Homer's Odyssey δ 4.351-74
Syllables in bold are dynamically prominent according to the new theory of the ancient Greek pitch accent. Digammas occasionally obtrude. Translation © A. P. David 2022:
Samuel Butler’s translation with certain names Hellenised:
“I was trying to come on here, but the gods detained me in Egypt,
for my hecatombs had not given them full satisfaction, and the gods
are very strict about having their dues. Now off Egypt, about as far
as a ship can sail in a day with a good stiff breeze behind her, there
is an island called Pharos—it has a good harbour from which vessels
can get out into open sea when they have taken in water—and the gods
becalmed me twenty days without so much as a breath of fair wind to
help me forward. We should have run clean out of provisions and my
men would have starved, if a goddess had not taken pity upon me and
saved me in the person of Idothea, daughter to Proteus, the old man
of the sea, for she had taken a great fancy to me.
“She came to me one day when I was by myself, as I often was, for
the men used to go with their barbed hooks, all over the island in
the hope of catching a fish or two to save them from the pangs of
hunger. ‘Stranger,’ said she, ‘it seems to me that you like starving
in this way—at any rate it does not greatly trouble you, for you
stick here day after day, without even trying to get away though your
men are dying by inches.’
Greek text hyperlinked to lexica via Perseus (perseus.tufts.edu):
‘Αἰγύπτῳ μ᾽ ἔτι δεῦρο θεοὶ μεμαῶτα νέεσθαι
ἔσχον, ἐπεὶ οὔ σφιν ἔρεξα τεληέσσας ἑκατόμβας.
οἱ δ᾽ αἰεὶ βούλοντο θεοὶ μεμνῆσθαι ἐφετμέων.
νῆσος ἔπειτά τις ἔστι πολυκλύστῳ ἐνὶ πόντῳ
Αἰγύπτου προπάροιθε, Φάρον δέ ἑ κικλήσκουσι,
τόσσον ἄνευθ᾽ ὅσσον τε πανημερίη γλαφυρὴ νηῦς
ἤνυσεν, ᾗ λιγὺς οὖρος ἐπιπνείῃσιν ὄπισθεν:
ἐν δὲ λιμὴν ἐύορμος, ὅθεν τ᾽ ἀπὸ νῆας ἐίσας
ἐς πόντον βάλλουσιν, ἀφυσσάμενοι μέλαν ὕδωρ.
ἔνθα μ᾽ ἐείκοσιν ἤματ᾽ ἔχον θεοί, οὐδέ ποτ᾽ οὖροι
πνείοντες φαίνονθ᾽ ἁλιαέες, οἵ ῥά τε νηῶν
πομπῆες γίγνονται ἐπ᾽ εὐρέα νῶτα θαλάσσης.
καί νύ κεν ἤια πάντα κατέφθιτο καὶ μένε᾽ ἀνδρῶν,
εἰ μή τίς με θεῶν ὀλοφύρατο καί μ᾽ ἐσάωσε,
Πρωτέος ἰφθίμου θυγάτηρ ἁλίοιο γέροντος,
Εἰδοθέη: τῇ γάρ ῥα μάλιστά γε θυμὸν ὄρινα.
ἥ μ᾽ οἴῳ ἔρροντι συνήντετο νόσφιν ἑταίρων:
αἰεὶ γὰρ περὶ νῆσον ἀλώμενοι ἰχθυάασκον
γναμπτοῖς ἀγκίστροισιν, ἔτειρε δὲ γαστέρα λιμός.
ἡ δέ μευ ἄγχι στᾶσα ἔπος φάτο φώνησέν τε:
‘νήπιός εἰς, ὦ ξεῖνε, λίην τόσον ἠδὲ χαλίφρων,
ἦε ἑκὼν μεθίεις καὶ τέρπεαι ἄλγεα πάσχων;