On: The Odyssey by Homer, Translated by Samuel Butler

[hexis]

And Emily Wilson has a translation of the Iliad releasing in the US later this year - https://www.amazon.com/Iliad-Homer/dp/1324001801

[thisisauserid → hexis]

In Emily Wilson's article comparing her excerpt with other famous translators, she conveniently leaves Lattimore out:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230629122951/https://www.nytim...

I pulled my Lattimore off the shelf and compared them. I was unsurprised to find Wilson's iambic pentameter version over-simplified:

"Strange woman! Come on now, you must not be too sad on my account."

vs. Lattimore's: "Poor Andromachē! Why does your heart sorrow so much for me?"

[InitialLastName → thisisauserid]

Butler: "My own wife, do not take these things too bitterly to heart"

It seems to me that most of the other translations I can find are closer to the Wilson translation. I don't know any version of Greek, but the name Andromache doesn't appear in that line (book 6 line 486) at all, and nobody else seems to interpret the line as a rhetorical question.

All this just to say, maybe Wilson's is closer to the original text?

[thisisauserid → InitialLastName]

Great points. It still seems odd to me that she left Lattimore out when he's so often praised (on HN anyway).

[theoldlove → InitialLastName]

Yeah the Greek here is (Il. 6.486):

δαιμονίη μή μοί τι λίην ἀκαχίζεο θυμῷ:

δαιμονίη is of disputed meaning, but basically a literal translation might run:

Possessed woman, don’t be so upset in your heart for me.

Here Lattimore doesn’t look so good.