One more about this last thing: at first, when I started reading from Merry, I missed the short vocabularies with which books like S&H accompany the passages with the most frequent words that are worth memorizing, but then I found out that looking at the dictionary each time can be much more pedagogic (well... with a computer at least, and when one has mastered the core vocabulary). So here goes a tip (probably most of you already know it, but maybe helps anyone): to determine which words are worth remembering I use the frequency analysis tables of Perseus for the Odyssey, I just find each word in the table, and if the frequency is above certain limit I add the word to my memorization list, otherwise I just write down the word at the margin with a short definition.
That said, here are some questions that I couldn't solve with Merry's notes:
11-15:
All the tenses in this passage make sense for me, except for the participle perfect κεχρημένον.ἔνθ᾽ ἄλλοι μὲν πάντες, ὅσοι φύγον αἰπὺν ὄλεθρον,
οἴκοι ἔσαν, πόλεμόν τε πεφευγότες ἠδὲ θάλασσαν:
τὸν δ᾽ οἶον νόστου κεχρημένον ἠδὲ γυναικὸς
νύμφη πότνι᾽ ἔρυκε Καλυψὼ δῖα θεάων
ἐν σπέσσι γλαφυροῖσι, λιλαιομένη πόσιν εἶναι.
24:
How would you explain the difference in tense between both participles?οἱ μὲν δυσομένου Ὑπερίονος οἱ δ᾽ ἀνιόντος,
57-59:
It seems like a concession: wishing to see his earth, even if it were only it's smoke. The sense is clear, but, what is the smoke of the earth? Is there any metaphorical use of the word that I am missing here?αὐτὰρ Ὀδυσσεύς,
ἱέμενος καὶ καπνὸν ἀποθρῴσκοντα νοῆσαι
ἧς γαίης, θανέειν ἱμείρεται.
88-91:
1) I would expect a coma after ἐποτρύνω. That way "καὶ οἱ μένος ἐν φρέσὶ θείω" would be parenthetical, and then ἐποτρύνω would be with the infinitive clause that follows. Would you explain the infinitive clause in any other way?αὐτὰρ ἐγὼν Ἰθάκηνδ᾽ ἐσελεύσομαι, ὄφρα οἱ υἱὸν
μᾶλλον ἐποτρύνω καί οἱ μένος ἐν φρεσὶ θείω,
εἰς ἀγορὴν καλέσαντα κάρη κομόωντας Ἀχαιοὺς
πᾶσι μνηστήρεσσιν ἀπειπέμεν,
It seems that is common to use μέλω in the perfect/pluperfect tense, but I still don't get it. Which would be the difference in meaning if I replace μεμήλει for ἐμέλησε in this sentence?μνηστῆρες, τοῖσιν μὲν ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ἄλλα μεμήλει,
166-168:
How would you explain that (ἀπ)ὄλλυμι is perfect the first time, but aorist the second?νῦν δ᾽ ὁ μὲν ὣς ἀπόλωλε κακὸν μόρον, οὐδέ τις ἡμῖν
θαλπωρή, εἴ πέρ τις ἐπιχθονίων ἀνθρώπων
φῇσιν ἐλεύσεσθαι: τοῦ δ᾽ ὤλετο νόστιμον ἦμαρ.
I would translate:
"On the contrary, he has died an evil death, and there is no hope to us, even if a man upon the earth should say that he is coming: his day of return has been lost."
I don't see any grammatical difference between the first "died" and the second "lost".
So, my question is: would the sentence result in exactly the same meaning if I interchange these two verbs? Are metrical reasons and variety the only factors here?
217-218:
I would expect ἐγώ in the accussative (if it has to be expressed at all), since this is an infinitive construction.ὡς δὴ ἐγώ γ᾽ ὄφελον μάκαρός νύ τευ ἔμμεναι υἱὸς
ἀνέρος, ὃν κτεάτεσσιν ἑοῖς ἔπι γῆρας ἔτετμε.
