The fifth word of the poem is a compound no English word covers. It can mean much-turning — wily, of many devices — or much-turned, a man the sea drove this way and that. Every translator has to decide, in the first line, what kind of man the poem is about. This maps twenty-five of those decisions on three axes.
ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν·
ándra moi énnepe, Moûsa, polýtropon, hòs mála pollà
plánchthē, epeì Troíēs hieròn ptolíethron épersen
Is the manyness cast as a virtue, a vice, or neither? Does the translator settle the ancient question of whether polytropos was praise at all?
How much of the poly- survives as actual plurality, rather than collapsing into one named quality?
Does the rendering place the turning inside the head, or leave it open between the head and the route?
| Translator | Rendering of polytropon | Valence | Multiplicity | Locus |
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