Μηνιν αϜειδε Θεά Πηληϊαδεω Αχιλῆος
Thinking of the recent fuss about US soldiers abusing corpses I was reminded of the (admittedly dishonourable) conduct of Achilles, vengefully dragging Hector's corpse behind his chariot in the dust of the plain of Scamander. Such things have been with us for a long time.
Then, happier thought, I was reminded of the lecture, Heroes of Homer's Illiad and the Warror Code, by the superlative Marsh McCall (available as a free podcast, highly recommended). His explanation of the very first line of The Illiad is wonderful:
Μηνιν αϜειδε Θεά Πηληϊαδεω Αχιλῆος
transliterated,
Menin aeide thea Peleiadeo Achileos
literally,
Wrath sing oh goddess of the son of Peleus Achilles
but that word order, the word order in Ancient Greek, can't be rendered and make sense in English – you have to begin with the imperative, 'Sing'. In Latimer's translation, for instance
Sing, goddes, the anger of Peleus' son Achilleus
In the highly inflected Ancient Greek the poem's very first word could be the theme of the entire poem:
Wrath
So even the best translation doesn't begin to do justice to the poetic brilliance of Homer, using as the first word the the word that will thrust through the whole epic.
As Marsh says: "Isn't that great".
