Kαβάφης
ΑπιστίαоригиналΠολλά άρα Ομήρου επαινούντες, αλλά τούτο
ουκ επαινεσόμεθα .... ουδέ Aισχύλου, όταν φη η
Θέτις τον Aπόλλω εν τοις αυτής γάμοις άδοντα
«ενδατείσθαι τας εάς ευπαιδίας,
νόσων τ’ απείρους και μακραίωνας βίους.
Ξύμπαντα τ’ ειπών θεοφιλείς εμάς τύχας
παιών’ επευφήμησεν, ευθυμών εμέ.
Καγώ το Φοίβου θείον αψευδές στόμα
ήλπιζον είναι, μαντική βρύον τέχνη:
Ο δ’, αυτός υμνών, ............................
...................... αυτός εστιν ο κτανών
τον παίδα τον εμόν».
Πλάτων, Πολιτείας Β΄
Σαν πάντρευαν την Θέτιδα με τον Πηλέα
σηκώθηκε ο Aπόλλων στο λαμπρό τραπέζι
του γάμου, και μακάρισε τους νεονύμφους
για τον βλαστό που θάβγαινε απ’ την ένωσί των.
Είπε· Ποτέ αυτόν αρρώστια δεν θαγγίξει
και θάχει μακρυνή ζωή.— Aυτά σαν είπε,
η Θέτις χάρηκε πολύ, γιατί τα λόγια
του Aπόλλωνος που γνώριζε από προφητείες
την φάνηκαν εγγύησις για το παιδί της.
Κι όταν μεγάλωνεν ο Aχιλλεύς, και ήταν
της Θεσσαλίας έπαινος η εμορφιά του,
η Θέτις του θεού τα λόγια ενθυμούνταν.
Aλλά μια μέρα ήλθαν γέροι με ειδήσεις,
κ’ είπαν τον σκοτωμό του Aχιλλέως στην Τροία.
Κ’ η Θέτις ξέσχιζε τα πορφυρά της ρούχα,
κ’ έβγαζεν από πάνω της και ξεπετούσε
στο χώμα τα βραχιόλια και τα δαχτυλίδια.
Και μες στον οδυρμό της τα παληά θυμήθη·
και ρώτησε τι έκαμνε ο σοφός Aπόλλων,
πού γύριζεν ο ποιητής που στα τραπέζια
έξοχα ομιλεί, πού γύριζε ο προφήτης
όταν τον υιό της σκότωναν στα πρώτα νειάτα.
Κ’ οι γέροι την απήντησαν πως ο Aπόλλων
αυτός ο ίδιος εκατέβηκε στην Τροία,
και με τους Τρώας σκότωσε τον Aχιλλέα.
(Από τα Ποιήματα 1897-1933, Ίκαρος 1984) Кавафис
ИзменаМногое одобряя у Гомера, мы, однако, не одобрим... и того места
Эсхила, где Фетида говорит, что Аполлон пел на ее свадьбе, суля ей
счастье в детях:
"Болезни их минуют, долог будет век -
Твоя судьба, сказал он, дорога богам.
Такою песнью он меня приветствовал,
Надеялася я, что ложь чужда устам
Божественным и Феба прорицаньям.
Так пел он . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . и сам же он убийцей стал
Мне сына моего".
Платон "Государство" Книга вторая Когда Фетиду выдавали за Пелея,
на свадебном пиру, в разгар веселья,
поднялся Аполлон и новобрачным
предрек рожденье сына, славного героя.
Недуги будут перед ним бессильны
до самой смерти в старости глубокой, - молвил бог.
Фетида ликовала, слыша эти речи.
Слова искусного в знаменьях Аполлона
казались ей порукою надежной
за будущего сына. И потом, когда Ахилл мужал
и вся Фессалия красой его гордилась,
Фетида помнила то предсказанье.
Но вот однажды старцы к ней пришли
с известием, что пал Ахилл под Троей.
Пурпурные одежды на себе
рвала Фетида и бросала наземь
браслеты с кольцами, но вдруг, припомнив
пророчество, она спросила старцев:
где быть изволил мудрый Аполлон,
поэт велеречивый в час застолья,
где пропадал он, о пророчестве забыв,
когда ее Ахилла в цвете лет убили?
И старцы молвили в ответ, что Аполлон
на поле боя к Трое сам явился
и заодно с троянцами убил Ахилла.
пер. С. Ильинской
Cavafy
UnfaithfulnessTransl. by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard“So although we approve of many things in Homer, this we will
not approve of... nor will we approve of Aeschylus when he
makes Thetis say that Apollo sang at her wedding in
celebration of her child:
that he would not know sickness, would live long,
and that every blessing would be his;
and he sang such praises that he rejoiced my heart.
And I had hopes that the divine lips of Apollo,
fluent with the art of prophecy, would not prove false.
But he who proclaimed these things...
he it is
who killed my son...”
Plato, Republic, II. 383
At the marriage of Thetis and Peleus
Apollo stood up during the sumptuous wedding feast
and blessed the bridal pair
for the son who would come from their union.
“Sickness will never visit him,” he said,
“and his life will be a long one.”
This pleased Thetis immensely:
the words of Apollo, expert in prophecies,
seemed to guarantee the security of her child.
And when Achilles grew up
and his beauty was the boast of Thessaly,
Thetis remembered the god’s words.
But one day elders arrived with the news
that Achilles had been killed at Troy.
Thetis tore her purple robes,
pulled off her rings, her bracelets,
and flung them to the ground.
And in her grief, recalling that wedding scene,
she asked what the wise Apollo was up to,
where was this poet who holds forth
so eloquently at banquets, where was this prophet
when they killed her son in his prime.
And the elders answered that Apollo himself
had gone down to Troy
and together with the Trojans had killed her son.
Transl. by Edmund Keeley/Philip SherrardCavafy
FaithlessnessTransl. by John Cavafy— “Then, although we are admirers of Homer, we do not admire ....., neither will we praise the verses of Aeschylus in which Thetis says that Apollo at her nuptials
was celebrating in song her fair progeny,
whose days were to be long, and to know
no sickness. And when he had spoken of
my lot as in all things blessed of heaven
he raised a note of triumph and cheered
my soul. And I thought that the word of
Phoebus, being divine and full of prophecy,
would not fail. And now he himself who
uttered the strain, ......, he it is who has
slain my son.”
Plato: Republic ii - (Jowett)
When Thetis they were marrying to Peleus,
Apollo at the brilliant marriage feast
stood up and blessed the goddess and the man
for the brave scion to be born of them.
He said: “Him no disease shall ever touch,
and he shall have long life.” — As thus he spoke,
Thetis exulted; for the god was versed
in prophecies, and his words seemed to her
a promise for her child. And when Achilles
was growing up, and Thessaly was praised
for his exceeding strength and comeliness,
Thetis revolved the promise of the god. —
But old men came one day with news of Troy
and told her of the slaying of Achilles.
Then Thetis, moaning, rent her purple robe,
and tremulously from her person tore
armlets and rings, and cast them on the ground;
and, bitterly alluding to the past,
asked what the wise Apollo was about:
where loitering, the poet who at feasts
speaks wondrously; where loitering, the seer;
when they were slaying her son in his fair youth.
And the old men answering said that even he,
the god Apollo, intervened in Troy,
and, fighting for the Trojans, slew Achilles.
Transl. by John Cavafy