10
votes
Accepted
Why is this line about prophecy in book 2 of the Odyssey thought to be "spurious"?
The possibly spurious line is 2.191:
πρῆξαι δ᾽ ἔμπης οὔ τι δυνήσεται εἵνεκα τῶνδε:
and he will in no case be able to do aught because of these men here
Homer. Odyssey 2.191. Translated by A. T. ...
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9
votes
Accepted
In Homer's Odyssey, how can the one-eyed Cyclops have multiple brows?
This issue has been puzzling commentators for thousands of years, if we take it broadly as "how many eyes did Homer think Polyphemus had, and why?"
The Greek text of Odyssey 9.389 uses the ...
- 1,514
6
votes
Accepted
Who is the 'pale Titan-woman' in Swinburne's 'Ave atque Vale'?
The general interpretation of this line is that it's an allusion to Baudelaire's poem La Géante (The Giantess).
From Walter Martin's translation in an omnibus edition:
When Mother Nature filled the ...
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6
votes
Accepted
Did Lord Byron fluff his Greek in his poem beginning 'Maid of Athens, ere we part'?
I am Greek and familiar with the poem, and I can say that Sumelic and Scott are right to interpret this as a misunderstanding of Byron. Ζωή μου means indeed My life, while Ζώη μου means nothing at all,...
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5
votes
Who is the 'pale Titan-woman' in Swinburne's 'Ave atque Vale'?
Swinburne’s ‘Ave atque Value’ (1868) is subtitled “In Memory of Charles Baudelaire”, who died in 1867. The poem contains allusions to a number of Baudelaire’s poems, and when looking for a “pale Titan-...
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5
votes
Accepted
Euripides - mystai or evidence of higher-ranked status?
The claim that Euripides was “a torchbearer in the rites of Apollo Zosterius” comes, like many other biographical claims, from a short Life or Vita that was prefixed to the Byzantine manuscripts of ...
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4
votes
Accepted
What is the "black sphinx" in Greek magical papyrus IV?
The word σφίγξ was used not only for the mythological Sphinx, but also for a kind of monkey or ape. This animal is mentioned in a few ancient authors, but not with enough detail to identify the ...
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4
votes
Accepted
What are "inward meats" in Homer?
Yes, the "inward meats" are the innards, or the organ meats such as liver and kidneys. A comparison of translations of some lines near the opening of Book 3 demonstrates this. Telemachus and ...
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4
votes
How many sailors from Odysseus' crew survived the Odyssey?
Here’s a summary of the relevant events, as told by Odysseus to the Phaeacians. We might bear it in mind that Odysseus is a notorious liar, so who knows how much of this we are intended to credit, but ...
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3
votes
Greek Alexander Romance - Plot device or other function of Alexander's surreptitious stealing of Persian drinking cups?
I don’t have access to the Penguin version, but from my reading of the online Greek to English Translation version here
the cups are not just of superior craftmanship they are gold as becomes evident ...
- 1,014
3
votes
Accepted
Unabridged version of the Alexander Romance
Difficulties in the question
There are a couple of points in the question where I suspect that it is misinterpreting the Wikipedia article on the Alexander Romance.
The question says, “Looking into ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Who are the '12 children of Aiolos Hippotadês', as introduced in Book 10, The Grace of the Witch, of Homer's Odyssey?
The children of Aiolos follow a similar pattern to some other divine families in Greek mythology. First, according to Hesiod, the primordial gods Gaia and Ouranos had twelve children (the Titans), six ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Why are sea creatures Sirens "in a meadow" in The Odyssey?
The Odyssey has two passages about the Sirens. First, Circe’s warning to Odysseus (as related by Odysseus to the Phaeacians), some of which was quoted in the question:
“First you will come to the ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Euripides - Were his Argonautical works considered canon?
In the story of the Argonauts, yes, Euripides' Medea did indeed influence later writers. As Andrew Zissos puts it in his commentary of Argonautica I (Oxford, 2008), "Euripides' focus on Jason's ...
- 1,037
2
votes
Tebtunis Papyri - The Land Survey
The editors of the The Tebtunis Papyri included translations in the notes. The passage you asked about is this one:
ο[ἷ]ς ἐπικεχώρηται κατὰ τὰ περὶ αὐτῶν ἰδίαι πρ[οστ]εταγμέ[να] ἔχειν
οἵους ποτὲ ...
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2
votes
Why did Andromache call the men of Sparta ‘devious plotters and the master of lies’?
TL;DR: It is not possible to identify the specific events or circumstances that motivated Euripides to write this speech.
The diatribe against the Spartans in Andromache was surely intended to have a ...
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1
vote
Did Lord Byron fluff his Greek in his poem beginning 'Maid of Athens, ere we part'?
I don't know Greek (ancient or modern). The accentuation of "Ζώη μοῦ, σάς ἀγαπῶ" seems to be wrong, but that isn't what the Daily JSTOR article "When Lord Byron Tried to Buy a Twelve-...
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