HANC...?

[Interaxus]

Does anyone else find the following passage grammatically puzzling?

“Venus, amoris et pulchritudinis dea spuma maris nata est. In curru sedens effingitur, a cycnis aut columbis tracto. Ex arboribus myrtus ei sacra fuit. HANC FILIUS CUPIDO COMITATUR, puer alatus, arcu et sagittis instructus. Praeter eum Gratias pulchritudinis deas comites habet. Hae pluremque nudae et manibus iunctis effinguntur.”

This is from the Key to George L. Bennett’s First Latin Writer (found on Google books), Exercise 88. The relevant sentence from the original text to be translated from English to Latin is:

“Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, was born from the foam of the sea. She is represented sitting in a car drawn by swans or doves. Of trees the myrtle was sacred to her. HER SON CUPID ACCOMPANIES HER, a winged boy, equipped with a bow and arrows. Besides him she has the Graces, the goddesses of beauty, as companions. These are generally represented naked, and with hands joined.”

Did the nineteenth-century student Mr Bennett employed to help him write his Key doze off for a moment? Or is it me?

Cheers,
Int

[modus.irrealis]

comitor is a deponent verb and takes the accusative, hence the hanc, and filius Cupido is the subject. It looks fine to me.

[Interaxus]

Thanks!

I actually looked up comitor in the dictionary and only found comito. Now I've looked again... and it's there.

Cheers,
Int

[Kyneto Valesio]

comitor is deponent in the middle voice which is somewhat like a reflexive in spanish .... as I understand it.

From greenough #397, under iomatic uses of the accusative,

In many apparently similar expressions the accusative may be regarded as the direct object of a verb in the "middle voice"

inutil ferrum cingitur he girds on the use

In section 156 it is explained that the middle voice has reflexive force which is confirmed by GLOSSA's entry for comitor:

I. v. dep. a. [comes], to join one ' s self to any one as an attendant, to accompany, attend, follow

and another example from GLOSSA

propinqui Indutiomari comitati eos ex civitate excesserunt

Attending them, indutiomarus' relatives departed the realm

[thesaurus]

I just wanted to add that I have not previously heard of GLOSSA, but it appears very useful. Thank you for the tool.
http://athirdway.com/glossa/

Addere volo non prius de programmate GLOSSA me audisse, sed nunc mihi utile esse videtur. Gratias tibi ago hoc instrumentum adferenti.

[adrianus]

GLOSSA is Lewis & Short, of course (alongside Diogenes + Verba + Lexidium).
Unâ cum aliis (Diogenes et Verba et Lexidium) est dictionarium de Lewis atque Short.