Thanks to Joel, we have found another Greek paraphrase of the Iliad, this one by a certain Neophytos Doukas (1760-1845.)
http://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/php/pdf_pager.php?rec=/metadata/b/5/b/metadata-39-0000584.tkl&do=205007_1_w.pdf&pageno=5&pagestart=1&width=399&height=567&maxpage=332&lang=en
I’m not sure how we missed this guy. In the secondary literature on Homeric paraphrase that I cited above, I did not see him mentioned. He has also done Ancient Greek paraphrases of the Odyssey, Sophocles, Pindar, Thucydides and others.
http://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/search/?dtab=m&search_type=advanced&search_help=&display_mode=overview&wf_step=init&show_hidden=0&number=25&keep_number=15&cclterm1=Δούκας++Νεόφυτος&cclterm2=&cclterm3=&cclterm4=&cclterm5=&cclterm6=&cclterm7=&cclterm8=&cclfield1=author&cclfield2=title&cclfield3=id&cclfield4=datefrom&cclfield5=dateto&cclfield6=collection&cclfield7=lang&cclfield8=collection&cclop1=and&cclop2=and&cclop3=and&cclop4=and&cclop5=and&cclop6=and&cclop7=and&isp=&display_help=0&offset=1&search_coll[metadata]=1&stored_cclquery=&skin=&rss=0&store_query=1&show_form=&export_method=none&ioffset=1&old_offset=1&number=50#
(Thanks to Bedwere for that link.)
Doukas’ Greek is basic Attic-Koine, essentially the same as Gaza’s, with very little overt influence from the Modern. His paraphrase is more free than Gaza’s.
Iliad 2:1-4:ἄλλοι μέν ῥα θεοί τε καὶ ἀνέρες ἱπποκορυσταὶ
εὗδον παννύχιοι, Δία δ᾽ οὐκ ἔχε νήδυμος ὕπνος,
ἀλλ᾽ ὅ γε μερμήριζε κατὰ φρένα ὡς Ἀχιλῆα
τιμήσῃ, ὀλέσῃ δὲ πολέας ἐπὶ νηυσὶν Ἀχαιῶν.
Gaza 2:1-4: οἱ μὲν δή ἄλλοι θεοί τε, καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες, οἱ ἐφ’ ἵππων ὁπλίται, διὰ πάσης τῆς νυκτὸς ὕπνωττον. τὸν Δία δὲ οὐ κατεῖχεν ὕπνος ἡδῦς, ἀλλ’ ἐφρόντιζεν οὗτος κατὰ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ λογισμὸν, πῶς ἂν τὸν Ἀχιλλέα τιμήσῃ, ἀπολέσῃ δὲ πολλοὺς ἐπὶ ταῖς ναυσὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων.
Doukas 2:1-4: οἱ μὲν οὖν ἄλλοι θεοί τε καὶ ἄνδρες ἐκοιμῶντοι παννύχιοι. Ζεὺς δὲ σκοπούμενος ὅπως τιμήσει μὲν Ἀχιλλέα, ἀπολέσει δὲ πολλοὺς τῶν Ἑλλήνων, οὖκ εἶχεν ὕπνου μεταλαγχάνειν.
Note how Doukas drops out the epithets ἱπποκορυσταὶ and νήδυμος and how he reverses the word order of the clauses. Elsewhere, like Gaza, Doukas adds his own explanatory/interpretive expansions.
One feature of Doukas which will delight Greek paraphrase junkies is that in the places where Homer virtually repeats the same line in several places, Doukas will sometimes render the same line in different words, adding yet another layer of paraphrase.
Iliad 2:12: νῦν γάρ κεν ἕλοι πόλιν εὐρυάγυιαν
Τρώων:
Iliad 2:29: νῦν γάρ κεν ἕλοις πόλιν εὐρυάγυιαν
Τρώων:
Doukas 2:12: ῥᾷστα γὰρ νῦν αὐτῶν ἐξαιρήσειν τὴν πόλιν.
Doukas 2:29: ἐλπὶς γάρ σε νῦν μάλισθ’ ὕπεστιν οὐ σμικρὰ Τρίαν ῥᾳδίως αἱρήσεσθαι.
When I get stuck on the original, I routinely use my Gaza as an alternative to bilingual lexicons, translations and L1 grammar notes. Since Doukas does not follow the original as closely as does Gaza or Psellos, he may be less useful here. But one can use him as a back up when when is stumped by both Homer and Gaza. And, as a stand-alone piece of literature, Doukas may be more enjoyable (though a little harder) than Gaza. Needless to say, I am thrilled to have found him.
Would it not be cool to someday have a parallel edition, even if only of one book, of all the available paraphrases?
Homer 1:20: παῖδα δ᾽ ἐμοὶ λύσαιτε φίλην, τὰ δ᾽ ἄποινα δέχεσθαι…
Psellos 1:20: τὴν προσφιλῆ δέ μοι θυγατέρα λυτρώσασθε, τὰ δὲ δῶρα δέξασθε…
Gaza: 1:20: ἐμοὶ δὲ ἀπολύσατε τὴν προσφιλῆ θυγατέρα, καὶ τὰ λύτρα δέξασθε…
Loukanis 1:20: τὴν ἐμὴν θυγατέρα, τὴν πολλά μου ποθουμένην, πρὸς ἐμὲ τὴν ἀποδῶτε, τὰ δὲ δῶρα τὰ κομίζω δέξεσθέ τα κατὰ χάριν…
Doukas 1:20: ἐμοὶ δὲ τὴν φίλην μοι παῖδα λῦσαι, δεξαμένους τὰ δῶρα ταῦτα…
We are one Greek paraphrase shy of a Hexapla!
As you can see, the font on the on-line Doukas is better than the one we have for Gaza. It would be easier to do Optical Character Recognition scans with it, to make even better editions.
Right now I am reading Doukas’ Ajax, about which I am even more excited. Reading his paraphrase allows the difficult text of Sophocles’ original to become comprehensible to me without leaving L2. This makes it one of the best kept secrets of monolingual resources, so again I thank Joel and Roberto for discovering him. I wonder if Rouse, who in Greek Boy did his own similar paraphrase of a few lines from the Persians, knew of Doukas?
I will do a post on Doukas’ Sophocles once I work through more of it.