Mh=nin a1eide, qea/, Phlhïa/dew 0Axilh=oj
ou0lome/nhn, h4 muri/’ 0Axaioi=j a1lge’ e1qhke
polla\j d’ i0fqi/mouj yuxa\j 1Aïdi
proï/ayen
h9rw&wn,
au0tou\j de\ e9lw&ria teu=xe ku/nessin
oi0wnoi=si/
te pa=si, Dio\j d’ e0telei/eto boulh/,
e0c ou[
dh\ ta\ prw~ta diasth/thn e0ri/sante
0Atreï/dhj
te a1nac a0ndrw~n kai\ di=oj 0Axilleu/j.
O GODDESS
! sing the wrath of Peleus’ son,
Achilles;
sing the deadly wrath that brought
Woes
numberless upon the Greeks, and swept
To Hades
many a valiant soul, and gave
Their limbs
a prey to dogs and birds
of air,— 5
For so had
Jove appointed,—from the time
When the
two chiefs, Atrides, king of men,
And great
Achilles, parted first as foes.
Translation W. C.
Bryant, Boston 1870
mh=nin ‘wrath’, noun,
feminine, accusative, singular; mh=nij nom.
sing.
a1eide ‘sing’, verb,
present tense, imperative, 2nd person, singular; a0ei/dw ‘I sing’, 1st person, indicative
qea/, ‘O goddess’,
noun, feminine, vocative, sing.
Phlhïa/dew ‘of Peleus’s son’, genitive, sing. masculine;
Phlhïa/dhj ‘Peleus’s son’, nom.
0Axilh=oj ‘of Achilles’,
genitive; 0Axileu/j, nominative
ou0lome/nhn ‘destructive’,
‘accursed’, noun, feminine, accusative, singular
mh=nin ou0lome/nhn ‘the destructive
wrath’
h4 ‘which’ relative
pronoun, feminine, nominative, singular
muri/a ‘countless’, adjective, neutral (neither
masculine nor feminine), nominative plural; it loses its last syllable, the
apostrophe stands for the a to avoid hiatus
0Axaioi=j
‘to Achaians’, dative, plural
a1lgea ‘pains’, noun,
nominative plural; it loses its last syllable, the apostrophe stands for the a to avoid the
hiatus; a1lgoj, eoj, to/
e1qhke ‘caused’, aorist, 3rd person,
singular
[mh=nij ou0lome/nh ‘the destructive wrath’ (nom. sing.)] h4 muri/’ 000Axaioi=j a1lge’ e1qhke
‘which gave the Achaians countless pains’
polla/j ‘many’, irregular adjective, feminine,
accusative, plural; nom. sing. pollh/
de/ particle serving to continue the narrative,
usually untranslatable, ‘and’, ‘further’, ‘again’, ‘but’, ‘also’; here it is
introducing additional or corresponding circumstances; the apostrophe stands
for e
to avoid hiatus
i0fqi/mouj
‘strong’, ‘mighty’, adjective,
accusative, plural; i1fqimoj
nom. sing.
yuxa/j ‘souls’, accusative, plural; yuxh/ ‘soul’,
nom. sing.
1Aïdi ‘to
Hades’, dative; 0Ai/dhj ‘Hades’,
nom.
proï/ayen ‘send
(forth)’ ‘hurl away (to the nether world)’
polla\j d’ i0fqi/mouj yuxa\j 1Aïdi
proï/ayen ‘hurled
many valiant souls into Hades’
h9rw&wn
‘of heroes’, genitive, plural; h3rwj ‘hero’,
nom. sing.
au0tou/j ‘them (the heroes)’, accusative, plural,
pronoun of emphasis
de/ particle serving to continue the narrative,
usually untranslatable, ‘and’, ‘further’, ‘again’, ‘but’, ‘also’; here it is
introducing additional or corresponding circumstances; the apostrophe stands
for e,
to avoid hiatus
e9lw&ria
‘prey’, nominative/accusative, plural;
e9lw&rion,
to/ ‘prey’, nom./acc. sing.
teu=xe ‘prepared’, ‘rendered’ verb, imperfect, 3rd
pers. sing.; teu/xw ‘I prepare’, 1st. pers. sing.
ku/nessin
‘to dogs’, dative, plural; ku/wn ‘dog’,
masculine, nom. sing.
oi0wnoi=si
‘to birds of prey’ dative pl.; oi0wno/j ‘bird of prey’, masculine, nom. sing.
te/ ‘and’, enclitic, it ‘leans on’ the preceding oi0wnoi=si, which thus acquires a second accent on its
last syllable: oi0wnoi=si/
te
pa=si ‘to all’, adjective, dative pl.; pa=j
nom. sing. masculine
ku/nessin
oi0wnoi=si/ te pa=si ‘to dogs and to
all birds of prey’
au0tou\j
de\ e9lw&ria teu=xe ku/nessin oi0wnoi=si/ te pa=si ‘and them (the heroes) [mh=nij 0Axilh=oj
Achilles’ wrath’] as prey rendered to dogs and to all birds of prey’
Dio/j ‘of Zeus’, genitive of Zeu/j
de/ particle serving to continue the narrative, usually
untranslatable, ‘and’, ‘further’, ‘again’, ‘but’, ‘also’; here it is
introducing additional or corresponding circumstances; the apostrophe stands
for e
to avoid hiatus
e0telei/eto
‘was being fulfilled’, ‘was being
executed’, verb, imperfect, middle voice, 3rd person, sing.; telei/w ‘I
accomplish’, present tense, active voice, 1st pers. sing.
boulh/ ‘will’, noun, feminine, nom. sing.
