Homer- Odyssey - z 129

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Emma_85
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Homer- Odyssey - z 129

Post by Emma_85 »

As he said this he crept from under his bush, and broke off a bough covered with thick leaves to hide his nakedness.
ὡς ῥύσαιτο περὶ χροὶ μήδεα φωτός. (imagine two dots above the iota in xroi\).

I'm having trouble translating this sentence. I know what it means, but I just can't work out what some of the words mean. I need to translate it exactly :? and understand why.

Now the construction is ws + opt., but the rest ... uh... xroi is nominative, so peri belongs to light? Please help me!

annis
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Re: Homer- Odyssey - z 129

Post by annis »

Emma_85 wrote: xroi is nominative,
Dative.

Autenrieth says περὶ χροΐ has the sense of around, covering the body. So I'd take this phrase adverbially, then make μήδεα φωτός the direct object of the verb.
William S. Annis — http://www.aoidoi.org/http://www.scholiastae.org/
τίς πατέρ' αἰνήσει εἰ μὴ κακοδαίμονες υἱοί;

mingshey
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Post by mingshey »

This part of Odyssey is very interesting. The man is naked. He's ashamed to go forth to his "savior". He found himself naked because, in a sense, he ate (he himself didn't but his crew did) what God forbade to eat. --The sin started from his companions and later he sins himself agains the god. He wears leaves and go forth to his savior. The savior gives him a new cloths. He cannot live there because he's still under the wrath of the god, and have to leave the place(And later, the place becomes blocked from futher access). This is quite like the expulsion of Adam and Eve.
Last edited by mingshey on Thu Jan 15, 2004 4:03 am, edited 2 times in total.

Kasper
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Post by Kasper »

:o Mingshey, in genu ad sapientiam tuam procumbo
“Cum ego verbo utar,” Humpty Dumpty dixit voce contempta, “indicat illud quod optem – nec plus nec minus.”
“Est tamen rogatio” dixit Alice, “an efficere verba tot res indicare possis.”
“Rogatio est, “Humpty Dumpty responsit, “quae fiat magister – id cunctum est.”

mingshey
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Post by mingshey »

Kasper wrote::o Mingshey, in genu ad sapientiam tuam procumbo
Oh, please. I'm not immune to flattery. :oops:
I've been interested in comparative mythology -- if that's proper name for what it is. Frazer's "Golden Bough" is an excellent work to learn how to relate a myth to what looks at first completely different myth.

Skylax
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Post by Skylax »

mingshey wrote: This is quite like the expulsion of Adam and Eve.
There is also some practical purpose : if Odysseus go naked, the girl might be scared and run away (as will the maids do). In this case, there would be no savior anymore. You will see how he will be cautious and try to avoid scaring Nausikaa.

Note : φωτός from ὁ φώς "the man" (meaning "male"), not from τὸ φῶς "the light".

μήδεα < τὸ μῆδος, μήδους meaning "genitals" (not "counsel", which is from an homonym).

Emma_85
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Post by Emma_85 »

:D Thanks a lot all of you! (I did think that fwtos was light :( ).
Seems I was making every mistake possible in this sentence :oops: ...

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