More Practice Sentences

[Gregorius]

I'm on Unit 8 of my textbook now, and I decided to try another round of practice sentences. The first one is taken from one of my favorite movies and starts with the hero's name in Hellenized form (or my attempt at it, anyway). Your corrections/suggestions will be much appreciated!

Δάστανoς γαρ τᾱς χρóνoυ ψάμμoυς ἡῦρεν.*
τήν αλήθειαν έφη σε ειπεῖν.
εκ τoῦ ἵππoυ εξῆλθoν oἱ Λακωνικoί καί τoύς Tρoιᾱνoυς έσφασαν.
κελεύω σε εκ τῆς oικίᾱς σoυ μή εξέρχεσθαι.
Περσαί μέν πρoσέβαλoν, Aθηναῖoι δ'ενῑκησαν.
μóνoν γαρ διά τῆς τῶν θεῶν χειρóς σώσεται ἥ πóλις.
ἱσπᾱνικoί* τήν μεγάλην πóλιν χρῡσῆν εζήτoυν.

*I had to put the aspiration mark on the eta rather than the upsilon because combining it with the tilde just looked too cluttered and unreadable.
*This is another stand-in coinage for purposes of grammatical experimentation, since I'm not sure if the Greeks even had a word for Spaniards.

[Markos]

μóνoν γαρ διά τῆς τῶν θεῶν χειρóς σώσεται ἥ πóλις.

Not a correction or a suggestion at all because I like all these sentences very much. Just a comment.

σώσεται is presumably the future middle, not the future passive. I mention this because I have been thinking about this verb of late. I think it is pretty rare, though not unattested in the middle. Did you mean it to be middle here, and if so, what would the force of the middle be?

I haven't had time to do a word study, but I am intrigued by possible middle uses.

Anyway, again, I like these sentences.

ερρωσο ω φιλε μου. συ γραφεις μαλιστα καλως Ελληνιστι.

[spiphany]

Mostly the sentences look good. I'm not experienced enough with composition to offer suggestions on word choice here, so I'll restrict my comments to purely grammatical points.

εκ τoῦ ἵππoυ εξῆλθoν oἱ Λακωνικoί καί τoύς Tρoιᾱνoυς έσφασαν.

Perhaps I'm being obtuse here, but I'm not sure what verb you're using to get έσφασαν

ἱσπᾱνικoί τήν μεγάλην πóλιν χρῡσῆν εζήτoυν.

I assume you want to say the "great golden city", correct? χρῡσῆν is in predicative position here, as though you were saying "(they thought) the great city was of gold". You want something like τήν μεγάλην καὶ χρῡσῆν πóλιν or τήν πóλιν τήν μεγάλην καὶ χρῡσῆν. (Greek doesn't distinguish between adjectives of size/quality and other kinds of adjectives the way Latin does -- they all can be placed in the same positions relative to the noun. What is important is the placement of the article.)

*I had to put the aspiration mark on the eta rather than the upsilon because combining it with the tilde just looked too cluttered and unreadable.

Just so you know, according to typographical conventions ἡῦρεν (with the aspiration and accent on different vowels) would indicate that the word is to be pronounced as three syllables (not as two). In this case it doesn't necessarily prevent understanding, but there's a few cases where the distinction is crucial. For example -- αὐτή would mean "she" or "herself"; however, ἀϋτή means "a call or cry". The placement of the accent over the alpha in the second word tells you that it's not a diphthong (the two dots over the upsilon also indicate that the vowel sounds are separate, but because the aspiration already makes that clear, many editors will omit it).

[NateD26]

Perhaps I'm being obtuse here, but I'm not sure what verb you're using to get έσφασαν

Hi, spiphany! I've also wondered which verb has this aorist, and I think he meant to create
an aorist from σφάττω, slay, (σφαγ-; σφάζω was the epic form, σφαγ-yω). Smyth notes in §516 that,
through Formation by Analogy, the present form σφάττω was created by confusion like φυλάττω (φυλακ-yω).
The aorist form then should be ἔσφαξαν.

[Gregorius]

Thanks again, folks! I've kept busy, and now I'm starting Unit 11! So, to correct a couple from last time:
εκ τoῦ ἵππoυ εξῆλθoν oἱ Λακωνικoί καί τoύς Tρoιᾱνoυς έσφαξαν.
ἱσπᾱνικoί τήν μεγάλην χρῡσῆν πóλιν εζήτoυν.

And now, for some new ones! As always, some of them deal with history and/or mythology, while others are blatant anachronisms (I like to be creative with the languages I learn, even the supposedly dead ones). Hint: the last one is a question one might pose about Lois Lane.

τὴν κόρην ερῶ ἧς πάτηρ μέγα όνομα έχει, αλλά τὸ εμὸν παῦλον.
ὃ αυτὸς (ανήρ) ήροτο ὅστις περὶ τοὺς Ρωμαίους καὶ τὴς Ιουλιέττᾱς έγραψεν, ὥστε τούτῳ έφην, ὃ Σείξπῑρος.*
τὸν θάνατον αυτὸν επειρήσατο ὃ Σίσυφος αποστερήσαι, αλλ' οὺκ έμελλε νῑκήσαι.
εὶ ταύτῃ κατόψῃ, έφη ὃ Ἁδης τῳ̃ Ορφεῖ, αῦθις έσται ἣ εμὴ Ευρυδίκη.
πότε εὑρήσει Κλάρκον Κέντα αληθῶς τὸν Ὑπεράνδρα;

*My best attempt at transcribing "Shakespeare."