~ Fish Stories, by Homer

have you ever said to yourself,

hey, i wish Homer had written

more fishing stories,

you know,

even though he was blind and

there're no salmon

in the Agean Sea, and all,

but i bet you have,

i mean, old Hemingway

he wrote about every fish he ever caught

but Homer, we got nothing ...

ok, ok, ok, ...

maybe you haven't ever said that to yourself,

but i have

and i been researching it on wikipedia

and found this here

Homeric fishing fragment

which was painted

on the side of one a them vases:

 

 

"At the point of death, the Salmon, its sides flashing,

said, "I know you well, Mackhilles, dear to Zeus --

I see my fate before me.

Never a chance that I could win you over ...

Iron inside your chest, that heart of yours.

But now beware, or my curse will draw god's wrath

upon your head,

that day when Paris and lord Apollo --

for all your fishing heart -- destroy your boat

at the Gates of Rogue!"

 

Death cut the Salmon short. The end closed in around it.

Flying free of its fins, bronze hook in its jaws,

its soul sent winging down to the House of Death,

wailing its fate, leaving its fishhood far behind,

its young and supple strength. But brillant Mackhilles

taunted the Salmon's body, dead as it was, "Die, die!"

For my own death, I'll meet it freely -- whenever Zeus

and the other deathless gods would bring it on!"

 

Book 22: 418-32

of The Mackiad

by Homer

(trans. by Robert Bagles)

 

Done