New Discovery: Fragment of the "Attoliad"

[ricardienne]

So while I have been delaying thoughts of how to choose for next fall (and beyond) what will make me satisfied, happy, and successful, I've been thinking about Homeric hexameters & the Queen's Thief books.

It started a while ago, actually, when I realized that "Eugenides" and "Atreides" are homometric, and mentally started hearing "Εὐγενίδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν..." instead of "Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς" (Iliad 1.7). I've been trying to fill in the line for a while, and have finally (in light of CoK) produced a 3-line mini catalog of monarchs from the Megan Whaler Turner books that may be slightly spoilery for A Conspiracy of Kings. I think that the meter all works (while it takes advantage of weak position rather egregiously on occasion), and I *think* I even have the accents in the right places.

τόξαρχος Σοφὸς ἠδ᾽ Ἔδδεως πότνι᾽ οὐρεγενεῖα
Ἀττολιδῶν τε χρυσομίτρη δεσποῖνα φαλάγγων
Εὐγενίδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν ἑνὶ χειρὶ κρατύνων

[...there were present]
the master-shooter Sophos and the queen of Eddis, born among mountains;
the Attolians' gold-diademed mistress of battle lines,
and Eugenides, the lord of men, holding sway with one hand.

I was trying to work out an epithet phrase along the lines of "left-handed swordsman," but I was having to do some really dubious contractions. Maybe I will discover more fragments of this, someday, and it will appear there!

ETA 9/4/10: minor revision of the translation, thanks to anna_wing

Comments

[silverfyshxin.livejournal.com]

...♥♥♥

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

This is absolutely, unspeakably amazing.

*is in awe*

[loquaciousquark.livejournal.com]

Well so hi this is totally amazing.

[elle-winters.livejournal.com]

I'm speechless, this is brilliant!

[thelasteddis.livejournal.com]

THIS

IS

BRILLIANT!

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

AWESOME!

[amolegere.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOSH!!! This is amazing!!! So when can we expect a full copy of the Attoliad at our local booksellers? Now I really want to learn Greek.

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

I highly encourage the learning of Greek: the more of us Sounisian Hellenists there are, the more likely that more fragments will turn up, right? (right?)

[amolegere.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of a quote that I absolutely adore by Churchill, "I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honor, and Greek as a treat." I'm working on honor right now, treat will have to come later. Maybe next year if it will fit into my schedule. I'm dropping Italian so maybe Greek can take its place...

[styromgalleries.livejournal.com]

This is so cool!

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

I

what

wow

*will run this by her friend who also reads Greek*

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to decide whether I should welcome the scrutiny, or be afraid!

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

This is rather splendid! (here via sartorias)

I'm not qualified to comment on the Greek, but for the English translation, how about:

"gold-diademed mistress of battle lines" - "diadem" being the actual term for the relevant piece of headgear and reinforcing the Hellenic flavour; and

"...holding sway one-handed" - "holding sway with one hand" somehow made me think of strap-hanging on the Underground.

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

Hm. I agree that diadem might be good -- "the Attolians' gold-diademed mistress of battle lines" is a much nicer line than what I originally had.

As far as one-handed vs. with one hand: I actually have the opposite feeling (one-handed seems more like what I'd say about hanging onto something). Also: the trochees of "holding sway one handed" don't sound nice to me.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know what to say. This is so fantastic.

Can anything be better than the "Attoliad???"

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

OMG, I am so going to have to review my classical Greek! (SJCA (http://www.sjca.edu/) '69)

("You don't even have time to learn MySQL, Boss!"
"Shut up, Loiosh.")

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Shut up, Loiosh (http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/37763906/5405934). I printed it out in 22pt to be sure I had the scansion. Just as well I enlarged it; in the font I get on my screen at the size I was seeing, the double tau in "Ἀττολιδῶν" looked like a pi and baffled me no end.

Ah ha! And now that I've chanted the opening seven lines (which is all I ever memorized -- "Μῆνιν ἄειδε ... δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς"), I see what else besides the third line of this fragment reminded me so strongly of Ἴλιας:
  Ἀττολιδῶν τε
  Ἀτρεΐδης   τε

majQa'!

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

quatlho' !

[keestone.livejournal.com]

I think most of the relevant adjectives have been taken up. I'm tempted to lapse into surfer slang.

This is so totally awesome!