Derek Mahon: XVII: The World of J. G. Farrell

Allusion to Classical figure Echo (‘answered only when called upon’)

Relationship to Classical text The quotation from Lichtenberg is heavily influenced by the opening lines of the Iliad (μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος...) and the Odyssey (ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα).

Close translation of words/phrases/excerpts

Classical/post-Classical intertexts ‘Whisper, immortal muse, of the insanity of the great’ is a quotation from the translation of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg’s Aphorisms (this is the translation given in G. C. Lichtenberg, Aphorisms, translated with an introduction and notes by R.J. Hollingdale, London: Penguin Books, 1990.).