a highway of song
Ξ Saturday, 18 Oct 2008 at 21:20 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Normal |
I seem to remember Pindar wrote about “highways” with regards to poetry and especially his predecessors. The quote popped into my head as I was recalling another quote, one from Quintus Smyrnaeus which describes the death of Achilles’ rival Memnon, his Aithiopian challenger. But first, here are Pindar’s words:
καὶ ταῦτα μὲν παλαιότεροι ὁδὸν ἀμαξιτὸν εὗρον
“And the older [poets] found [the slaying of Memnon and other deeds of Achilles] as a highway.”
- Pindar, Nem. 6.53-54
Directly before Pindar’s remark, he relates the slaying of Memnon in a short sentence: φαεννᾶς υἱὸν εὖτ’ ἐνάριξεν Ἀόος ἀκμᾷ ἔγχεος ζακότοιο – “At the time when [Achilles] slew the son of shining Eos with the point of his much-raging spear…” (Pindar, Nem. 6.51-52). Now where am I going with all of this, you ask? My original plan was to quote the death scene of Memnon, as I said, and here it is, as promised:
ἀλλ’ ἄρα Μέμνονα δῖον ὑπὸ στέρνοιο θέμεθλα
Πηλείδης οὔτησε· τὸ δ’ ἀντικρὺ μέλαν ἆορ
ἐξέθορεν· τοῦ δ’ αἶψα λύθη πολύηρατος αἰών·
κάππεσε δ’ ἐς μέλαν αἷμα, βράχεν δέ οἱ ἄσπετα τεύχη
γαῖα δ’ ὑπεσμαράγησε, καὶ ἀμφεφόβηθεν ἑταῖροι…
But then, under the lowest part of his chest,
The son of Peleus wounded glorious Memnon;
The dark sword sprang straight through.
Then at once his very lovely life was loosened,
And he fell down into his black blood, and his immense armour clashed.
The earth resounded underneath, and his comrades trembled all around.
- Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica 2.542-546
One lead I’ve been looking at in my thesis is the curious fact that Memnon is killed by a sword, the μέλαν ἆορ (“dark sword”), rather than the spear as one would expect (given Pindar’s version at Nem 6.52 with ἀκμᾷ ἔγχεος ζακότοιο, “with the point of his much-raging spear”). A dictionary I consulted (Liddell, Scott and Jones, the dictionary for ancient Greek) says that ἆορ can mean “any weapon” though, in later Greek such as Quintus, so I don’t know how far I can go with this, but I find it telling that Quintus deviates in this respect.
I like the passage overall, though, hands down. It has a number of strange words – ὑπεσμαράγησε, which apparently appears only here (a hapax legomenon, “said once”), ἀμφεφόβηθεν (another hapax as far as I’ve seen), and βράχεν, a form of the verb βραχεῖν which appears often but is only used in a few forms and tenses.
If you’ve tuned that out, let’s begin again. I’m Greyor, as you know. And as you read last, I feel more energised about my schoolwork, having been quite inspired a couple of days ago (thank you again!). Inspiration really does come from unexpected places sometimes. I’m nearly 24 and a half years old – the half will come to pass on 29 October, if you’re interested. Fall is slowly seeping into the city, the bright aether overhead filling with clouds (from νεφεληγερέτα Ζεύς, “Zeus who gathers the clouds” perhaps?).
I woke up way too early this morning, since we were going to see W. at 10.45. I went to bed way too late also, so that didn’t help. We were gone basically from about 10 until 17.30; it was a longish day in that respect, most of it spent on transportation. The movie was good — I was surprised at how balanced it was, and it actually made me (ack?) feel sort of bad for the guy. We resolved to go to Target after that, after walking Jenn’s dog, in order to get a few essentials.
Was glad to get home when we did. Now I’m in my room, much as I was a couple of days ago, writing away on my laptop on my bed. I think this will be my m.o. for writing from now on if I can help it. A lot more comfortable, to be sure, and it’s relaxing in here, calm with just my lamp shedding some light about the room. It’s a little after 21.00 now, and I don’t know how it got so fucking late so fast, but I suppose we’ve been gone most of the day.
I’m feeling ataraxic in some ways, but I would not go so far as to compare myself to an Epicurean god 
I am however feeling μεγάθυμος (megathumos, “great-hearted”) in some ways. I guess I’ve Greek on the brain today; I hope it’s not been bothersome.
I’ve been listening to game soundtracks on my iPod for the last few days, something which I’ve not often done. Back when I was an undergrad, I used to pull all-nighters writing papers whilst listening through to game soundtracks, and it helped me study. Helped me through many a dark and troubled night as a result. I’d throw on some 3- or 4-disc soundtrack and find I’d listened to the whole thing by the time I was done. But I don’t often listen to them on my iPod, strangely… I usually throw on my Rock or Electronica playlists more often than not (Hiphop has been left by the wayside generally these days; it’s a phase I suppose).
I don’t know how many of you listen to video game soundtracks — and I know it’s sort of a nerdy thing to do — but there really is some great music out there. Game developers are starting to give a fuck about what music goes into their games, and it shows in newer games. This is not to say they didn’t before, but it was rarer. The Final Fantasy soundtracks have almost always been top-notch, however, from their inception, as well as basically any Squaresoft game out there, but these soundtracks in general are quite underappreciated. The music is highly nostalgic for me, brings back good memories, and brings a smile to my face. I’m sure it’s the same for some of you as well.
I don’t have a whole lot more to say. Just enjoying my Saturday night right now and all. Nicole asked me what I was doing a couple of times, and I was surprised she did; she is not normally curious about such things. I guess she’s surprised to see I’m on my laptop, because I have generally been using it only for school-related things, since as I said before — my desktop basically has everything I’m used to on it. I am normally on it, but this is nice for a change.
Have a good night and all. We’re going to the beach tomorrow morning at some point, and enjoying the nice weather while we can. Nicole wants to go early on so we don’t catch too much wind, and I think that’s a wise idea. In any case, I hope you all enjoyed the quotes up top — I highly recommend reading Quintus, as the epic is a creative and highly interesting bridge between the Iliad and the Odyssey, albeit later chronologically.
curate ut valeatis, amici.
