Odyssey 1.1-5

’Andra moi ’ennepe, Mousa, polutropon, ‘oV mala polla

plagcqh, ’epei TroihV ‘ieron ptolieqron ’epersen

pollwn d’ ’anqropwn ’iden ’astea kai noon ’egnw

polla d’ ‘o g’ ’en pontw paqen ’algea ‘on kata qumon,

’apnumenoV ‘hn te yuchn kai noston ‘etairwn.

Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit,and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home;

For the sake of my sanity we are ending at the beginning of Vergil’s chief antecedent, Homer’s Odyssey. The limits of English word order may obscure that the first word of the Greek epic is “man,” the second word of the Aeneid. The public domain translation by Samuel Butler is available in its entirety at the University of Oregon. Although the internet at present cannot reproduce all the typographical features of Ancient Greek, for which I apologize, enough is present to indicate adaptation by Vergil.

Note the precise parallels between the openings (proem):

’Andra = virum (both accusative singular)

moi = mihi (both dative)

Mousa = Musa (both vocative)

TroihV = Troiae (both genitive)

’en pontw = alto (Greek has no ablative, but “on the sea” is there)

polla . . . paqen = multa . . . passus (both words for “many” are neuter accusative

plural)