Dio\j d’ e0telei/eto boulh/ ‘the will of Zeus was being fulfilled’, ‘the will
of Zeus was fulfilling’
e0c ‘from’, preposition
ou[ ‘from
what’, ‘from which’, relative pronoun, genitive sing., nom. sing. neutral o3 ‘what’
dh/ particle of emphasis
ta/ definite article, nominative, plural
prw~ta ‘first’ ordinal numeral, neutral, nom. pl.
ta\
prw~ta ‘first of all’ ‘as soon as’
diasth/thn
‘stood apart, at variance with one
another’, verb, dual, perfect tense (referring to what happened in the past)
e0ri/sante
‘contending with one another’. ‘vying
with one another’, dual, participle, aorist, nominative; e0ri/zw ‘I
quarrel’
0Atreï/dhj ‘the
son of Atreus’, nominative
te … kai/
‘and’
a1nac ‘ruler’, noun, nom. sing.
a0ndrw~n ‘of men’ genitive, plural
kai/ ‘and’
di=oj ‘illustrious’, ‘divine’, ‘noble’, adjective,
nom. sing.
The main thought: Mh=nin a1eide,
qea/, Phlhïa/dew 0Axilh=oj ‘Goddess
sing the wroth of Achilles, the son of Peleus’ e0c ou[ dh\ ta\ prw~ta diasth/thn e0ri/sante ‘from the time in which for the first time
stood apart in quarrel’ ‘from the point at which originally stood apart in
quarrel’ 0Atreï/dhj te a1nac a0ndrw~n kai\ di=oj 0Axilleu/j ‘the
son of Atreus, ruler of men, and the divine Achilles’.
Let me end by quoting the introductory
paragraphs from W.W. Goodwin’s A Greek Grammar:
Part V. Versification. Rhythm and
Meter.
1620. Every verse is composed of
definite portions called feet. Thus we have four feet in each of these verses:
Fh/somen pro\j tou\j strathgou/j
Far from mortal cares retreating
1621. In each foot there is a certain
part on which falls a special stress called ictus (stroke), and
another part on which there is no such stress. The part of the foot on which
the ictus falls is called the arsis, and the rest of the foot is
called the thesis. The regular alternation of arsis and thesis
in successive feet produces the rhythm (harmonious movement) of
the verse.
1622. In English poetry the rhythm
depends entirely on the ordinary accent of the words, with which the
ictus coincides. In the Greek verse, however, the ictus is entirely independent
of the word-accent. In Greek poetry a foot consists of a regular combination of
syllables of a certain length; and the place of the ictus here depends on the quantity
(i.e. the length or shortness) of the syllables which compose the foot, the
ictus naturally falling upon a long syllable. The regular alteration of long
and short syllables in successive feet makes the verse metrical, i.e. measured
in its time. The rhythm of a Greek verse thus depends closely on its meter,
i.e. on the measure or quantity of its syllables.
1623. The fundamental distinction between
ancient and most modern poetry is simply this, that in modern poetry the verse
consists of a regular combination of accented and unaccented
syllables, while in ancient poetry it consists of a regular combination of long
and short syllables. The rhythm is the one essential requisite in
the external form of all poetry, ancient and modern; but in ancient poetry,
rhythm depends on meter and not on accent; in modern poetry it depends on
accent, and the quantity of syllables (i.e. the metre) is generally no more
regarded than it is in prose. Both are equally rhythmical; but the
ancient is also metrical, and its meter is the basis of its rhythm. What
is called metre in English poetry is strictly only rhythm.
QUANTITY OF SYLLABLES
98. A syllable is long by nature (fu/sei)
when it has a long vowel or a diphthong; as in timh/, ktei/nw
99. 1. A syllable is long by position
(qe/sei) when its vowel is followed by two consonants
or a double consonant; as in i3stantej,
tra/peza, o1rtuc.
2. The length of the vowel
itself is not affected by position. Thus a was sounded as long in pra/ssw,
pra=gma, and pra=cij, but as short in
ta/ssw, ta/gma,
and ta/cij.
3. One or both of the consonants which
make position may be in the next word; thus the second syllable in ou[to/j fhsin and in
kata\ sto/ma is long by position.
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