Textkit Greek and Latin Forums

I have a question about the translation of this sentence:

"The evil plague makes countless Achaeans a booty (pl) for many birds."

The translation appears to be this:

[size=134]νοῦσος κακή τεύχει μυρίους )αχαιοὺς ἐλώρια οἰωνοῖσι πολλοῖσι.[/size]

My question is: What part of grammar is "a booty"? I ask myself "what is the direct object of makes", and I get back "countless Achaeans", so I put them into the plural accusative case. However, "a booty" seems to also be a direct object, so I'm guessing that it is also in the plural accusative. But since there doesn't appear to be a conjunctive-like relationship (direct object one AND direct object two) between Achaeans and booty, what part of speech is "booty"? What is the justification that they are both in the accusative?

Thanks.

EDIT: fixed a typo or three.

psilord wrote: My question is: What part of grammar is "a booty"? I ask myself "what is the direct object of makes", and I get back "countless Achaeans", so I put them into the plural accusative case. However, "a booty" seems to also be a direct object, so I'm guessing that it is also in the plural accusative. But since there doesn't appear to be a conjunctive-like relationship (direct object one AND direct object two) between Achaeans and booty, what part of speech is "booty"? What is the justification that they are both in the accusative?

Most english grammars would call 'booty' an 'objective complement'. Here the noun 'booty' is in some way identical with the direct object 'Achaeans'. If the objective complement is an adjective, it describes or limits the direct object. Other examples with the objective complement in bold:

1. Mingshey named his baby daughter Nausikaa.
2. Some textkit posts make me angry.
3. We elected Bush president.

You are right to place both 'Achaeans' and 'booty' in the accusative. There are a number of verbs in Greek that take a double accusative. Smyth's grammar would refer to this particular use of a second accusative as a 'predicate to the direct object'.

Cordially,

Paul

Paul wrote:Most english grammars would call 'booty' an 'objective complement'.

After some googling around, I now understand 'objective complement' in more detail and why both of them had to be in the accusative.

Thank you very much for your help. I appreciate it.