Homér: Man

Homér is Ancient Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Explore interesting quotes on man.

Homér: 434 quotes72 likes

“A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time”

Source: The Odyssey

“Of all that breathes and crawls across the earth,
our mother earth breeds nothing feebler than a man.”

XVIII. 130–131 (tr. Robert Fagles). Cf. Iliad, XVII. 446–447.
Samuel Butler's translation:
: Man is the vainest of all creatures that have their being upon earth.
Robert Fitzgerald's translation:
: Of mortal creatures, all that breathe and move,
earth bears none frailer than mankind.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
Variant: Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.
Source: The Iliad

“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

VI. 488–489 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“There is the heat of Love,
the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover's whisper,
irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.”

Homér Iliad

XIV. 216–217 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Alexander Pope's translation:
: In this was every art, and every charm,
To win the wisest, and the coldest warm:
Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire,
The kind deceit, the still reviving fire,
Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,
Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
Source: The Iliad

“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

“Is he not sacred, even to the gods, the wandering man who comes in weariness?”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

“I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before—
I put to my lips the hands of the man who killed my son.”

Homér Iliad

XXIV. 505–506 (tr. Robert Fagles); Priam to Achilles.
Richmond Lattimore's translation:
: I have gone through what no other mortal on earth has gone through;
I put my lips to the hands of the man who has killed my children.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Always it is, that the hearts in the younger men are frivolous,
but when an elder man is among them, he looks behind him
and in front, so that all comes out far better for both sides.”

Homér Iliad

III. 108–110 (tr. Richmond Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“There is nothing more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“[I]t is the wine that leads me on,
the wild wine
that sets the wisest man to sing
at the top of his lungs,
laugh like a fool – it drives the
man to dancing… it even
tempts him to blurt out stories
better never told.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“Each man delights in the work that suits him best.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XIV. 228 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
Source: The Odyssey