Quotes from Homer

reading of birds could not keep off dark destruction

The narrator commands the Muse, "Tell me": enn-epe. An epic poem is, at its root, simply a tale that is told.

He shook them and called out to the best men of the Argives to meet him in the mêlée face to face.

be always best in battle and pre-eminent beyond all others

De los que sienten este temor, son más los que se salvan que los que mueren; los que huyen, ni alcanzan gloria, ni entre sí se ayudan.

High-hearted son of Tydeus, why ask about my birth? Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away.

10  As on the peaks of a mountain the south wind scatters the thick mist, no friend to the shepherd, but better than night for the robber, and a man can see before him only so far as a stone cast, so beneath their feet the dust drove up in a stormcloud of men marching, who made their way through the plain in great speed.

Command thy vassals, but command not me.

to avoid death he shrank into the host of his own companions.

But the great leveler, Death: not even the gods can defend a man, not even one they love, that day when fate takes hold and lays him out at last.

5.?ILIÁDOS E

But now, since you have given me accurate proof describing our bed, which no other mortal man beside has ever seen, but only you and I, and there is one serving woman, Aktor's daughter, whom my father gave me when I came here, who used to guard the doors for us in our well-built chamber; 230 so you persuade my heart, though it has been very stubborn.

Many are the birds who under the sun's rays wander the sky; not all of them mean anything

Well, back in Troy, Odysseus and I always agreed in councils, with one mind. We gave the Argives all the best advice.

And as when the land appears welcome to men who are swimming, after Poseidon has smashed their strong-built ship on the open 235 water, pounding it with the weight of wind and the heavy seas, and only a few escape the gray water landward by swimming, with a thick scurf of salt coated upon them, and gladly they set foot on the shore, escaping the evil; so welcome was her husband to her as she looked upon him, 240 and she could not let him go from the embrace of her white arms.

With that, the owl-eyed goddess flew away like a bird, up through the smoke.

6.?ILIÁDOS Z

Ojalá os volvierais agua y tierra ahí mismo donde estáis sentados, hombres sin corazón y sin honor.

To you, sedition, violence and fighting are the breath of life. What if you are a great soldier - who made you so but God?

Your arrows for my tears.

when you two goddesses command, a man must obey, however angry he may be. Better for him if he does. The man who listens to the gods is listened to by them

Few sons are the equals of their fathers; 310  most fall short, all too few surpass them.

Sit still and wait for orders from your officers, who are better men than you, coward and weakling that you are, counting for nothing in battle or debate. We cannot all be kings here; and mob rule is a bad thing. Let there be one commander only, one king, set over us by Zeus the Son of Cronos of the Crooked Ways

7.?ILIÁDOS H