φύονται δὲ καὶ νέοις ἐν ἀνδράσιν
πολιαὶ θαμὰ καὶ παρὰ τὸν ἁλικίας
ἐοικότα χρόνον.’

Pindar, Olympian 4. Svarlien: “Even on young men gray hair often grows, even before the expected age.”

To be fair, Athens was much more proactive in its fall than Sparta was successful (*)

Apropos of nothing, looks to me like when Menelaos “pushes away” Adrestos in Iliad book 6 (for the purpose of stabbing him) it is the same verb as the one with which Achilles “pushes away” Priam (for unclear to me reasons) in book 24 — ἀπωθέω.

1-36 “Obituaries”
37-71 Tamarisk scene, Adrestos
72-115 Helenus’ proposal (Hector departs)
116-236 Diomedes-Glaucos
237-529 (Hector arrives) Hector in Troy:
237-529.237-312 Hecabe and Athena ceremony
237-529.313-368 Paris and Helen
237-529.369-502 Andromache
237-529.503-529 Hector and Paris

………..Icommination y
………..n……………. e
………..d…………… l
………..e………….. l
………..f…………. e
………..e……….. h
………..n……… s
………..s…….. t
………..e…… e
Squirrels listening to birds…………o…. iSquirrels listening to birds.
………..f… r
………..h. r
………..a
__ __ _
|………..|
|………..|
|………..|
|………..|
|………..|
|………..|
|_ __ _|

Need to read the Gluacus- Diomedes dialogue again: wonder if there’s a contrast with Hector-Paris to be made (probably not). Also the question — are we to understand that Troy is “hateful to the gods” (like Lycurgus was)?

There’s a place in life for shouting but they are shouting on behalf of a bad analysis of the situation. (x)

Opening of Chapter 36, “Enthusiasm.”

“I began the next day with another dive into the Roman baths, and then started for Highgate. I was not dispirited now. I was not afraid of the shabby coat, and had no yearnings after gallent greys. My whole manner of thinking of our late misfortune changed. What I had to do was, to show my Aunt that her past goodness to me had not been thrown away on an insensible, ungrateful object. What I had to do was, to turn the painful discipline of my early days to account, by going to work with a resolute and steady heart. What I had to do was, to take my woodsman’s axe in my hands, and clear my own way through the forest of difficulty, by cutting down the trees until I came to Dora. And I went on at a mighty rate, as if it could be done by walking.”

Etymonline doesn’t make this connection, but I’m guessing English prone comes ultimately from Ancient Greek πρανής “with the face downwards, falling forwards.”

Another curious thing about Book 6 is how dominated by women it is, relative to the other books: we see Andromache, Hekabe, and Helen, all the female “stars,” as well as frequent mentions of handmaidens, while goddess Athena is the central divine figure of the book. The ceremonial plea to Athena is itself a very feminine affair.

We also see Hector and Paris with respect to their women: the former twice refusing offers of rest and comfort, by Hecabe then Andromache, the latter needing to be urged into action by Helen. (And of course there can be no parallel scene of that kind on the Achaean side, where there are no mothers and wives.)

This is Alexander Pope’s translation of Iliad 6. 311-312:

“So prayed the priestess in her holy fane;
So vowed the matrons, but they vowed in vain.”

Fane here means temple…. I hadn’t realized Pope was so young when he made this translation of the Iliad — having written it between the ages of 25 and 30.

ἀνανεύω: to throw back the head in a sign of refusal. This is the word used to describe Athena’s refusal of The Trojans’ plea in the Iliad’s Book 6. Apparently ancient scholars believed the actual statue of Athena to whom the Trojans had been praying threw back it’s head, but that’s not explicit in, or even indicated by, the text.

τῶν δὲ λοιπῶν Ἀπόλλων μὲν Ἐφιάλτου τὸν ἀριστερὸν ἐτόξευσεν ὀφθαλμόν, Ἡρακλῆς δὲ τὸν δεξιόν (Apollodorus).

“And of the other giants, Apollo shot Ephialtes in his right eye, Hercules in his left.”

(Ephialtes, incidentally, is also the name of the person who betrayed the Greeks at Thermoplae.)

ngrams: darn,dang,damn,drat

ὥστε ὑπερέχειν μὲν πάντων τῶν ὀρῶν, ἡ δὲ κεφαλὴ πολλάκις καὶ τῶν ἄστρων ἔψαυε (Appolodorus).

“So that he exceeded in size all the mountains, and his head often even touched the stars.” Of Typhon.

So “clang” comes direct from Ancient Greek κλαγγή (see opening of Iliad’s book III below.)

ngrams: clang,bang,ding,bonk,boing

Iliad III.1-6 (trans):

αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ κόσμηθεν ἅμ᾽ ἡγεμόνεσσιν ἕκαστοι,
Τρῶες μὲν κλαγγῇ τ᾽ ἐνοπῇ τ᾽ ἴσαν ὄρνιθες ὣς
ἠΰτε περ κλαγγὴ γεράνων πέλει οὐρανόθι πρό:
αἵ τ᾽ ἐπεὶ οὖν χειμῶνα φύγον καὶ ἀθέσφατον ὄμβρον
κλαγγῇ ταί γε πέτονται ἐπ᾽ ὠκεανοῖο ῥοάων
ἀνδράσι Πυγμαίοισι φόνον καὶ κῆρα φέρουσαι:

(Reminds of.)

mûrement. “je voulais peser mûrement le parti à prendre envers vous”…

“What is even more difficult than failure is when you are perceived as a ‘success’ and you are failing,” (post)

“The actual film has a lot of problems — its grasp repeatedly exceeds its reach. But it’s in the text of the film that this is good and necessary, that we need to try more things and be less paralyzed by fear of failure. That as a society we cannot collapse into a choice between stasis and mindless populism. That we ought to try audacious, difficult, bizarre things. …“

Notre amour-propre souffre plus impatiemment la condamnation de nos goûts que de nos opinions.

*

Our self love suffers more impatiently the condemnation of our tastes than of our opinions.

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