Saturday, February 12, 2011

"Still I will not have you suffer longer" i



With this he told Paiêôn to attend him,
and sprinkling anodyne upon his wound
Paiêôn undertook to treat and heal him
who was not born for death.




As wild fig sap
when dripped in liquid milk will curdle it
so quickly as you stir it in, so quickly
Paiêôn healed impetuous Arês' wound.
Then Hêbê bathed him, mantled him afresh,
and down he sat beside Lord Zeus,
glowing again in splendour.












Homer
The Iliad
  Book Five: A Hero Strives ..
  Lines 1021 et seq.
Robert Fitzgerald, translation
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974


Lionel André
Tree detail, 90 degree rotation

2 comments:

  1. David TomsFebruary 12, 2011 at 4:38 PM

    One of my favourites!

    ReplyDelete
  2. LaurentFebruary 12, 2011 at 6:45 PM

    Mine, too, David; but here I'm a reader, just as you are. Give us the greatest poet who ever lived, a compatible anchoring image and face, and all we do is re-read the greater contribution to this entry. And there we are, David. Humanists, exposed.

    ReplyDelete