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singular vs. plural?

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 5:35 am
by tbjohnston
In Pharr §38, the exercise is to translate from Greek this sentence:

δῖος ἑκηβόλος αὐτὸσ ἀείδει, ἀλλ’ οὐχ ἁνδάνει ἀ/λλοισι θεοῖσι θυμῷ. Additionally, the student is pointed to §996 and §1009.

Mr. Annis's kindly provided answer key indicates that this could be translated as "The divine free-shooter himself sings, but it doesn't please the other gods in their souls."

My question revolves around translating θυμῷ as "in their souls." Isn't the form given singular?

Thanks.

p.s. I seem to have extra spaces in my SPIonic-based text. What can I do to avoid this? Thanks

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 7:06 am
by chad
hi, θυμός is never used in the plural in the iliad. here it's used as a locative: i.e. for each of the other gods it's οὐχ ἁνδάνει ἐν θυμῷ, which is what Will's translation captures.

the SPIonic spacing thing by the way is just a glitch which appears from time to time in this forum, don't worry about it, cheers, chad.

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:09 am
by Eureka
Hi tbj. The extra spaces only show up on Explorer. When I use Netscape or Firefox, they don't show up.

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:09 pm
by tbjohnston
Thank you both.

More singular vs. plural

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:52 am
by tbjohnston
In §39.6, the English text is:

"This free-shooter makes countless Achaeans a booty for the birds, because they dishonor these beautiful goddesses of the sea."

The answer key posted by Mr. Annis uses ἐλώρια to translate "a booty". Any reason to prefer the plural ἑλώρια over the singular ἐλώριον?

Many thanks,

-TJ

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:25 am
by chad
hi, see pharr s27.4. ἑλώρια strictly means 'objects of prey' (Cunliffe's Homeric dictionary), which makes more sense and NB ἑλώριον doesn't occur in the Iliad; pharr just wanted to use the kinkier english word :)

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 1:07 pm
by tbjohnston
Got it, thanks. Appreciated. -TJ