I'm a new philhellene on this site. I just got the Loeb edition of Sappho and Alcaeus by mail a couple of days ago. After some reading I don't find Sappho so difficult at all, though I had been warned, as it's just about getting used to the Aeolic forms.
But I just can't make sense of this tiny fragment.
Ok, this is an entire fragment of Sappho (#56) from my Loeb edition:
οὐδ᾽ ἴαν δοκίμωμι προσίδοισαν φάοσ ὰλίω
ἔσσεσθαι σοφίαν πάρθενον εἰσ οὐδένα πω χρόνον
τεαύταν
It's translated as:
"I do not imagine that any girl who has looked on the light of the sun will have such skill at any time in the future"
I don't get this.
Ok, "ian prosidoisan phaos alio parthenon" go together, as on the other hand do "sophian teautan". I gather that "parthenon etc" is the subject of the accusative and infinitive construction with "essesthai" the infinitive verb. But how can this construction with "eimí" take an object in accusative "sophian teautan"? "Eimí" stands for "to be", not "to have".
The only bad explanation I can think of is that "essesthai" is for "hennumi", not "eimí". Perseus Word Study Tool does not agree with this theory

I'd be very grateful for help!