# Ancient Greek: The Odyssey Excerpt



## MonsieurAquilone

Hello.

I am trying to find the Greek (original) a small quote that appears in the Odyssey.  I do not mind Ancient or Modern Greek and would be delighted with a response.

I wish to translate (back) into Greek,

"What a lamentable thing it is that men should blame the gods and regard _us _as the source of their troubles, when it is their own wickedness that brings them sufferings worse than any Destiny allots them.

Thank you.


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## Frank06

Hi,



			
				MonsieurAquilone said:
			
		

> I am trying to find the Greek (original) a small quote that appears in the Odyssey.  I do not mind Ancient or Modern Greek and would be delighted with a response. "What a lamentable thing it is that men should blame the gods and regard _us _as the source of their troubles, when it is their own wickedness that brings them sufferings worse than any Destiny allots them.



ὢ πόποι, οἷον δή νυ θεοὺς βροτοὶ αἰτιόωνται.
ἐξ ἡμέων γάρ φασι κάκ' ἔμμεναι· οἱ δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ
σφῇσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὑπὲρ μόρον ἄλγε' ἔχουσιν,
[the text goes on]

I found a transcription on the site of the Perseus Project:

ô popoi, hoion dê nu theous brotoi aitioôntai:
ex hêmeôn gar phasi kak' emmenai, hoi de kai autoi
sphêisin atasthaliêisin huper moron alge' echousin,

Frank


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## Perfectcube

Ancient greek:


“_Ὢ πὸποι, οἶον δή νυ θεοὺς βροτοὶ αἰτιόωνται. 
ἐξ ἡμέων γάρ φασι κάκ’ ἔμμεναι· οἱ δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ 
σφῇσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὑπὲρ μόρον ἄλγε’ ἔχουσιν,_”

(Οδύσσεια  α32-34)


And modern greek in a "word to word" translation:

"Πωπω, τι πράγμα θεούς βροτοί να αιτιώνται
γιατί από μας λένε τα κακά είναι· όμως και αυτοί
από δικές τους ατασθαλίες υπέρ της μοίρας άλγη έχουν"



*edit:  (lol, Frank06 was 3 minutes faster.)*


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## MonsieurAquilone

Thank you to both of you.


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## MonsieurAquilone

Is the modern Greek 'word for word' translation accurate?....and how does one write "Homer" in Greek?


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## Frank06

Hi,



			
				MonsieurAquilone said:
			
		

> Is the modern Greek 'word for word' translation accurate?....and how does one write "Homer" in Greek?


No idea about the modern Greek.

Homer is  *Ὅμηρος* (the 'accents' matter!, transcription: Hómēros), in modern Greek it's (apparantly)  *Όμηρος*.

Groetjes,

Frank


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## ireney

Aspiration marks are not pronounced in modern Greek. In fact they haven't been pronounced since the Middle Ages at least (I don't remember exactly when we stopped pronouncing each one of them).

Frank's transcription of Homer to ancient and modern Greek is accurate.

Now about the transcription by Perfectube. Yes it is accurate. It is of course a poetic one. The words  βροτοί αιτιώνται and άλγη are more or less "scholarly" ones in modern Greek with βροτοί being the only one really rare.

P.S. βροτοί is θνητοί in colloquial Greek. Αἰτιῶμαι is Κατηγορώ . Ὰλγος is πόνος


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## MonsieurAquilone

Thank you for all your help.


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## Perfectcube

Irene, you forgot áôáóèáëßåò ->ìðáãáðïíôéÝò.  
Generally, I don’t see why we should change words that exist in modern greek, when transcribing from ancient greek literature, just because they are not used so often in everyday life. Especially, when we are talking about a poem where each word has its own significance.


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## ireney

lol No Perfectube I did not forget it. I only gave the equivalent of the three words that are considered rather shcolary. Ατασθαλίες maybe a bit scholary but not really. It can and is used in everyday speech often enough to deserve the term colloquial.

For the record, I don't disagree with the way the poem was transcribed in modern Greek at all. I just thought that, since it's really clear to the Homeric original and _some_ would find it strange (you can't belive what I've heard about modern Greek vs ancient Greek at times) I should note that 

a) the transcription too was poetic meaning that no, we don't speak like this in everyday life. Same words different word order in prose and poetry eh?
b) the three words I mentioned are not used in every-day speech but are perfectly ok for a work of literature.

I thought this way I made clear that it was an excellent transcription


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## ics

And here's a translation by Z. Sideris (from my old school book ) in modern (current) Greek:

_Ω, κρίμα αλήθεια, οι άνθρωποι με τους θεούς να τα ’χουν,_
_γιατί θαρρούν πως από μας οι συμφορές τους βρίσκουν,_
_ενώ παθαίνουν μόνοι τους απ’ ασυλλογισιά τους,_
_χωρίς να φταίει η μοίρα τους._

bye!


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