Hi There,
i am a beginner student and i am using the book Hermaion_Discovering_Ancient_Greek_Step_by_Step_by_Vernhes. One sentnce that i stuck with for few hours:
τὰς Σειρῆνάς φασι τοὺς ἀκούοντας καλοῖς μέλεσι τερψαμένας καὶ ἀπατησάσας, εἶθʹ ἁρπάζειν τε καὶ κατεσθίειν.
i understand the sense of this sentence but grammatical and of its syntax i could really use some instruction, especially for the use of participles.
thanks,
ibrahim
τοὺς ἀκούοντας is acting as a noun while τερψαμένας καὶ ἀπατησάσας are descriptive of that noun. Ancient Greek does tend to pack a lot of the action in to nominally participles and that can put you off if you are used to a language that doesn’t do that or at least not so much.
It probably would be helpful for you to post an attempt at a translation as that would allow us to focus in onto what you find difficult.
A quick correction to daivid: τους ακουοντας, masc., is actually the object of τερψαμένας καὶ ἀπατησάσας, fem.
τερψαμένας (middle) in the given sentence seems to be a mistake for τερψάσας (active).
But as daivid says, do offer your tentative translation, and/or explain where you find difficulty, and we can take it from there.