Homér: Down

“Why so much grief for me? No man will hurl me down to Death, against my fate. And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it, neither brave man nor coward, I tell you - it’s born with us the day that we are born.”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

Death , Fate

“So now I meet my doom. Well let me die—
but not without struggle, not without glory, no,
in some great clash of arms that even men to come
will hear of down the years!”

Homér Iliad

XXII. 303 (tr. Robert Fagles); spoken by Hector.
Richmond Lattimore's translation:
: But now my death is upon me.
Let me at least not die without a struggle, inglorious,
but do some big thing first, that men to come shall know of it.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Men

“No one can hurry me down to Hades before my time, but if a man's hour is come, be he brave or be he coward, there is no escape for him when he has once been born.”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

Time

“Still, we will let all this be a thing of the past, though it hurts us, and beat down by constraint the anger that rises inside us.
Now I am making an end of my anger. It does not become me, unrelentingly to rage on”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

Rage , Past , Hurt , Anger

“down from his brow
she ran his curls
like thick hyacinth clusters
full of blooms”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“As stars in the night sky glittering
round the moon's brilliance blaze in all their glory
when the air falls to a sudden, windless calm…
all the lookout peaks stand out and the jutting cliffs
and the steep ravines and down from the high heavens bursts
the boundless, bright air and all the stars shine clear
and the shepherd's heart exults.”

Homér Iliad

VIII. 551–555 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Alexander Pope's translation:
: As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,
O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light,
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene;
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole,
O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver every mountain's head;
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Star , Heart , Night

“Then give him into the charge of swift messengers to carry him,
of Sleep and Death, who are twin brothers, and these two shall lay him
down presently within the rich countryside of broad Lykia.”

Homér Iliad

XVI. 671–673 (tr. R. Lattimore). Cf. Virgil, Aeneid, VI.278.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Death , Sleep

“So nothing is as sweet as a man's own country,
his own parents, even though he's settled down
in some luxurious house, off in a foreign land
and far from those who bore him.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

IX. 34–36 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

Parent , Housing , Country

“Now down in the Ocean sank the fiery light of day,
drawing the dark night across the grain-giving earth.”

Homér Iliad

VIII. 485–486 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Light , Drawing , Night

“The majestic king of Troy slipped past the rest
and kneeling down beside Achilles, clasped his knees
and kissed his hands, those terrible, man-killing hands
that had slaughtered Priam's many sons in battle.”

Homér Iliad

XXIV. 477–479 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Kiss , Past

“With many a weary step, and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone;
The huge round stone, resulting with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XI. 593–598 (tr. William Broome); of Sisyphus.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“So they spoke, and both springing down from behind their horses
gripped each other's hands and exchanged the promise of friendship;
but Zeus the son of Kronos stole away the wits of Glaukos
who exchanged with Diomedes the son of Tydeus armour
of gold for bronze, for nine oxen's worth the worth of a hundred.”

Homér Iliad

VI. 232–236 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Friendship , Spring , Horse

“By god, I'd rather slave on earth for another man—
some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive—
than rule down here over all the breathless dead.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XI. 489–492 (tr. Robert Fagles); Achilles' ghost to Odysseus.
Alexander Pope's translation:
: Rather I'd choose laboriously to bear
A weight of woes, and breathe the vital air,
A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread,
Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead.
With many a weary step, and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone;
The huge round stone, resulting with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground. P. S. Worsley's translation:
: Rather would I, in the sun's warmth divine,
Serve a poor churl who drags his days in grief,
Than the whole lordship of the dead were mine.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

God , Dead

“For a man will not have strength to fight his way forward all day
long until the sun goes down if he is starved for food.”

Homér Iliad

XIX. 162–163 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Food , Way , Sun , Fight

“Not that I'd grudge a tear
for any man gone down to meet his fate.
What other tribute can we pay to wretched men
than to cut a lock, let tears roll down our cheeks?”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

IV. 195–198 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

Men , Fate , Tear

“So here the twins were laid low at Aeneas' hands,
down they crashed like lofty pine trees axed.”

Homér Iliad

V. 559–560 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Tree