Hi, i’m new at the forum and i have a question about the first phillipic of demosthenes, in par 38 there is on the second line: “hoos ouk edei”. Does anyone know what that means, what the function is of “hoos”? I’ve checked a few translations, but they nicely jumped over
Hi Klassikrasser,
Welcome to Textkit!
Are you sure about the form “hoos”? It looks to me like the text reads ὡς οὐκ ἔδει.
The meaning’s a bit harder. I suspect the imperfect ἔδει is from the δέω that means ‘need’ rather than ‘bind’.
I also think that this may be an instance of what Smyth calls ‘adherescent’ οὐ. Such use imparts the opposite meaning to the verb. So I take the clause to mean, roughly, ‘thus it is possible’ as opposed to ‘this it is not necessary’. (NB: ‘thus’ is translation of your ‘hoos’).
But it’s idiomatic and I could well be wrong.
Cordially,
Paul
Thank you very much Paul, that may be the meaning, it fits well in the context. I had not heard until now of a ‘adherescent’ ou), and i do not think it is in the grammar i’m using.
And about my “hoos”, i didn’t know how you transcribed greek forms, but i believe you use the perseus-system, am i right? I transcribed the spiritus as a “h”, the omega as “oo” and the final sigma as “s”, but i’m also familar with the transcription you use.