I'm puzzled by a line in the Bacchae, 1223:
(Kadmos)
ἤδη κατ’ ἄστυ τειχέων ἔσω βεβὼς
The sense of it's clear enough to me. But I can't tell why the two nouns are as they are, especially why τείχη is genitive. Any ideas?
dramatic question
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?σω can take the genitive when it means "inside"(see Middell-Liddell), so τειχέων is dependent on that. κατά with the accusative can mean "throughout." Without any context, which could change the translation, I would say it means something like, "Having marched inside the walls throughout the city. If you haven't read it already, u should check out Martha Nussbaum's introduction to C.K. Williams translation of the Bacchae. Amazing interpretation of the Bacchae in light of Nietzsche and other interpreters.
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