dickey's prose comp: chapter one

hey all,

i’m posting my work on chapter one as a separate thread. the first has grown to two pages and other users of the text are both more advanced than i and further along in the text. i don’t expect anyone to go backwards into already completed work. i’m posting just as much to push myself into doing the work. the intro chapter on accentuation is the only one i’m skipping. otherwise, i intend to follow the suggested procedures: reading the smyth selections, doing the prelimimary exercises, the sentences, and the prose analysis at the end of each chapter.

here are three sentences from chapter one (sorry; no accents):

  1. οι μεν την ανδρειαν μανθανουσι τω παιδευεσθαι· οι δε τα αισχρα. (τω should have iota subscript for articular infinitive).

  2. τας μεν αγγελοι ηυρον· τας δ’ ου.

  3. η αγαθη τους ιππους εθελει παιδευειν· οι δε ου εθελουσι μανθανειν.

i like the text. the work is humbling - as others have noted - and i made mistakes everywhere, even in the first chapter’s simple sentences. the smyth reading is worth every minute. his examples, except for the simplest, are always real greek, so one gets additional reading exposure there.

on to chapter two. kick out the jams, modifiers!

I haven’t seen the English, but these are well-formed and intelligible Greek sentences and could well be right. I’d use commas rather than colons. (“Messengers” not “the messengers” in 33? οι δ’ ουκ εθελουσι in 35.)

Onward and upward!

thanks, mwh. it was “messengers” without the article in the text. ouk/x gets me all the time. onward!

This is my attempt at the middle bit of the exercise from pages 12-13

  1. ὁ μὲν θύει ὁ δὲ βουλεύεται.
  2. οἱ νῦν τοὺς ἵππους οὐκ ἐσθίουσιν.
  3. αἰ ἐν ἀγορᾷ βιβλία φέρουσιν.
  4. ὁ μὲν νέος τὸν ἵππον εὑρίσκειν ἐθέλει ὁ δέ ἐν ἀγορᾷ ποιητὴν φέρει.
  5. τὸ μανθάνειν ἀγαθόν.
  6. ὁ νέοι μανθάνουσι τὸ κακὸν τῷ ἐν ἀγορᾷ παιδεύεσθαι..
  7. αἰ ἀγαθαὶ ἀεὶ βούλονται παιδευθῆναι.
  8. οἱ τῷ ἐσθίειν εὑρίσκουσιν τὴν ἀνδρείαν, οἱ δὲ οὐ.
  9. ποιηταὶ τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς παιδεῦσαν.
  10. οἱ δεσπόται τοὺς δούλους οὐ φέρουσιν.

I haven’t seen the English, and flag only things that can’t possibly be right. Hopefully you can correct them yourself.
12 ἔσθουσιν, 18 ἐσθεῖν
13 αι … φερει
16 ??
17 βουλοντο, 19 παιδευσαν
(12 shd be οὐχ, 18 οὔ)

  1. It would be οὐχ ἵππους, but you need an article (see A1; article with plurals denoting classes), τους ιππους, and ουκ is better placed before εσθιουσιν.

  2. ευρειν,

  3. οι νεοι (plural) μανθανουσι (plural) το (neuter accusative) κακον τωι εν αγοραι παιδευεσθαι (passive).

  4. βουλονται,

  5. εσθιειν (oxytone), omitted την ανδρειαν, οι δ’ου

  6. See mwh.

The help from the both of you is very much appreciated. Accept my thanks.
(especially the rule for when to use οὐκ and when to use οὐχ which I thought I knew)