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τὰ παιδία δώροις ἐλύοντο. τὰ παιδία δώροις ἐλύετο.

my answer I am sure is wrong...

The children were untying themselves their gifts. He was untying himself gifts for the children.

...Help Please. :mrgreen:

As I mentioned in my introductory post, I am currently working on Greek: An Intensive Course by Hansen and Quinn. My questions will derive largely from that, but I will post the sentences and or phrases in full, so you will have no need to reference the book. Please note that I am still a novice, so some of my questions may seem rather rudimentary.

1. λύομεν τὸν ἀδελφον. They are releasing the brother.

Sort ...

just stumbled into to Loeb Classical Lib website more or less by accident. Kind of surprised it lets you read, cut and paste with side by side Greek English presentation all without even registering. I would expect to be charged a fee for access to this. What's the story?

http://rds.emmis.com/browse?t1=author.aeschylus

...καὶ γὰρ μοναρχικὰς καὶ τυραννικὰς ἤδη τινὰς τεθεάμεθα πολιτείας, αἳ πλεῖστον διαφέρουσαι βασιλείας παραπλήσιον ἔχειν τι ταύτῃ δοκοῦσιν...

...for we have had before now examples of absolute and tyrannical forms of government, which, while differing as widely as possible from kingship, yet appear to have some points of resemblance to it...

OK, this kind of thing is really starting to annoy me. διαφέρουσαι is intransitive. πλεῖστον modifies it. But πλεῖστος is a superlative adjective. In ...

ἰὼ! ἆ ἆ! ἒ ἔ, παπαῖ παπαῖ! ἰὼ πόποι! ὀτοτοτοῖ πόποι δᾶ!

Aeschylus' Cassandra has quite a spectacular vocabulary when it comes to exclamations. I wonder if anyone is aware of a discussion of Greek exclamations...

"Internet" told me the Greeks still say po po and po po po when they're surprised about something. I wonder if it's derived from πόποι. (Chantraine's Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque didn't mention such a possibility though ...

Does anyone know of a wordlist for Herodotus I could use as input for flashcards? Perseus can give me a list with the vocabulary tool, but the translations are not always correct. I can put in the time to fix that, but if someone already did that, I would like to take advantage of that :D

Caveat: I have academic training neither in linguistics nor in classical languages. I just learned a bit of Attic Greek for myself at some point.

Now, I heard from a linguist recently that there can not be a third-person imperative in Greek or any other language because imperatives are always and necessarily directed towards a second-person.

Her two contentions: 1. There is a hidden second-person in the so-called "third-person" clauses.

2. If not the above, ...

ὅτι τὸ ψυχαγωγοῦν ἅμα καὶ τὴν ὠφέλειαν ἐπιφέρον τοῖς φιλομαθοῦσι τοῦτ᾽ ἔστιν ἡ τῶν αἰτιῶν θεωρία καὶ τοῦ βελτίονος ἐν ἑκάστοις αἵρεσις.

Translation (reversed for readability):

The theory of causes and of the best choice in each (case) is this that (is) the (thing) seducing and bringing help to the curious

Is there an implied copula (is) as I have indicated? Seems there has to be or else the subordinate lacks a verb.

...ὁρῶν ποίαν ἄν τις ὀξυτέραν ἢ μείζονα λάβοι μεταβολὴν τῶν καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς τῆς γε Ῥωμαίοις συμβάσης...

Am I correct in reading the bolded phrase as the adverbial "during these times of ours"? If so, then what I find a little weird is the use of both a genitive τῶν and an accusative ἡμᾶς together in a time expression. Or have I somehow misread the whole comparison?

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Does anyone know where I can locate a full-text Greek version of Synesius's Eulogy of Baldness (a sophistic and very funny reply to Dio's Encomium to Hair)? Online would be ideal but print would be great too. What I see online and in the Loeb edition are excerpts. Any replies or suggestions *greatly* appreciated. Thanks!
Tim