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2:18pm on Tuesday, 23rd August, 2022:
Weird
The quotation (spoken by Leonard Nimoy) accompanying the discovery of Polytheism in Civilization IV is as follows: "Not at all similar are the race of the immortal gods and the race of men who walk upon the earth".
For somewhat obscure reasons, I wanted to know the source of this line. It apparently comes from Homer's Iliad, book five, but never quite using those same words.
"for the race of the immortal gods and of men walking on the earth is in nowise similar" — Buckley.
"The race of Gods is far above men creeping here below" — Chapman.
"since never the same is the breed of gods, who are immortal, and men who walk groundling" — Lattimore.
"Distance immense! between the powers that shine above, eternal, deathless, and divine, and mortal man! a wretch of humble birth, a short-lived reptile in the dust of earth" — Pope.
"for not the same our nature is and theirs who tread the ground." — Cowper.
"seeing there is no comparison of the race of immortal gods and of men that walk upon the earth" — Lang.
"since not alike the race of Gods immortal and of earth-born men& — Earl of Derby.
"We are not of the same breed, we never will be, the deathless gods and men who walk the earth" — Fagles.
"Our kind, immortals of the open sky, will never be like yours, earth-faring men" — Fitzgerald.
I did manage to find an exact match, but it's from Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and could be from 1882, 1891, 1910, 1914, 1919, 1937, 1942, 1948, 1955, 1965, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2002 or 2012. It doesn't state whose translation of Homer's words it is.
Not at all similar are the words of the immortal Homer and the words of men who translate them into English.
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