I am reading Fagle's translation of the Iliad and am trying to find the Greek words used for "Yielding is far better" which appears on line 320 of Fagle's translation. When I consult the Greek transcript and other translations the narrative is very different. Is Fagle just taking creative liberty here or am I missing something? Thanks.
BTW I am not sure if this is the correct place to put this, if there is a classicist/ancient language section just let me know.
That is actually the second half of Line 274 of Iliad 1:
ἐπεὶ πείθεσθαι ἄμεινον (epeì peíthesthai ámeinon),
an expression very commonly rendered into English as "to obey is better", such as in Augustus Taber Murray's 1924 translation (Harvard University Press).
Samuel Butler's 1898 rendition (Cambridge University Press) has "for this is the more excellent way".
A.S. Kline's somewhat looser version, on his website Poetry in Translation, says: "for that is wise".
For some reason, Fagles' version has a very different numbering system, setting this particular passage almost fifty lines off. The only ideas I have for this are that his translation is stylistically just that different from other mainstream ones or that different manuscripts of the Iliad are structured or numbered differently, and he happens to be using a different one from Murray, Butler and Kline.
