[304] θυμῷ is even more difficult here than in 301. The clause looks like a contamination of the common phrase “φίλον ἔπλετο θυμῷ” and 19. 283 “τό γε κέρδιον εἴσατο θυμῷ”. But we may translate ‘this has been a wiser thought in thy heart,’=‘you show discretion in not hitting the stranger.’ The compliment is ironical, as Telemachus shows by immediately adding that it was the stranger himself who avoided the missile.
Notice the paratactic structure, with asyndeton,=“κέρδιόν ἐστιν ὅτι οὐκ ἔβαλες”, or “τὸ μὴ βαλεῖν”: cp. 4. 655 “ἀλλὰ τὸ θαυμάζω: ἴδον κτλ.” The recurrence of θυμῷ at the end of ll. 301, 304 is suspicious, especially as it does not give a perfectly smooth sense in either place.Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
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Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.
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