All Questions
Tagged with homer translation
7 questions
10
votes
1
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Why does Aphrodite speak like this while disguised as the old woman?
In Book III of The Iliad, there's an incident where the goddess Aphrodite disguises herself to speak to Helen. The translator wrote her speech like this:
Now she took the shape of an old woman who ...
- 27.2k
10
votes
1
answer
654
views
In Homer's Odyssey, how can the one-eyed Cyclops have multiple brows?
When Odysseus meets the Cyclops, the text never explicitly states that he has only a single eye. However, the unfolding action in which Odysseus and his crew blind the Cyclops by pushing a stake into ...
- 23.6k
7
votes
2
answers
1k
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What does "branch of Ares" mean in book II of "The Iliad"?
I have been reading the Iliad in the Penguin Classics edition (translated by Emile Victor Rieu and Martin Hammond), and in the second book, when Homer is naming the groups of Achaeans and Trojans, the ...
- 73
6
votes
1
answer
610
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Why is this line about prophecy in book 2 of the Odyssey thought to be "spurious"?
In my translation of the Odyssey by Emily Wilson, she translates part of a speech concerning prophecy by Eurymachus at the end of book 2 as this:
You know many ancient forms of wisdom,
but if you ...
- 23.6k
6
votes
1
answer
627
views
Why do Athena and Talthybios speak "plainly" in the Iliad?
In Book IV of the Iliad, there are several instances where the translation refers to someone speaking "plainly":
Athena now took the form of a Trojan, the doughty warrior Laodocos Antenor's ...
- 27.2k
3
votes
1
answer
185
views
What does "reet fain" mean in Poseidon's message to Agamemnon in the Iliad?
In Book XIV of The Iliad, when Poseidon is encouraging the Greeks while the Trojans are attacking their ships, he says this to Agamemnon while disguised:
But the famous Earthshaker kept no blind man'...
- 27.2k
2
votes
2
answers
260
views
Why is it so important to Aias that he die in the light as opposed to the mist in "The Iliad"?
In Book XVII of The Iliad, when Patroclus is killed and Zeus has turned the tide to the favor of the Trojans, we have this statement by Aias:
Aias and Menelaos also saw that the victory was passing ...
- 27.2k