Lucian's The Ass translation

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Lina
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Lucian's The Ass translation

Post by Lina »

Can anyone help me with this?

ὁ δὲ οἷον εἰκὸς ὁρων ἐμὲ κτῆμα παράδοξον τὴν μὲν τιμὴν τὴν ἐμὴν κελεύει τῶν διοικητῶν τινι καταβαλεῖν τῷ
ἐμὲ ὠνασαμένῳ καὶ ἄλλο τοσοῦτον...

My attempt:
"He, as you would expect, seeing me (to be)an incredible possession, and my value, ordered (them) to pay to the one of the adminstrators who sold me another portion (of equal pay)..."

Problem 1: Matching the accusatives to their correct verbs. Could τὴν μὲν τιμὴν τὴν ἐμὴν be the object of καταβαλεῖν instead and thus he is asking them to go back and pay what he now believes to be Lucian the Ass's true value plus a second equal payment on top?

Problem 2: My confusion as to whether the datives could represent two different individuals "ordered one (dative) of (his) administrators to pay the person (dative) who sold me".

Lina
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Re: Lucian's The a** translation

Post by Lina »

It looks like the title of the book alerted a censor function on this forum software.

Link to the book to which I'm referring:
http://www.alibris.com/search/books/isbn/9780983222828

NateD26
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Re: Lucian's The a** translation

Post by NateD26 »

Lina wrote:It looks like the title of the book alerted a censor function on this forum software.
I didn't know the forum had such a system. :D
Lina wrote:Can anyone help me with this?

ὁ δὲ οἷον εἰκὸς ὁρων ἐμὲ κτῆμα παράδοξον τὴν μὲν τιμὴν τὴν ἐμὴν κελεύει τῶν διοικητῶν τινι καταβαλεῖν τῷ
ἐμὲ ὠνασαμένῳ καὶ ἄλλο τοσοῦτον...

My attempt:
"He, as you would expect, seeing me (to be)an incredible possession, and my value, ordered (them) to pay to the one of the adminstrators who sold me another portion (of equal pay)..."

Problem 1: Matching the accusatives to their correct verbs. Could τὴν μὲν τιμὴν τὴν ἐμὴν be the object of καταβαλεῖν instead and thus he is asking them to go back and pay what he now believes to be Lucian the a**'s true value plus a second equal payment on top?

Problem 2: My confusion as to whether the datives could represent two different individuals "ordered one (dative) of (his) administrators to pay the person (dative) who sold me".
1. I think the accusative τὴν μὲν τιμὴν τὴν ἐμὴν is the subject in the dependent clause of κελεύει:
he ordered that my value be paid...

2. I'm not sure but it seems the substantive dative participle τῷ
ἐμὲ ὠνασαμένῳ refers to τῶν διοικητῶν τινι and ἐμὲ are its direct object:
he ordered that my value be paid to one of the administrators who had purchased me and
to the same sum*.

* LSJ reads ἄλλοι τοσοῦτοι as to the same number. I assume the neuter here refers to the sum paid.
Nate.

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IreneY
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Re: Lucian's The a** translation

Post by IreneY »

ὁ δὲ οἷον εἰκὸς ὁρων ἐμὲ κτῆμα παράδοξον τὴν μὲν τιμὴν τὴν ἐμὴν κελεύει τῶν διοικητῶν τινι καταβαλεῖν τῷ
ἐμὲ ὠνασαμένῳ καὶ ἄλλο τοσοῦτον

I would say it says that he ordered one of the officials to pay to whoever had bought Lucian before twice the price he paid for Lucian. So X orders Y to pay Z twice the money Z paid for Lucian.

As for the syntactical order, ὁ ὁρων κελεύει τινι (τῶν διοικητῶν) καταβαλεῖν (τινά being the subject of καταβαλεῖν) τῷ ὠνασαμένῳ (ἐμὲ ) τὴν τιμὴν τὴν ἐμὴν καὶ ἄλλο τοσοῦτον.

NateD26
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Re: Lucian's The a** translation

Post by NateD26 »

IreneY wrote:I would say it says that he ordered one of the officials to pay to whoever had bought Lucian before twice the price he paid for Lucian. So X orders Y to pay Z twice the money Z paid for Lucian.
That makes much more sense, Ireney. Apologies for my mistranslation.
Nate.

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