ἐγὼ δὲ πάντως ἐκπνέων ψυχὴν ἐμὴν
δράσας τι χρῄζω τοὺς ἐμοὺς ἐχθροὺς θανεῖν,
ἵν᾿ ἀνταναλώσω μὲν οἵ με προύδοσαν,
στένωσι δ᾿ οἵπερ κἄμ᾿ ἔθηκαν ἄθλιον.
(tr. David Kovacs):
Now since I am in any case going to breathe out my life,
I want to do something to my enemies before I die
so that I can repay with destruction those who have betrayed me
and so that those who have made me miserable may smart for it.
I'm curious about "before I die." Before I saw the Kovacs translation, I had assumed that the subject of θανεῖν was τοὺς ἐμοὺς ἐχθροὺς and that it was governed by χρῄζω.
Euripides, Orestes 1163-1166
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jeidsath
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Euripides, Orestes 1163-1166
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”
Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com
Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com
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jeidsath
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- Posts: 5341
- Joined: Mon Dec 30, 2013 2:42 pm
- Location: Γαλεήπολις, Οὐισκόνσιν
Re: Euripides, Orestes 1163-1166
Looking at this again, τοὺς ἐμοὺς ἐχθροὺς must be a second accusative object of δράσας. I think it must be literally:
"I wish to die having done something to my enemies"
And that makes Kovacs' rendering make sense.
"I wish to die having done something to my enemies"
And that makes Kovacs' rendering make sense.
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”
Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com
Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com