oih d AptemiV eisi kat ourea ioceaira,
h kata Thugeton perimhketon h Erumanqon,
terpomenh kaproisi kai wkeihV elajoisi
th de q ama numjai, kourai Dio aigiocoio,
agronomoi paizousi, geghqe de te jrena Lhtw
pasan d uper h ge karh ecei hde metwpa,
reia t arignwth peletai, kalai
de te pasai
wVh g amfipoloisi meteprete parqenoV admhV.
As the huntress Diana goes forth upon the
mountains of Taygetus or Erymanthus to hunt wild boars or deer, and the
wood-nymphs, daughters of Aegis-bearing Jove, take their sport along with her
(then is Leto proud at seeing her daughter stand a full head taller than the
others, and eclipse the loveliest amid a whole bevy of beauties), even so did
the girl outshine her handmaids.
Vergil
uses this passage from the Odyssey as the basis for his depiction of
Dido as Diana in Aeneid 1. Homer
is here comparing Nausicaa, the princess who rescues a shipwrecked Odysseus, to
Artemis. The parallels to Aeneass
arrival and reception in the Aeneid are clear. The Greek text does not reproduce completely accurately the
intracies of Ancient Greek type. My
apologies to classicists. The English
translation is that of the public domain version by Samuel Butler. A full version is available online at the University of Oregon.