What Difference Does the Translation Make?

 

Fagles, page 523.44:

Corrigan:

It is ten years since those armed prosecutors of Justice,

Menelaus and Agamemnon, twin sceptred on God-given sovranty, embarked in the thousand ships

Crying war, like eagles with long wings beating the air over  a robbed mountain nest, wheeling and

Screaming for their lost children. Yet above them some god, maybe Apollo or Zeus, overhears the sky-dwellers cry and send after the robber a Fury.

Fraenkel:

This is now the tenth year since Priam’s great adversary at Suit, King Menelaus and Agamemnon, the stalwart yoke of the Atreidae, paired in the honour of two thrones and two sceptres derived from Zeus, put out from this land an Argive armament of a thousand ships to give fighting help, shouting from an angry heart the cry for a mighty war, like vultures that in extreme (?) grief for their children, high above their bed circle round and round, rowing with thee oars of their wings, having lost the couch-keeping labour they had spent over their nestlings; but one in the height, Apollo, it may be, or Pan or Zeus, hearing the shrill cry of the birds’ lament, and (feeling great compassion for) the denizens in his realm, sends on the transgressors her who brings punishment though late, Erinys.

Original Greek:

dekaton men etos tod' epei Priamou

megas antidikos,

Menelaos anax êd' Agamemnôn,

dithronou Diothen kai diskêptrou

timês ochuron zeugos Atreidan

stolon Argeiôn chilionautên,

têsd' apo chôras

 

êran, stratiôtin arôgan,

megan ek thumou klazontes Arê

tropon aigupiôn, hoit' ekpatiois

algesi paidôn hupatoi lecheôn

strophodinountai

pterugôn eretmoisin eressomenoi,

demniotêrê

ponon ortalichôn olesantes:

hupatos d' aiôn ê tis Apollôn

ê Pan ê Zeus oiônothroon

goon oxuboan tônde metoikôn

husteropoinon

 

pempei parabasin Erinun.

 

Fagles, page 525.126:

Corrigan:

Shrewdly the priest took note and compared each eagle with each king,

Then spoke out and prefigured the future in these words:

“In time the Greek arms shall demolish the fortress of Priam;

Only let no jealous God, as they fasten

On Troy the slave’s yoke,

I strike them in anger; for Artemis loathes the rapacious

Eagles of Zeus that have slaughtered the frail hare.

Ailinon cry, but let good conquer!

 

Fraenkel:

And when the wise seer of the army saw the two Atridae, twain in temper, he knew the warlike devourers of the hare for the conducting chiefs; and thus he spake interpreting the portent: ‘In course of time this expedition captures Priam’s town; and all the herds before the walls, the plentiful possessions of the people, shall lay waste with violence: let only no envious grudge from the gods strike beforehand and overcloud the great bit for Troy’s mouth, the army on its campaign. For out of pity pure Artemis bears a grudge against the winged hounds of her father for a sacrifice the poor trembling hare with her young before the birth; and she loathes the feast of the eagles.’ Say ‘woe, woe,’ but may the good prevail!

Original Greek:

kednos de stratomantis idôn duo lêmasi dissous

Atreïdas machimous edaê lagodaitas

pompous t' archas:

houtô d' eipe teraizôn:

 “chronôi men agrei

Priamou polin hade keleuthos,

panta de purgôn

ktênê prosthe ta dêmioplêthê

Moir' alapaxei pros to biaion:

oion mê tis aga theothen knepha-

sêi protupen stomion mega Troias

stratôthen.oiktôi gar epi-

phthonos Artemis hagna

ptanoisin kusi patros

autotokon pro lochou mogeran ptaka thuomenoisin

stugei de deipnon aietôn.”

ailinon ailinon eipe, to d' eu nikatô.

 

 

Fagles, page 527.218:

Corrigan:

And when he bowed down beneath the harness

Of cruel coercion, his spirit veering

With sudden sacrilegious change,

He gave his whole mind to evil counsel.

For man is made bold with base-contriving

Impetuous madness, first cause of much grief.

And so then he slew his own child

For a war to win a woman

And to speed the storm-bound fleet from the shore to battle.

Fraenkel:

And when he had slipped his neck through the strap of compulsion’s yoke, and the wind of his purpose had veered about and blew impious, impure, unholy, from that moment he reversed his mind and turned to utter recklessness. For men are emboldend by base-counselling wretched infatuation, the beginning of woe. However, he brought himself to become the sacrificer of his daughter, in aid of a war for avenging the loss of a woman and as a preliminary rite on behalf of the fleet.

Original Greek:

epei d' anankas edu lepadnon

phrenos pneôn dussebê tropaian

anagnon anieron, tothen

to pantotolmon phronein metegnô.

brotous thrasunei gar aischromêtis

talaina parakopa prôtopêmôn. etla d' oun

thutêr genesthai thugatros,

gunaikopoinôn polemôn arôgan

kai proteleia naôn.