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LESSON 2 - Second Part / First Part
ACHILLES' GRIEF - From Homer's Iliad

by George Valsamis

Grief covered Achilles, grief became his face, he is now thirsty for grief and

 

"with both hands he took sooty ash and poured it over his head"

"ἀμφοτέρῃσι δὲ χερσὶν ἑλὼν κόνιν αἰθαλόεσσαν χεύατο κὰκ κεφαλῆς",

 

over the face itself

"and he disgraced the glorious face"

"χαρίεν δ΄ ᾔσχυνε πρόσωπον",

 

and the whole body

"and on the divine shirt dark ash was falling all over"

νεκταρέῳ δὲ χιτῶνι μέλαιν΄ ἀμφίζανε τέφρη.

 

Notice the ash (κόνις αἰθαλόεσσα - and not just dust, as Butler translates), that connects grief with fire and death, foreshadowing/announcing the fulfillment of Achilles' future.

Notice the couple of ἤσχυνε and χαρίεν (disgraced - glorious), completely lost in Butler's translation ("disfiguring his comely face"), a couple that presents the face (πρόσωπον) as a place of honor and glory, both of which properly belong only to God.

Notice the couple of νεκταρέῳ and τέφρη (divine - ash).

Νεκτάρεος is an adjective that comes from νέκταρ, the drink of Gods, and it means the brilliant, exceptional and divine, with the particular sense of the one that overcomes death. A νεκτάρεος χιτών (divine shirt) is essentially a shirt of immortality, while ash belongs to burning and death. Notice how everything sinks into darkness, how everything is supported by the face and is lost with it and by it, how God himself dies. 

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/lessons/lesson2b.asp?pg=13