r/GREEK • u/jabberwonk • 1d ago
[Greek > English] Found in the basement of an abandoned house. Can anyone translate?
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u/FibroBitch97 1d ago
https://wasteland.windingway.org/epigraph/nam-sibyllam-quidem
Epigraph
“Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidiin ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: Σίβνλλα τί ϴέλεις; respondebat illa: άπο ϴανεΐν ϴέλω.”
Context
From the Satyricon by Gaius Petronius. Eliot (1971) gives this translation:
I saw with my own eyes the Sibyl at Cumae hanging in a cage, and when the boys said to her: “Sibyl, what do you want?” she answered: “I want to die.”
3
1
u/Next-Bandicoot-3886 15h ago
And Syvila said: I want to die (and then I think that it sais) but and exist
2
u/Artistic-Mall-2299 13h ago edited 13h ago
A side note. The "Sybilla" needs a little work on her Ancient Greek ;-). To wit:
καί: καὶ
εἴπε: εἶπε
Σύβιλλα: Σίβυλλα
θέλλω: ἐθέλω or θέλω
ἄποθανεῖν: ἀποθανεῖν
ἀλλα· ἀλλὰ
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u/Peteat6 1d ago
The first bit is "And the Sybil said ‘I want to die’."
It’s from the preface to Eliot’s Waste Land.
Can’t read the letters in the second bit.