Peter Green

Peter Morris Green (22 December 1924 – 16 September 2024) was a British classical scholar noted for his works on the Greco-Persian Wars, Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age of ancient history. Quotes Macedonia as a whole tended to remain in isolation from the rest of Greece. Alexander the Great (1970), p. 20 ... for the first time he [Philip] began to understand how Macedonia's outdated institutions of feudalism and aristocratic monarchy, so despised by the rest of Greece, might prove a source of strength when dealing with such opponents. Alexander the Great (1970), p. 24 In less than four years he had transformed Macedonia from a backward and primitive kingdom to one of the most powerful states in the Greek world. Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography (1991), p. 32 Aristotle found support for his thesis in facts drawn from geopolitics or ‘natural law’. Greek superiority had to be proved demonstrably innate, a gift of nature. In one celebrated fragment he counsels Alexander to be ‘a hegemon [leader] of Greeks and a despot to the barbarians, to look after the former as after friends and relatives, and to deal with the latter as with beasts or plants’. Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography (1991), p. 58 Translations The Odyssey: A New Translation (2018) Oakland: U of California P, ISBN 978-0-520-29363-2 thumb|The man, Muse—tell me about that resourceful man, who wanderedfar and wide, when he’d sacked Troy’s sacred citadel:many men’s townships he saw, and learned their ways of thinking,many the griefs he suffered at heart on the open sea,battling for his own life and his comrades’ homecoming. thumb|ὅτ᾽ ἐμεῖο κυνώπιδος εἵνεκ᾽ Ἀχαιοὶἤλθεθ᾽ ὑπὸ Τροίην πόλεμον θρασὺν ὁρμαίνοντες.When because of me, the bitch, you Achaianswent out against Troy, hearts set on ruthless warfare. thumb|ἐυπλόκαμος Δημήτηρ.Fine-tressed Dēmētēr. thumb|Διὸς ... ἑρκείου.Zeus of Enclosures. The man, Muse—tell me about that resourceful man, who wanderedfar and wide, when he’d sacked Troy’s sacred citadel:many men’s townships he saw, and learned their ways of thinking,many the griefs he suffered at heart on the open sea,battling for his own life and his comrades’ homecoming. Yetno way could he save his comrades, much though he longed to—it was through their own blind recklessness that they perished,the fools, for they slaughtered the cattle of Hēlios the sun godand ate them: for that he took from them their day of returning.Tell us this tale, goddess, child of Zeus; start anywhere in it! Book 1, line 1 Not once did I ever see such a striking resemblance,in either a man or a woman—it truly astounds me!This boy could be the son of great-hearted Odysseus,Tēlemachos, left as a newborn child in the houseby him, when because of me, the bitch, you Achaianswent out against Troy, hearts set on ruthless warfare. Book 4, line 141 (Helen)    Hard-heartedare you gods indeed, and jealous beyond all others,who resent any goddesses sleeping with mortal menopenly, if they choose one such as their bedfellow!So it was when rose-fingered Dawn took up with Oriōn—you easy-living gods resented it, till at lastin Ortygiē chaste Artemis, she of the golden throne,with her painless arrows assailed and killed him;so it was when fine-tressed Dēmētēr went with Iasiōn, gave into her passion, lay down and mingled with himin thrice-plowed fallow soil; not long was it beforeZeus learned of it and with his bright bolt hit and slew him. Book 5, line 117 (Kalypsō) Him she found on the seashore, sitting; nor were his eyesever wiped dry of tears; sweet life was draining from himas he yearned to be home, since the nymph no longer pleased him. Book 5, line 151    I’ve been harshly battered by countless waves,and aboard my ship I had no long-term care for my body,which is why my limbs are now very badly out of trim. Book 8, line 231 Then limb from limb he tore them to prepare his supper,and devoured them like a mountain-bred lion, leaving nothing—innards and flesh, bones with the marrow in them,while we, lamenting, reached out our hands to Zeusat the sight of such bestial deeds. Book 9, line 291      The booby never perceivedthat under his rich-fleeced sheep there were men tied on! Book 9, line 442 But as I went, and came close to my well-curved vessel,then, too, some god, seeing me alone, felt pity,and sent, right into my path, a huge high-antlered stagon his way from his forest range to drink at the river,since the sun’s strong heat had got to him. As he emerged,I speared him, in mid-back, piercing his spine: the bronzespear now transfixed him, he uttered a dying cryand collapsed in the dust. The spirit fled from him. Book 10, line 156 First, while she was washing clothes near the hollow ship,one of them made love to her, a thing that fuddles the sensesof truly feminine women, even one that’s well-behaved. Book 15, line 420 Now prudent Penelopē made a fresh decision: to showherself to her suitors, so outrageous and arrogant;for she’d learnt in her halls of the plan to murder her sonfrom Medōn the herald, who’d overheard their discussion. Book 16, line 409        for not bloodless, I think,will be the final reckoning between that man and the suitors,once he’s made it home and is under his own roof. Book 18, line 148 I had twenty geese round the house, they came up from the waterand I fed them on wheat: the sight of them warmed my heart.But down from the mountain swooped a great eagle, with curved beak,broke all their necks and killed them. They lay scatteredall over the hall, while the eagle soared up in the bright sky. Book 19, line 536 (Penelopē) She climbed the high ladder that led to her own chamber,and with her strong hand picked up the neatly hooked key—bronze, finely wrought, with a fitted ivory handle Book 21, line 5    the well-built altarof Zeus of Enclosures, on which Laërtēs and Odysseushad burnt in his honor so many thighs of oxen. Book 22, line 334 In their criminal folly they perpetrated a monstrous wrong,squandering the possessions and insulting the bedfellowof a most noble man, saying he would never return. Book 24, line 458 (Halithersēs) External links Peter Green (historian) Category:1924 births Category:2024 deaths Category:Historians from the United Kingdom Category:Translators from the United Kingdom Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:University of Cambridge alumni Category:Translators of Homer