Eurydicē, -ēs (f)

[boomt]

Fābulae Syrae, ad capitulum XXIX tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydicē. "Cum igitur Orpheus Eurydicēn, pulcherrimam virginem, valdē amāret..." From the context, Eurydicēn is accusative, but this -ēn ending does not appear in any of the five Latin declensions. Later in the story, the ablative form, Eurydicē appears. These endings seem to follow a Greek -η pattern. Is this correct? Does this pattern appear only in some proper names, or does it apply to other nouns?

[Laurentius Mons]

You're quite right, it's a Greek ending. Such forms occur most commonly in Greek names, which are frequent in poetry, but there are also some common nouns that can have Greek endings, e. g. grammatice, grammatices f., which Quintilian uses instead of grammatica, grammaticae f., which also exists.

[boomt]

Thank you!