσται γὰρ κύριός σοι φῶς αἰώνιον
> καὶ ἀναπληρωθήσονται αἱ ἡμέραι
> τοῦ πένθους σου
> καὶ ὁ λαός σου πᾶς δίκαιος
> καὶ δι᾿ αἰῶνος κληρονομήσουσιν
> τὴν γῆν
> φυλάσσων τὸ φύτευμα
> ἔργα χειρῶν αὐτοῦ εἰς δόξαν
> ὁ ὀλιγοστὸς ἔσται εἰς χιλιάδας
> καὶ ὁ ἐλάχιστος εἰς ἔθνος μέγα
> ἐγὼ κύριος κατὰ καιρὸν συνάξω
> αὐτούς
>
> there, don't you feel better?
>
> don't you wish AISXYLOS read like that,
> even with feeling an occasional glitch of the
> LXX text/translator?
Aeschylus DOES read quite eloquently enough -- and not always
so terribly difficult, either. The following passage applies
eloquently enough to what's been going on in Iraq,
if you'll just change a couple of the proper names -- and maybe
change ALLOTRIAS DIAI GUNAIKOS to some other specious
pretext:
ὁ χρυσαμοιβὸς δ' Ἄρης σωμάτων
καὶ ταλαντοῦχος ἐν μάχῃ δορὸς
πυρωθὲν ἐξ Ἰλίου
φίλοισι πέμπει βαρὺ
ψῆγμα δυσδάκρυτον, ἀντ-
ήνορος σποδοῦ γεμί-
ζων λέβητας εὐθέτους.
στένουσι δ' εὖ λέγοντες ἄν-
δρα τὸν μὲν ὡς μάχης ἴδρις,
τὸν δ' ἐν φοναῖς καλῶς πεσόντ'ͺ 'ἀλ-
λοτρίας διαὶ γυναικός'·
τάδε σῖγά τις βαΰζει·
φθονερὸν δ' ὑπ' ἄλγος ἕρπει
προδίκοις Ἀτρείδαις.
hO CRUSAMOIBOS D' ARHS SWMATWN
KAI TALANTOUCOS EN MACHi DOROS
PURWQEN EX ILIOU
FILIOIS PEMPEI BARU
YHGMA DUSDAKRUTON, ANT-
HNOROS SPODOU GEMI-
ZWN LEBHTAS EUQETOUS.
STENOUSI D' EU LEGONTES AN-
DRA TON MEN hWS MACHS IDRIS,
TON D' EN FONAIS KALWS PESONT', AL-
LOTRIAS DIAI GUNAIKOS;
TADE SIGA TIS BAUZEI;
FQONERON D' hUP' ALGOS hERPEI
PRODIKOIS ATREIDAIS.
Aeschylus, Agamemnon 438-451
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Ret)
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