το ρα οι τεθυωμενον ηεν
Help!
Richard Ross
ἀλείψατο δὲ λίπ᾽ ἐλαίῳ
ἀμβροσίῳ ἑδανῷ, τό ῥά οἱ τεθυωμένον ἦεν
"She anointed herself abundantly with oil, ambrosial and sweet, which [oil] was perfumed for her."
Or, in better English, “She anointed herself abundantly with oil, ambrosial and sweet, a perfumed one that she had”.
οἱ is dative of advantage, "for her use/benefit; οι ην is better translated here with “she had”, because it doesn’t imply that the oil has specifically been perfumed for her—being perfumed is a general property of the oil, and it incidentally belongs to Hera.
I don’t have access to any literature, but I believe there’s also a variant αμβροςιον εανον, εανος being a robe; in this case, she anointed her robe and not herself. Someone with a critical edition could check this.
Hi Richard,
τό in Homer is the relative pronoun, like ὅ. The antecedent is ἐλαίῳ (neuter).
ῥα is an alternative form of ἄρα, a particle without much meaning. It’s enclitic: note the accent on τό.
οἱ is the dative of the reflexive pronoun, accusative ἑ. It too is enclitic: note the acute accent on ῥά. As a reflexive it refers to the subject of the sentence. If you want to say what kind of dative it is, Paul’s “dat. of advantage” is as good as any other, or “dat. of possession,” which is implied by his suggested “she had.” But it doesn’t really need to be classified at all. It just gets her into the clause.
What was it you found difficult?
ῥα is an alternative form of ἄρα, a particle without much meaning.
Still, when I’m reading it, I’m reminded of Beowulf:
oð þæt him aéghwylc / þára ymbsittendra
ofer hronráde / hýran scolde,
gomban gyldan· / þæt wæs gód cyning.
The “that” in “that was one good king” in the end feels very similar to the ῥα here. An intensifying statement about what has gone before.
… / she oiled herself richly
with oil sweet and divine / that oil was perfumed for her!
Maybe that doesn’t quite get it. But I still say that if feels the same as the Beowulf line.
I didn’t mention that τό is also demonstrative, and can be punctuated either way. It’s το more than ρα that corresponds to þæt, but yes, the το-ρα combo may possibly bring it closer still, and close to what you say—but less emphatic (no exclamation mark!) and a smoother continuation. But I am not going to go into αρα (or το), or not here. οἱ slips in very unobtrusively, no emphasis there either.