Chapter 3. Κότος and Social Status {78|79} At the beginning of this study, I suggested that kótos was identified in Calchas’s definition both by the length of time that it lasts and by the social status of the angered party. We have seen that the use of télos, metópisthen, and other related terminology gives kótos a sense of extraordinary duration. The issue of the term’s relation to social status now… Read more
Anger is central to the Homeric epic, but few scholarly interventions have probed Homer’s language beyond the study of the Iliad’s first word: menis. Yet Homer uses over a dozen words for anger. Fighting Words and Feuding Words engages the powerful tools of Homeric poetic analysis and the anthropological study of emotion in an analysis of two anger terms highlighted in the Iliad by the Achaean prophet Calchas. Walsh argues that kotos and kholos locate two focal points for the study… Read more
Translation and Notes by Gregory Nagy This song, composed by Pindar to be sung and danced by an ad hoc local khoros in the island-state of Aigina, was commissioned by the family of an aristocrat named Aristomenes, as a celebration of his victory in the wrestling event at the Pythian Games of 446 BCE. Strophe 1 Hēsukhiā!1 You whose disposition is kindly to philoi, you Daughter of Dikē,… Read more
Translated by Gregory Nagy Lord Apollo, son of Leto and Zeus, I will always have you 2 on my mind as I begin and as I end my song. You will be my song in the beginning, in the end, and in the middle. 4 Hear my prayer and grant me the things that are noble [esthla]. Lord Phoebus Apollo! When the goddess, Lady Leto, gave birth to you… Read more
Translated by Benjamin Jowett Adapted by Gregory Nagy, Miriam Carlisle, and Soo-Young Kim Persons of the Dialogue Phaedo, who is the narrator of the dialogue to Echecrates of Phlius Socrates Apollodorus Simmias Cebes Crito Attendant of the Prison Scene The Prison of Socrates. Place of the Narration: Phlius. Echecrates [57a] Were you yourself, Phaedo, in the prison with Socrates… Read more
Translated by Benjamin Jowett Adapted by Miriam Carlisle, Thomas E. Jenkins, Gregory Nagy, and Soo-Young Kim Socrates [17a] How you have felt, O men of Athens, at hearing the speeches of my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that their persuasive words almost made me forget who I was—such was the effect of them; and yet they have hardly spoken a word of truth [alēthēs]. But many… Read more
Translated by T. A. Buckley Revised by Alex Sens Further Revised by Gregory Nagy Dionysus I am Dionysus, the child of Zeus, and I have come to this land of the Thebans, where Kadmos’ daughter Semele once bore me, delivered by a lightning-blast. Having assumed a mortal form in place of my divine one, 5 I am here at the fountains of Dirke and the water of… Read more
Translated by E. P. Coleridge Revised by Mary Jane Rein Further Revised by Gregory Nagy Before the royal palace at Trozen. A statue of Aphrodite stands on one side; a statue of Artemis on the other. The goddess Aphrodite appears alone. Aphrodite Powerful among mortals am I and not without reputation, I am called the goddess Kypris even in heaven. And those who dwell within the limits… Read more
