Page 419 - the-odyssey

I cannot bring myself to question. I may remind English
readers that [Greek] (i.e. phoca) means ‘seal.’ Seals almost
always appear on Phocaean coins.
{46} Surely here again we are in the hands of a writer of
delicate sensibility. It is not as though the seals were stale;
they had only just been killed. The writer, however is obvi-
ously laughing at her own countrymen, and insulting them
as openly as she dares.
{47} We were told above (lines 357,357) that it was only
one day’s sail.
{48} I give the usual translation, but I do not believe the
Greek will warrant it. The Greek reads [Greek].
This is usually held to mean that Ithaca is an island fit for
breeding goats, and on that account more delectable to the
speaker than it would have been if it were fit for breeding
horses. I find little authority for such a translation; the most
equitable translation of the text as it stands is, ‘Ithaca is an
island fit for breeding goats, and delectable rather than fit
for breeding horses; for not one of the islands is good driv-
ing ground, nor well meadowed.’ Surely the writer does not
mean that a pleasant or delectable island would not be fit
for breeding horses? The most equitable translation, there-
fore, of the present text being thus halt and impotent, we
may suspect corruption, and I hazard the following emen-
dation, though I have not adopted it in my translation,
as fearing that it would be deemed too fanciful. I would
read:—[Greek].
As far as scanning goes the [Greek] is not necessary;
[Greek] iv. 72, [Greek] iv. 233, to go no further afield than

1 The Odyssey