For each of nos. 1-4 and no. 6, indicate the source, and if relevant, the speaker or speakers in the passage. If you identify a speaker or speakers, you should also indicate the addressee(s). Identifications of source should be primarily by their ancient source, not their modern translator or compiler. For example, something from Harris & Platzner's "Loves of Ares and Aphrodite" should, preferably, be identified as coming from Homer, Odyssey, Book 8 - certainly not just as "Harris & Platzner".
Also, answer the additional questions following each item. Be sure to indicate both source, etc. and also to answer the individual question(s) following each passage.
How well is this illustrated in other texts we have read in the course so far? Explain briefly.
Who is "the strong god", referred to in line 1?
Who is referred to as "he" in line 3?
"My word, how mortals take the gods to task!
All their afflictions come from us, we hear.
And what of their own failings? Greed and folly
double the suffering in the lot of man.
See how Aigisthos, for his double portion,
stole Agamemnon's wife and killed the soldier
on his homecoming day. And yet Aigisthos
knew that his own doom lay in this. We gods
had warned him, sent down Hermes Argeiphontes,
our most observant courier, to say:
'Don't kill the man, don't touch his wife,
or face a reckoning with Orestes
the day he comes of age and wants his patrimony.'
Friendly advice-but would Aigisthos take it?
Now he has paid the reckoning in full."
Harris & Platzner write as follows concerning the archaic Greek view of human destiny: "It is not the gods, furthermore, who dictate human destiny. Rather, humans determine their own fate, the inevitable consequences of their own freely chosen acts." Briefly discuss to what extent this assessment is supported in the above passage.
a. (version quoted above)
For he had meditated on Aigisthos, dead
by the hand of Agamemnon's son, Orestes,
and spoke his thought aloud before them all:
b. And first spake Jove, whose thoughts were now upon
AEgistus' death, which he but then first knew,
By th' hand of Agamemnon's valiant son
who to revenge his Father's blood him slew.
c. For he was thinking in his heart of stately Aigisthos,
whom Orestes, Agamemnon's far-famed son, had murdered.
Remembering him he spoke now before the immortals:
d. He couldn't stop thinking about Aegisthus,
Whom Agamemnon's son, Orestes, had killed.
e. In his heart he was remembering excellent Aigisthos
Whom Agamemnon's son, far-famed Orestes, had slain.
Thinking of that man, he made his speech to the immortals:
These five different translations illustrate different approaches to the handling of epithets in archaic poetry (Homer, Hesiod, et al.)
One or two of the five translations do not really use any epithets at all. Which translation(s)?
One epithet is translated the same way in some of the translations, differently in one or more others, and left untranslated in one or more others. What are the various ways in which this epithet is translated?
Another epithet is differently handled in each translation which includes it - and left untranslated by a translation which otherwise seems to include epithets. What are the various translations of this epithet? Why is it so differently handled by the various translators?
What is the usual name for the individual referred to as "Tritogeneia" in line 10?
This passage includes several formulaic epithets. List three of the formulaic epithets found in this passage.
How well does the reference to Zeus and Hera in lines 11-13 correlate with Xenophanes' criticism of the presentation of the gods by Homer and Hesiod?