Homér: Man

Homér is Ancient Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Explore interesting quotes on man.
Homér: 434 quotes72 likes

“For a guest remembers all his days the hospitable man who showed him kindness.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XV. 54–55 (tr. G. H. Palmer).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“No man who fights with gods will live long or hear his children prattling about his knees when he returns from battle.”

Homér Iliad

V. 407–409 (tr. Samuel Butler).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Iron has powers to draw a man to ruin.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XIX. 13 (tr. Robert Fagles); Odysseus to Telemachus.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“There shall be a dawn or an afternoon or a noontime
when some man in the fighting will take the life from me also
either with a spearcast or an arrow flown from the bowstring.”

Homér Iliad

XXI. 110 (tr. R. Lattimore); spoken by Achilles.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“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)

“Now sure enough the vile man leads the vile!
As ever, god brings like and like together!”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XVII. 217–218 (tr. G. H. Palmer).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“I hope nothing valuable may have been taken from the house in spite of you, but you know what women are—they always want to do the best they can for the man who marries them, and never give another thought to the children of their first husband, nor to their father either when he is dead and done with.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XV. 19–23 (tr. Samuel Butler).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Among all creatures that breathe on earth and crawl on it
there is not anywhere a thing more dismal than man is.”

Homér Iliad

XVII. 446–447 (tr. R. Lattimore); Zeus.
Robert Fagles's translation:
: There is nothing alive more agonized than man
of all that breathe and crawl across the earth.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Man, supposing you and I, escaping this battle,
would be able to live on forever, ageless, immortal,
so neither would I myself go on fighting in the foremost,
nor would I urge you into the fighting where men win glory.
But now, seeing that the spirits of death stand close about us
in their thousands, no man can turn aside or escape them,
let us go on and win glory for ourselves, or yield it to others.”

Homér Iliad

XII. 322–328 (tr. R. Lattimore); Sarpedon to Glaukos.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“It's light work for the gods who rule the skies
to exalt a mortal man or bring him low.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XVI. 211–212 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“And may the gods accomplish your desire:
a home, a husband, and harmonious
converse with him – the best thing in the world
being a strong house held in serenity
where man and wife agree. Woe to their enemies,
joy to their friends! But all this they know best.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

VI. 180–185 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald); Odysseus to Nausicaa.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

I. 1–5 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“But if you're a man who eats the crops of the earth,
a mortal born for death—here, come closer,
the sooner you will meet your day to die!”

Homér Iliad

VI. 142–143 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“When a Man's exhausted, wine will build his strength.”

Homér Iliad

VI. 261 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“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)

“But when he let loose that great voice from his chest
and the words came piling on like a driving winter blizzard —
then no man alive could rival Odysseus! Odysseus…
we no longer gazed in wonder at his looks.”

Homér Iliad

III. 221–224 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“Servants, when their lords no longer sway,
Their minds no more to righteous courses bend.
Half that man's virtue doth Zeus take away,
Whom he surrenders to the servile day.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XVII. 320–323 (tr. Worsley).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)