How could I？ urge it upon me,and my son wasted with longing for Odysseus,while here will not stand by while they cat up his property. they press for marriage. He comprehends it,being a man full grown, able to oversee the kind of house Ruses served my turn Zeus would endow with honor. to draw the time out-first a close-grained web But you too I had the happy thought'to set up weaving confide in me,tell me your ancestry. on my big loom in hall.I said,that day: You were not born of mythic oak or stone. 'Young men-my suitors,now my lord is dead, let me finish my weaving before I marry, And the great master of invention answered: or else my thread will have been spun in vain. It is a shroud I weave for Lord Laertes "O honorable wife of Lord Odysseus, when cold Death comes to lay him on his bier. must you go on asking about my family? The country wives would hold me in dishonour Then I will tell you,though my pain if he,with all his fortune,lay unshrouded. be doubled by it:and whose pain would not I reached their hearts that way,and they agreed. if he had been away as long as I have So every day I wove on the great loom, and had hard roving in the world of men? but every night by torchlight I unwove it; But I will tell you even so,my lady. and so for three years I deceived the Akhaians. But when the seasons brought a fourth year on, One of the great islands of the world as long months waned,and the long days were spent, in midsea,in the winedark sea,is Krete: through impudent folly in the slinking maids spacious and rich and populous,with ninety they caught me-clamored up to me at night; cities and a mingling of tongues. I had no choice then but to finish it. Akhaians there are found,along with Kretan And now,as matters stand at last, hillmen of the old stock,and Kydonians, I have no strength left to evade a marriage, Dorians in three blood-lines,Pelasgians- cannot find any further way;my parents and one among their ninety towns is Knossos. Laertis,Odysseus's father D Zeus,chief god for the Greeks 件了好深滑零新
Here lived King Minos whom great Zeus received such fury was abroad.On the thirteenth, every ninth year in private council-Minos, when the gale dropped,they put to sea. the father of my father,Deukalion. Now all these lies he made appear so truthful Two sons Deukalion had;Idomeneus, she wept as she sat listening.The skin who went to join the Atreidai before Troy of her pale face grew moist the way pure snow in the beaked ships of war;and then myself, softens and glistens on the mountains,thawed Aithon by name-a stripling next my brother. by Southwind after powdering from the West, But I saw with my own eyes at Knossos once Odysseus. and,as the snow melts,mountain streams run full: so her white cheeks were wetted by these tears Gales had caught him off Cape Malea, shed for her lord-and he close by her side. driven him southward on the coast of Krete, Imagine how his heart ached for his lady, when he was bound for Troy.At Amnisos, his wife in tears;and yet he never blinked; hard by the holy cave of Eileithuia, his eyes might have been made of horn or iron he lay to,and dropped anchor,in that open for all that she could see.He had this trick- and rough roadstead riding out the blow. wept,if he willed to,inwardly. Meanwhile he came ashore,came inland,asking Well,then, after Idomeneus:dear friends he said they were; as soon as her relieving tears were shed but now ten mornings had already passed, she spoke once more: ten or eleven,since my brother sailed. "I think that I shall say,friend, So I played host and took Odysseus home, give me some proof,if it is really true saw him well lodged and fed,for we had plenty; that you were host in that place to my husband then I made requisitions -barley,wine, with his brave men,as you declare.Come,tell me and beeves for sacrifice-to give his company the quality of his clothing,how he looked, abundant fare along with him. and some particular of his company." Twelve days Odysseus answered,and his mind ranged far: they stayed with us,the Akhaians,while that wind out of the north shut everyone inside- "Lady,so long a time now lies between, even on land you could not keep your feet, it is hard to speak of it.Here is the twentieth year F ‘一列学等露
since that man left the island of my father. He had a shrewd head,like the captain's own." But I shall tell what memory calls to mind. A purple cloak,and fleecy,he had on- Now hearing these details一minutely true一 a double thick one.Then,he wore a brooch she felt more strangely moved,and tears flowed made of pure gold with twin tubes for the prongs, until she had tasted her salt grief again. and on the face a work of art:a hunting dog Then she found words to answer: pinning a spotted fawn in agony "Before this between his forepaws-wonderful to see you won my sympathy,but now indeed how being gold,and nothing more,he bit you shall be our respected guest and friend. the golden deer convulsed,with wild hooves flying, With my own hands I put that cloak and tunic Odysseus'shirt I noticed,too-a fine upon him-took them folded from their place- closefitting tunic like dry onion skin, and the bright brooch for ornament. so soft it was,and shiny. Gone now, Women there, I will not meet the man again many of them,would cast their eyes on it. returning to his own home fields.Unkind But I might add,for your consideration, the fate that sent him young in the long ship