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Iliad 1:85-92 help!!

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Iliad 1:85-92 help!!

Postby megas_yiannakis » Tue Sep 25, 2007 3:43 am

ΧαῖÏ￾ε ω φίλοι!

I have been having some trouble reading this passage from Iliad 1:85-92...

"θαÏ￾σήσας μάλα εἰπὲ θεοπÏ￾όπιον, ὃτι οἷσθα-
οÏ￾ μὰ γὰÏ￾ Ἁπόλλωνα διίφιλον, ᾦ τε σÏ￾, Κάλχαν,
εá½￾χόμενος Δαναοῖσι θεοπÏ￾οπίας ἀναφαίνεις,
οὕ τις á¼￾μεῦ ζῶντος καὶ á¼￾πὶ χθονὶ δεÏ￾κομένοιο
σοὶ κοίληις παÏ￾á½° νηυσὶ βαÏ￾είας χεῖÏ￾ας á¼￾ποίσει
συμπάντων Δαναῶν, οá½￾δ' ἣν Ἀγαμέμνονα εἳπηις, 90
ὃς νῦν πολλὸν ἃÏ￾ιστος Ἀχαιῶν εὓχεται εἷναι."
καὶ τότε δὴ θάÏ￾σησε και ηὓδα μάντις ἀμÏ￾μων-

now the many questions:

with what does the οÏ￾ of the second line go?... is it trying to say something like: "for surely not Apollo..."?

the third line really gets me confused; am i right with saying that the verb at the end goes with the participle at the beginning? "praying you reveal to the Danaeans the prophecies"?... or not? lol...

what is οὕ τις ?... origionally i though it to be a form of οστις but grammatically it doesnt fit... τις is not in the genetive...

Then also in this line there is the whole genetive absolute thing... which i still dont get lol...

and why in line 90 is εἳπηις subjunctive?

sorry for all the questions... just a tad confused.
megas_yiannakis
 

Re: Iliad 1:85-92 help!!

Postby modus.irrealis » Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:32 pm

Hi,

with what does the οÏ￾ of the second line go?... is it trying to say something like: "for surely not Apollo..."?

The μά indicates that he's swearing by Apollo. The οá½￾ technically goes with the main clause starting on line 88 -- "by Apollo ... not ..." -- but the intervening stuff is so long that the οá½￾ gets repeated. Maybe it'll help to get rid of some of the stuff and see that his main point is

οÏ￾ μὰ γὰÏ￾ Ἁπόλλωνα τις σοὶ βαÏ￾είας χεῖÏ￾ας á¼￾ποίσει

but then he adds all the other stuff which makes the sentence more complicated.

Or, roughly speaking, you can read the οá½￾ μὰ Ἀπόλλωνα as "no, by Apollo."

the third line really gets me confused; am i right with saying that the verb at the end goes with the participle at the beginning? "praying you reveal to the Danaeans the prophecies"?... or not? lol...


I'm not sure what you mean for the verb to go with the participle, but because the participle is nominative it goes with the subject of the verb which is "you." Your translation is right but just in case, the ᾦ goes with εá½￾χόμενος as well so (in pretty bad English) "praying to whom, you reveal..."

what is οὕ τις ?... origionally i though it to be a form of οστις but grammatically it doesnt fit... τις is not in the genetive...

τις means "some(one), a certain (one)", so οὔ τις means "not someone" or equivalently "no one."

Then also in this line there is the whole genetive absolute thing... which i still dont get lol...

If you're find with the uses of participles in general, the genitive absolute is used when the subject (or "subject" if you prefer) of the participle does not occur in the rest of the sentence. For example with εá½￾χόμενος before, the subject of εá½￾χόμενος is Calchas who is the subject of ἀποφαίνεις and thus nominative, so the participle is nominative as well. But with ζῶντος and δεÏ￾κομένοιο, they refer to Achilles but he plays no other role in the sentence so it's put into the genitive.

and why in line 90 is εἳπηις subjunctive?


Basically because of the ἤν "if." One of the standard if-then construction is 'if+subjunctive, future'.
modus.irrealis
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Postby megas_yiannakis » Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:27 pm

thank you so much... its funny that with a bit of help everything can make such good sence... :D
megas_yiannakis
 


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