Cyrop. 3.3.44

Specific Text Questions Cyropaedia
1

Hi everyone
The Assyrian king is encouraging his troops before battle with the Persians:

ἄνδρες Ἀσσύριοι, νῦν δεῖ ἄνδρας ἀγαθοὺς εἶναι: νῦν γὰρ ὑπὲρ ψυχῶν τῶν ὑμετέρων ἁγὼν καὶ ὑπὲρ γῆς ἐν ᾗ ἔφυτε καὶ περὶ οἴκων ἐν οἷς ἐτράφητε, καὶ ὑπὲρ γυναικῶν τε καὶ τέκνων καὶ περὶ πάντων ὧν πέπασθε ἀγαθῶν

What is this word - ἁγὼν. I can’t seem to find a reasonable match in my Cambridge Greek Lexicon or LSJ. If it’s ἀγός why does it have a rough breathing in the passage (and ἀγός wouldn’t make much sense to me as surely the king wouldn’t be emphasising the importance of their leader’s lives over their own)

2

Should be ἀγών with a smooth breathing. In the context, the rough may just indicate the article.

3

ἁγὼν with rough breathing is correct. It’s a better spelling of ὁ ἀγών. Adjacent vowels coalesce (“crasis”). Cf. e.g. ἁνήρ (long alpha) = ὁ ἀνήρ.

For the phrasing as well as the rhetoric cf. Xenophon’s pep-talk at Anab.2.15, νῦν δ᾽ ὁπότε περὶ τῆς ὑμετέρας σωτηρίας ἁγών ἐστι, ….

4

You misunderstood my “should” (and failed to read the second sentence of my post). He’s asking how to look up the word. He’ll need to look for the word with the smooth breathing in his dictionary. The entry is ἀγών.

But since we’re on the subject, and since you say “better spelling,” I read Threatte on indication of crasis the other week, and thought that he made the situation sound a bit more complicated.

5

Joel, I thought my reply to Neil’s query was better than yours, but I guess I would, wouldn’t I?
As to Threatte, his book is extremely valuable, but it was on Attic inscriptions, and Xenophon’s works are not Attic inscriptions.

6

Thanks both. I was also looking up the wrong headword too, which really wasn’t helping matters :unamused: . Perseus usually points me to it if I’m struggling but it must not have liked the rough breathing. All makes perfect sense now.