Today I had to go out early and arrived back home to witness this sunrise, that made me think of "Rosy-fingered dawn", a kind of catch phrase in Homer's Odyssey. Homer was writing something originally passed down by recitation in front of an audience and it would have acted as a kind of anchor: "A new day dawned: our heroes arose and..."
The transcribed Greek is
emos d' erigéneia pháne rhododáktulos Eos
which means I think something like "when the new-born appeared, the rosy-fingered dawn". We can recognise some fragments, even though we don't know Homeric Greek. géneia must mean born (as in genetics), rhodo rosy (and it's possible that's how Rhodes got its name), dáktulos finger (think pterodactyl, "wingfinger"), Eosdawn (as in eohippus, "dawnhorse", a small prehistoric mammal related to modern-day horses. Many paleontogists have a poetic streak.
This set me to browsing "Rosy-fingered dawn" and I found a marvellous new translation by Emily Wilson. "Dawn appeared and touched the sky with roses" is her simple, uncluttered version of that famous line, and I think it's a really beautiful translation.
Dawn Appeared and Touched the Sky with Roses
Today I had to go out early and arrived back home to witness this sunrise, that made me think of "Rosy-fingered dawn", a kind of catch phrase in Homer's Odyssey. Homer was writing something originally passed down by recitation in front of an audience and it would have acted as a kind of anchor: "A new day dawned: our heroes arose and..."
The transcribed Greek is
emos d' erigéneia pháne rhododáktulos Eos
which means I think something like "when the new-born appeared, the rosy-fingered dawn". We can recognise some fragments, even though we don't know Homeric Greek. géneia must mean born (as in genetics), rhodo rosy (and it's possible that's how Rhodes got its name), dáktulos finger (think pterodactyl, "wingfinger"), Eos dawn (as in eohippus, "dawnhorse", a small prehistoric mammal related to modern-day horses. Many paleontogists have a poetic streak.
This set me to browsing "Rosy-fingered dawn" and I found a marvellous new translation by Emily Wilson. "Dawn appeared and touched the sky with roses" is her simple, uncluttered version of that famous line, and I think it's a really beautiful translation.