So the sixth line is packed behind the fifth, imitating its sound cluster precisely the way in which the Trojan ranks, packed together in battle formation, are massed one behind the other.Īlso of note is the way that the two adjectives in the fourth line- paphladzonta, the “roiling” waves, and polyphloisboio, the “greatly-roaring” sea-replicate each other’s consonants: the “p”s, the “ph”s, the “l”s, the soft “s”s and “z” sounds. (In other words, the near-rhyming words do what the waves do.) And, as if to make the analogy concrete, the sixth line-which reconnects the imagined world of the sea to the narrated world of the Trojans at war-repeats the “some before … others hard behind” language of the fifth: the waves are all’ … ep alla the Trojans are alloi … ep’ alloi. Note, first of all, how the last words of the first, third, fifth, and sixth lines of this passage all end with the same sound combination, loaded with liquid “l”s ( aellêi, “maelstrom” polla, “many”: ep’ alla, “others hard behind,” ep’alloi, “others hard behind”): these liquid “l” sounds (with some explosive “p”s thrown in in the third, fifth, and sixth lines) beautifully evoke the sounds of the roiling waters, even as the insistent repetition of the “p-ll” sound cluster from line to line gives a sense of whitecaps breaking on the beach, one after another. (just so) (the Trojans) (in front) some (were packed together) (but)( hard behind) (others) HOSS TROE-EHS pro men ALL-oy ah-RAY-roh-tehz, OW-tahr ep’ ALL-oy
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