whether he brought these things from home,or whether to see that misery at llion①，unspeakable!” a shipmate gave them to him,coming aboard, And the master improviser answered: I have no notion:some regardful host in another port perhaps it was.Affection “Honorable followed him-there were few Akhaians like him. wife of Odysseus Laertiades, And I too made him gifts:a good bronze blade, you need not stain your beauty with these tears, a cloak with lining and a broidered shirt, nor wear yourself out grieving for your husband. and sent him off in his trim ship with honor. Not that I can blame you.Any wife A herald,somewhat older than himself, grieves for the man she married in her girlhood, he kept beside him;I'll describe this man: lay with in love,bore children to-though he round-shouldered,dusky,woolly-headed. may be no prince like this Odysseus, Eurybates,his name was-and Odysseus gave him preferment over the officers. ①llion,Troy 10 行霜腐器配
whom they compare even to the gods.But listen: could live on what lay piled in that great room. weep no more,and listen: The man himself had gone up to Dodona I have a thing to tell you,something true. to ask the spelling leaves of the old oak I heard but lately of your lord's return, what Zeus would have him do-how to return to Ithaka heard that he is alive,not far away, after so many years-by stealth or openly. among Thesprotians in their green land You see,then,he is alive and well,and headed amassing fortune to bring home.His company homeward now,no more to be abroad went down in shipwreck in the winedark sea far from his island,his dear.wife and son. off the coast of Thrinakia.Zeus and Helios Here is my sworn word for it.Witness this, held it against him that his men had killed god of the zenith,noblest of the gods, the kine of Helios.The crew drowned for this. and Lord Odysseus'hearthfire,now before me: He rode the ship's keel.Big seas cast him up I swear these things shall turn out as I say. on the island of Phaiakians,godlike men Between this present dark and one day's ebb, who took him to their hearts.They honored him after the wane,before the crescent moon, with many gifts and a safe passage home, Odysseus will come." or so they wished.Long since he should have been here, (from the Odyssey,XIX,translated by Robert Fitzgerald) but he thought better to restore his fortune playing the vagabond about the world; 4.Lyrie Poetry and no adventurer could beat Odysseus Homer's epics were not the only form of poetry the Greeks had at living by his wits-no man alive. written.There were other forms,such as lyrics.Of the many lyric I had this from King Phaidon of Thesprotia; poets of the time,two are still admired by readers today:Sappho and and,tipping wine out,Phaidon swore to me Pindar. the ship was launched,the seamen standing by Sappho (about 612-580 B.C.),woman poet'of Lesbos,is to bring Odysseus to his land at last, noted for her love poems of passionate intensity,some of which are but I got out to sea ahead of him addressed to women.She was considered the most important lyric by the king's order-as it chanced a freighter poet of ancient Greece.Many Greek and Latin writers know nearly left port for the grain bins of Doulikhion all her poems by heart.But in the 10th century the Christian church Phaidon,however,showed me Odysseus'treasure. burned her works.Only fragments remain.Two samples: Ten generations of his heirs or more 12 13 ?子鳞烧得招
(1) heroes and heroines in complicated human situations,out of which I could not hope there is no escape but death.The plays are written in verse. to touch the sky Aeschylus is noted for his vivid character portrayal and majestic with my two arms poetry. (2) This is what the chorus says about the difficult choice faced by In gold sandals Agamemnon the Greek commander in the play named after him: dawn'like a thief fell upon me. The king,the leader,spoke aloud: (translated by Willis Barnstone) "A hard fate,to disobey the seer; a hard fate,if I must slay my child, Pindar (about 518-438 B.C.)is best known for his odes light of my house, celebrating the victories at the athletic games,such as the 14 and at the altar stain a father's hands Olympian odes.These were chanted by a chorus in a procession. with virgin daughter's blood. They are marked by an elevated tone and stirring sound effects. Here are no ways that do not lead to ill. Pindar,too,had imitators,such as the 17th-century English poet John Dryden. Can I desert, failing my allies？ 5.Drama Why should they not desire, Early in their remote past,the Greeks started to perform plays with passion above all passion, at religious festivals.Out of these origins a powerful drama developed a virgin's blood,a sacrifice in the 5th century B.C. to stop this wind？ Performances were given in open-air theatres,with the audience Well...may good come of it!" sitting on stone benches and looking down at the stage from three And when the overmastering yoke was on him, sides.Actors wore masks. his spirit veering, blowing foul,impose,unholy, a.Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.) then his mind was set on course He wrote such plays as Prometheus Bound,Persians,and to the unthinkable. Agamemnon.In these plays there are only two actors and a chorus. For mortal men grow bold Yet they manage to stir and move the audience deeply by showing when shame is overturned within their thoughts 14 15 行1/好好璃和环素肾取