Thursday, December 3, 2009

a bit of Hesiod

Yesterday I got back the peer reviews for chapters 7,8 and 9. Overall they were quite positive. I also worked on preparing assignments for Winter quarter. In addition I was reviewing my "decipherment" of the first 120 or so lines of Hesiod's Theogany which forms a hymn to the Muses. Here are a couple of key passages:

they went up to Olympos glorying in sweet voices
with immortal song
the black earth echoed around them as they hymned
sweet drumming rose under their feet
as they climbed to their father ruling the sky
holding the dark thunder & bolt lightning
after defeating his father Kronos by might
distributing to each of the immortals their fair portions ad privledges
these things the Muses sing who have their home
in Olympos, the nine daughters of magnanimous Zeus
Klio & Euterpe & Thalia & Melpomene & then
Terpsichore & Erato & Polumnia & Ourania & also
Kalliope, who is the most renowned
because she attends to the exalted princes & sacred kings


--and here the end of the section:


happy he whom the Muses Love
ο δ’ όλιβιος ̀’ον τινα Μουσαι φίλωνται
sweet speech flows from his mouth
even if he is full of grief
with a mourning spirit
full of fresh sorrow
his heart parched dry
yet a singer, a servant of the Muses,
singing news of past men & the Olympian gods
causes anxieties to be forgotten
the memory of them prepared for burial
the gifts of the goddesses turn away sorrow

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