Odyssey book 9 - lines 343-344

[Kasper]

Dear all

I have a question about the above mentioned lines, which read:

αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ σπεῦσε πονησάμενος τὰ ἃ ἔργα,
σὺν δ᾽ ὅ γε δὴ αὖτε δύω μάρψας ὡπλίσσατο δόρπον.

I fail to understand what σὺν is doing in this sentence. Is it that he made this dinner with (i.e. out of) two men? I don't know if I have seen that use if σὺν before...

Thanks in advance.
Kasper

[spiphany]

I would say this is tmesis (prefix of a compound verb separated from main part of the verb), or else an adjectival use of σύν, in either case with a sense of "together, in conjunction." --> he seized two men at once

One big clue that it's not functioning as a normal preposition is that you don't have a noun in the dative here.

[Kasper]

Ah that makes perfect sense, thank you Spiphany. It was, as you say, the absence of a noun in the dative that prompted my question.

Thanks again,
Kasper

[NateD26]

αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ σπεῦσε πονησάμενος τὰ ἃ ἔργα,
σὺν δ᾽ ὅ γε δὴ αὖτε δύω μάρψας ὡπλίσσατο δόρπον.

What is the function of ὅ here? Is it the masc. nom. sg. article as subject of verb and aor. part.?
I'd assume so. If it's supposed to be neut. rel. pron. with δόρπον as antecedent, the order
in which I should read the sentence seems convoluted.

[Kasper]

Hi Nate

I'd say it's the masc. nom. sg. article, being the subject of σπεῦσε, πονησάμενος, (σὺν)μάρψας and ὡπλίσσατο.

Kasper

[Paul Derouda]

I'd like to add that calling ὅ an article is a bit misleading - in Homeric Greek it's (usually) better just to call it a demonstrative pronoun.

Btw, in LSJ you'll find a reference to the very similar Od. 9.289 under συμμάρπτω.