as we discover from a poem written by one of their major poets,

我们发现了他们所信奉的一件事情
is something so far as I know unique to the Greeks.

据我所知这一点是希腊所特有的
They claimed that they were of the same race as the gods,

他们认为自己和神明是同一个种族
and I really don't know of anybody else who made that claim.

我确实不知道还有另外的人有过这样的说法
And so you will hear Homeric characters referred to by epithets,

你会发现有一些别称用来称呼荷马时代的人
Homer, part of the technique of passing on oral poetry

荷马时代口口传诵诗歌的技巧之一
is by having epithets attached to the rulers

就是在统治者名字后面加上别称
to help with the meter.

使之更押韵
Some hero will be called Dios,

一些人物会被称作迪奥斯
meaning godly, god-like,

意为神圣的像神一样的
Diotrephes, reared as a god, Isothesos,

丢特腓被当作神抚养大人
equal unto a god,

伊索赛奥斯意思是和神一样的