Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Homer -- Translations into English; Odysseus, King of Ithaca (Mythological character) -- Poetry
Others translate, "And from the sea shall thy own death come," suggesting
that Ulysses after all was lost at sea. This is the rendering followed by
Tennyson in his poem "Ulysses" (and see Dante, _Inferno_, Canto xxvi.).
It is a more natural translation of the Greek, and gives a far more
wonderful vista for the close of the Wanderer's life.
NOTE III.
Bk. xix. l. 712 (Hom. xix. l. 573).--The word πελέκεας, for which Cowper
gives as a paraphrase "spikes, crested with a ring," elsewhere means
_axes_, and ought so to be translated here. For since Cowper's day an
axe-head of the Mycenæan period has been discovered _with the blade
pierced_ so as to form a hole through which an arrow could pass. (See
Tsountas and Manatt, _The Mycenæan Age_.) Axes of this type were not
known to Cowper, and hence the hypothesis in his text. He realised
correctly the essential conditions of the feat proposed: the axes must
have been set up, one behind the other, in the way he suggested for his
ringed stakes.
NOTE IV.
Bk. xxii. l. 139-162 (Hom. xxii. l. 126-143).--How Melanthius got out of
the hall remains a puzzle. Cowper assumes a second postern, but there is
no evidence for this, and l. 139 ff. (l. 126 ff. in the Greek) suggest
rather strongly that there was only _one_. Unfortunately, the crucial
word ῥῶγες which occurs in the line describing Melanthius' exit is not
found elsewhere. "He went up," the poet says, "through the ῥῶγες of the
hall." Merry suggests that "he scrambled up to the loopholes that were
pierced in the wall." Others suppose that there was a ladder at the inner
end of the hall leading to the upper story, and on through passages to
the armoury.
In l. 141 (l. 128 in the Greek) the word translated "street" by Cowper is
usually rendered "corridor."
F. M. S.
MADE AT THE TEMPLE PRESS LETCHWORTH GREAT BRITAIN
EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY
A LIST OF THE 812 VOLUMES ARRANGED UNDER AUTHORS
_Anonymous works are given under titles._
_Anthologies, etc., are arranged at the end of the list._
Abbott's Rollo at Work, etc., 275
Addison's Spectator, 164-167
Æschylus' Lyrical Dramas, 62
Æsop's and Other Fables, 657
Aimard's The Indian Scout, 428
Ainsworth's Tower of London, 400
" Old St. Paul's, 522
" Windsor Castle, 709
" The Admirable Crichton, 804
A'Kempis' Imitation of Christ, 484
Alcott's Little Women, and Good Wives, 248
" Little Men, 512
Alpine Club. Peaks, Passes and Glaciers, 778
Andersen's Fairy Tales, 4
Anglo-Saxon Poetry, 794
Anson's Voyages, 510
Aristophanes' The Acharnians, etc., 344
" The Frogs, etc., 516
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, 547
" Politics, 605
Armour's Fall of the Nibelung, 312
Arnold's (Matthew) Essays, 115
" Poems, 334
" Study of Celtic Literature, etc., 458
Aucassin and Nicolette, 497
Augustine's (Saint) Confessions, 200
Aurelius' (Marcus) Golden Book, 9
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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