That’s right folks, I’ve managed not to blog almost all season because I was saving my effort for now (even though I actually did little to no work on translating this myself)… it was some nice people (who don’t even watch Lost) on a Debian Linux chat room (specifically user gvaiou) through which I was able to get the Ancient Greek text from last night’s episode translated. It’s from The Odyssey book 6, when Odysseus washes up on the shore of Skheria and speaks with Nausicaa, who aids him. The line, translated as “May heaven grant you in all things your heart’s desire,” is part of what Odysseus says to Nausicaa as he is thanking her for clothing and food.

“And now, O queen, have pity upon me, for you are the first person I have met, and I know no one else in this country. Show me the way to your town, and let me have anything that you may have brought here to wrap your clothes in. May heaven grant you in all things your heart’s desire – husband, house, and a happy, peaceful home; for there is nothing better in this world than that man and wife should be of one mind in a house. It discomfits their enemies, makes the hearts of their friends glad, and they themselves know more about it than any one.”

I reached out the Debian guys while searching for translations last night and by morning I had an answer waiting for me. Special shout out to Joshmeister from The Lostmeister blog and podcast who was recording his podcast when I began looking, I joined him for the podcast and we discussed this quite a bit, though didn’t have the final translation.

Obviously a lot more work can be done interpreting this and perhaps going through that portion of the Odyssey in detail (which I have not done by any means) so it will be cool to see what people make of this.

Here it is: