Saturday 22 June 2024

An Odyssey (1:11-15)

ἔνθʼ ἄλλοι μὲν πάντες, ὅσοι φύγον αἰπὺν ὄλεθρον,

οἴκοι ἔσαν, πόλεμόν τε πεφευγότες ἠδὲ θάλασσαν·

τὸν δʼ οἶον νόστου κεχρημένον ἠδὲ γυναικὸς

νύμφη πότνιʼ ἔρυκε Καλυψὼ δῖα θεάων

ἐν σπέσσι γλαφυροῖσι, λιλαιομένη πόσιν εἶναι.


Then all the others, all who escaped sheer ruin,

were at home, having escaped the war and the sea.

He alone, denied homecoming and wife,

Mistress nymph Calypso, godlike among goddesses, 

kept in a hollow caves, longing for him to be her husband.

11

ἔνθʼ - here it is temporal (then) but it can also be spatial (there)

αἰπὺν - high and metaphorically steep, sheer. West says metaphor is unclear.

ὄλεθρον - ruin

12

ἠδὲ - and, but also 'both... and...'

13

οἶος is "of which sort", whereas οἶος (smooth breathing) is "only, single" - so 'the only one' here?

ὅσοι (line 11) is "as many as"

κεχρημένον - perfect mediopassive participle (accusative) - unusual meaning in this tense "in want of". Normal meaning of χράω (active) is to proclaim.

This whole line is the object of the following verb

14

πότνιᾰ - mistress, lady

ἔρυκε - held

δῖα - divine

15

σπέσσι γλαφυροῖσι - caves (σπεος) hollowed (γλαφυρος)

λιλαιομένη - present participle (reduplicated verb λῐλαίομαι, NOT a perfect) "longing"

πόσιν - husband