Help! - A quote from Simonides.

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mingshey
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Help! - A quote from Simonides.

Post by mingshey »

Chase & Phillips, Lesson 30. READING, B
σῶσος καὶ σωσώ, σῶτερ, σοὶ τόνδ’ ἀνέθηκαν, σῶσος μὲν σωθείς, σωσὼ δ’ ὅτι σῶσος ἐσώθη. -SIMONIDES

Here's my attempt:
σῶσος: Sosus
σωσώ : Soso
σωτήρ : savior, σῶτερ(voc)
σοί : you (sg. dat.)
τόνδε : this (masc. acc. sg.)
ἀνέθηκαν = ἀνέθησαν · ἀνατίθημι, 3st, pl. 1aor.
σωθείς : σώζω, aor. part. masc. sg. nom. ἐσώθη= aor. pass. 3rd. sg.

O Savior, Sosus and Soso have set it(a monument?) up for you(???),
While Sosus was being saved(by you), Soso was, in turn, saved (by?) Sosus.


I'm uneasy about interpreting the last occurrence of σῶσος as an agent by whom σωσώ is saved since it seems to be in nominative, not dative. But can it be in dative? I learned a personal agent should come as ὕπο + genitive. So this could mean a rather different idea. Please help!

Skylax
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Re: Help! - A quote from Simonides.

Post by Skylax »

mingshey wrote: O Savior, Sosus and Soso have set it(a monument?) up for you(???),
Yes, "for you" is implied.
τόνδε masculine must refer here to a statue - ὁ ἀνδριάς, ἀνδριάντος, maybe a little one - offered to the god.
While Sosus was being saved(by you), Soso was, in turn, saved (by?) Sosus.

I'm uneasy about interpreting the last occurrence of σῶσος as an agent by whom σωσώ is saved since it seems to be in nominative, not dative. But can it be in dative? I learned a personal agent should come as ὕπο + genitive. So this could mean a rather different idea. Please help!
First, Sôsos is a man and Sôsô a woman. Her name has a stem in yod σωσοj- (j= yod). Declension like ἡ πειθώ (Smyth section 279).

The second line explains why the statue was offered :
"Sôsos [set the statue] because he was saved" (having been saved) "and Sôsô (nominative) because Sôsos was saved" (We must understand than the man was her husband or her brother).

The names were repeated for the sssake of sssnake's sssound.
Last edited by Skylax on Fri Jun 04, 2004 6:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

mingshey
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Post by mingshey »

Thanks so much! :D
It bothered me since I first saw it.
The repeating nominatives were a mytery. But now it's clear. The frequent use of abbreviation in Greek is the most hard part to attack -- at least for me. Many thanks again!

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