Just as a man who knows both lyre and song

easily stretches a string on a new peg

as he attaches the twisted sheep-gut to both sides

just so, without haste, Odysseus strung the great bow

 

ὡς ὅτ’ ἀνὴρ φόρμιγγος ἐπιστάμενος καὶ ἀοιδῆς

ῥηϊδίως ἐτάνυσσε νέῳ περὶ κόλλοπι χορδήν,

ἅψας ἀμφοτέρωθεν ἐϋστρεφὲς ἔντερον οἰός,

ὣς ἄρ’ ἄτερ σπουδῆς τάνυσεν μέγα τόξον ᾿Οδυσσεύς.

 

A great passage that combines two strains of the Odyssey, the hero as killer and the hero as singer, that have already overlapped at so many turns right before the killer supersedes all else.

Obviously, the Horatian passage made me think of the Homeric one.  But was that Horace’s inspiration?  Perhaps more scholarly minds than mine (or hands close to commentaries!) will have an answer…