The Naked Lion

This seems like a good place to store my favorite Homer quotes, so here is one from my reading today.

In Odyssey Book 6, Odysseus lies unconscious after being shipwrecked on the island of the Phaeacians. Aroused from oblivion by the shouts of Nausicaa and her handmaids at play, he struggles to shed his mind of cobwebs as he ponders his location. He emerges from the heavy brush, grabbing a leafy branch to hide his nakedness, and as Homer describes it:

βῆ δ᾽ ἴμεν ὥς τε λέων ὀρεσίτροφος ἀλκὶ πεποιθώς,
ὅς τ᾽ εἶσ᾽ ὑόμενος καὶ ἀήμενος, ἐν δέ οἱ ὄσσε
δαίεται· (Odyssey 6.130-131)

(But he went, going as a mountain-reared lion, sure in his prowess,
who goes, whipped by rain and wind, fire blazing in his two eyes;)

Somehow the juxtaposition of a naked man holding a leaf over his privates with the simile of a lion is at once humorous and noble to me. In any case, it sounds much better in Homer's words and rhythm.

The Greeks and Democracy

Below is a short commentary from the teacher's manual to A Reading Course in Homeric Greek, by Raymond Schoder and Vincent Horrigan (Lesson 119). This course is terrific, not only for its teaching of Homeric Greek, but for its insightful and informative commentary on Greek culture. This is a good example.

The second paragraph is especially apropos given the current state of our republic.

It is important here neither to exaggerate nor underestimate the historical importance and later influence of the Greek experiment in democracy. Be sure, then, that this essay is read carefully, then re-read to get things in balanced perspective. The Greeks certainly had for a considerable period an exalted and authentic ideal of democracy; but they also lacked all too commonly the moral fiber and selfless generosity to make the ideal work out effectively in practice. Some of their exaggerated steps in pursuit of the ideal in abstraction from other