Thursday, July 6, 2017

iliad two list of dispositions and lands



[pg 042]


Euboea next her martial sons prepares,


And sends the brave Abantes to the wars:


Breathing revenge, in arms they take their way


From Chalcis' walls, and strong Eretria;


The Isteian fields for generous vines renown'd,


The fair Caristos, and the Styrian ground;


Where Dios from her towers o'erlooks the plain,


And high Cerinthus views the neighbouring main.


Down their broad shoulders falls a length of hair;


Their hands dismiss not the long lance in air;


But with protended spears in fighting fields


Pierce the tough corslets and the brazen shields.


Twice twenty ships transport the warlike bands,


Which bold Elphenor, fierce in arms, commands.


Full fifty more from Athens stem the main,


Led by Menestheus through the liquid plain.


(Athens the fair, where great Erectheus sway'd,


That owed his nurture to the blue-eyed maid,


But from the teeming furrow took his birth,


The mighty offspring of the foodful earth.


Him Pallas placed amidst her wealthy fane,


Adored with sacrifice and oxen slain;


Where, as the years revolve, her altars blaze,


And all the tribes resound the goddess' praise.)


 


 


 


  • Note liquid plain seems to allude to a understanding of multi directional reality , the liquid plain which might also be the ocean travel,   ways of waters like ship sailing.
  • Here is a list of the vast Ares of the Greeks from Africa to Asia to north America and of course Europe
  • It includes Australia and the whole world even Antarctica
  • It describes the temperament of the people of those lands, their heroic aspects.  It uses people as paradigms for this exemplification. 

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