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| Scene from Book XXIV of the Iliad: Hector's corpse brought back to Troy (detail). Roman artwork (ca. 180–200 CE), relief from a sarcophagus, marble. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Axylus son of Teuthras
Lived all his life in the lovely harbour of Arisbe
Looking down at the Hellespont
Everyone knew that plump man
Sitting on the step with his door wide open
He who so loved his friends
Died side by side with Calesius
In a daze of loneliness
Their conversation unfinished
She follows it up with a simile which is drawn from the scene in Iliad Bk 22, where Achilles is pursuing Hector around the walls as a hawk pursues a dove. I can't see a more significant connection than simply that giving Axylus the simile from that famous pursuit of Hector by Achilles raises the death of Axylus, who is mentioned only here, to the status of the death of a hero. A couple of other minor things, but they are touches that really show the subtlety of her understanding of the Greek and her ability to manipulate it: "He who so loved his friends" is a translation of "πάντας γὰρ φιλέεσκεν" - she has translated "φιλέεσκεν" twice, so as to make the point that could be made with a single word in Greek. And "that plump man" translates "ἀφνειὸς βιότοιο", which is perfect. Homer says that none of Axylus' friends were there to stand between him and his doom, which Oswald translates economically as "in a daze of loneliness".
And she's doing this all the time. Everything is as carefully thought out as this small passage. I need to learn a lot more about the rearrangement of traditional material in poets generally. Perhaps I can start with Hellenistic poets. Or Virgil. Because she's doing the same thing they did. Well, maybe not Virgil, who added to his sources from elsewhere, something I haven't caught Oswald doing, yet.
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