267,400:
This is a strange expression, I would expect things to be in the hands of the gods, not in their knees! Have you got any theory about it? Maybe means that something depends of the prayings of the mortals (for to pray to someone implies to be at his knees)?ἀλλ᾽ ἦ τοι μὲν ταῦτα θεῶν ἐν γούνασι κεῖται,
274:
How should I take ἐπὶ σφέτερα? "On their own"? Or ἐπὶ σφέτερα [δώματα]?μνηστῆρας μὲν ἐπὶ σφέτερα σκίδνασθαι ἄνωχθι,
372-374
How should I take the infinitive ἐξιέναι here? Is this the infinitive of command?ἠῶθεν δ᾽ ἀγορήνδε καθεζώμεσθα κιόντες
πάντες, ἵν᾽ ὕμιν μῦθον ἀπηλεγέως ἀποείπω,
ἐξιέναι μεγάρων:
361-362:
Why is the pluperfect used here?ἡ μὲν θαμβήσασα πάλιν οἶκόνδε βεβήκει:
παιδὸς γὰρ μῦθον πεπνυμένον ἔνθετο θυμῷ.
381-382:
Which is the meaning of φύντες here? I don't understand it's intransitive use.ὣς ἔφαθ᾽, οἱ δ᾽ ἄρα πάντες ὀδὰξ ἐν χείλεσι φύντες
Τηλέμαχον θαύμαζον, ὃ θαρσαλέως ἀγόρευεν.
Here ἐξ is following the word to which belongs (ποίης γαίης). Should not keep it's accent then?ποίης δ᾽ ἐξ εὔχεται εἶναι
γαίης, ποῦ δέ νύ οἱ γενεὴ καὶ πατρὶς ἄρουρα.
411:
How should I take εἰς ὦπα? Could be translated "at sight"? I am not sure if this is an expression in English or it is literal, but in my language "at sight" = "at first sight" = "at once".οὐ μὲν γάρ τι κακῷ εἰς ὦπα ἐῴκει.
430-432:
Really I don't see the imperfect of πρίαμαι here, I would expect the aorist. Heτήν ποτε Λαέρτης πρίατο κτεάτεσσιν ἑοῖσι,
προθήβην ἔτ' ἐοῦσαν, ἐεικοσάβοια δ' ἔδωκεν,
ἶσα δέ μιν κεδνῇ ἀλόχῳ τίεν ἐν μεγάροισιν,
bought her, and to buy something is nothing durative, right?
Note: below I listed this verb as one of which I couldn't explain the form (it is a μι deponent verb, so I would expect πρίετο to be the imperfect, not πρίατο), so I suspect that maybe this is actually a first aorist, not an imperfect, despite what the lemmatizer of Perseus says.
435:
I wonder when is the iterative form used and when is not. I mean, there are manyφιλέεσκε καὶ ἔτρεφε
cases where the action is frequentative and the iterative form is not used (here
for example, is used in the first verb and neglected in the second, being both
verbs grammatically equal in the sentence and having a very close meaning). Is
this just arbitrary or is there any other condition besides the frequentative
aspect of the action that makes more probably the apparition of an iterative
form? How would you explain this case particularly?
Finally, here are the words whose form I couldn't explain, neither with Merry's notes nor Smyth's grammar:
verse number. strange form => expected form
Before I start with Book 2, I would like to listen a reading of what I have read, would you recommend any audio resource to me? I am not very ambitious really, I just would like to recite to myself less or more decently what I read.225. ἐπλέτο => ἐπέλετο
234. ἐβόλοντο => ἐβούλοντο
237. δάμνη => δαμάσθη
243. κάλλιπεν => κατέλιπεν
289. τεθνηῶτος => τεθνηκότος
292. δοῦναι => δῶκαι
299. ἔκτα => ἔκτεινε or ἔκτανε
348. δίδωσιν (singular) => δίδοι
374. ἐξιέναι => ἐξιέμεναι
411. γνώμεναι => γνώναι
410. ἀναΐξας => ἀνηίξας
433. ἔμικτο => ἔμιχθη
411. ἐῴκει => ἐοίκει
430. πρίατο => πρίετο
433. ἔμικτο => ἐμίχθη
435. δμῳάων => δμωάων