Translation help needed for Iliad

Greek Homeric Greek and Early Greek Poetry
1

Apologies for not including the accents and breathings for the greek text, but I wrote this on my ipad and have not yet found an app that will let me type ancient greek on it.

I have need of translation help for line 97 from book one of the Iliad:

The Monroe and Allen OCT text has this:
ουδ᾽ ο γε πριν Δαναοισιν αεικεα λοιγον απωσει

A literal translation of this seems pretty straightfoward:

“and he (Apollo) will not yet push away grievous destruction from the Danaans”

or as Lattimore puts it:
“nor sooner thrust back the shameful plague from the Danaans”


West and van Thiel prefer this alternate in their editions:

ουδ᾽ ο γε πριν λοιμοιο βαρειας χειρας αφεξει


Is this how it should be translated:

“and he (Apollo) will not yet take off his heavy hands from the plague” ?

That seems a rather crude way of saying that he will not yet stop the plague.

2

Ahab wrote

West and van Thiel prefer this alternate in their editions:

ουδ᾽ ο γε πριν λοιμοιο βαρειας χειρας αφεξει


Is this how it should be translated:

“and he (Apollo) will not yet take off his heavy hands from the plague” ?

That seems a rather crude way of saying that he will not yet stop the plague.

Hi, Ahab,

ἐφίημι χεῖράς τινι is a standard Homeric idiom for “attack,” (e.g. Od. 20:29) so ἀπέχω χεῖράς τινος makes sense as “desist from attacking.”

{Ahab ἔγραψε

West and van Thiel prefer this alternate in their editions:

ουδ᾽ ο γε πριν λοιμοιο βαρειας χειρας αφεξει


Is this how it should be translated:

“and he (Apollo) will not yet take off his heavy hands from the plague” ?

That seems a rather crude way of saying that he will not yet stop the plague.

χαῖρε Ahab,

τὸ “ἐφίημι χεῖράς τινι” ἐστιν ἰδίωμα τοῦ Ὁμήρου. ἰδὲ Οδ. 20:29. τοῦτο δὲ σημαίνει το “ἐπιτίθεμαι.” τὸ οὖν “ἀπέχω χεῖράς τινος” σημαίνει τὸ “παύω τὴν ἐπίθεσιν.” }

3

Thanks much for the info, Markos. It was very helpful.