Dr. Mastronarde Unit 34 Part V

Greek Learning Greek
1

Χαίρετε!

I am supposed to translate in English a passage, probably adapted, from Anabasis 5.5.24 - 6.1. I will show the paragraph and bold a couple spots I am having trouble with:

ἐκ τούτου μάλα μὲν δῆλοι ἦσαν οἱ ξυμπρέσβεις τῷ Ἑκατωνύμῳ χαλεπαίνοντες

τοῖς εἰρημένοις, παρελθὼν δ’ αὐτῶν ἄλλος εἶπεν ὅτι οὐ πόλεμον ποιησόμενοι

ἥκοιεν ἀλλὰ ἐπιδείξοντες ὅτι φίλοι εἰσί. καὶ ξενίοις, ἢν μὲν ἔλθητε πρὸς τὴν

Σινωπέων πόλιν, ἐκεῖ δεξόμεθα, νῦν δὲ τοὺς ἐνθάδε κελεύσομεν διδόναι ἃ

δύνανται· ὁρῶμεν γὰρ πάντα ἀληθῆ ὄντα ἃ λέγετε. ἐκ τούτου ξένιά τε ἔπεμπ ον

οἱ Κοτυωρῖται καὶ οἱ στρατηγοὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐξένιζον τοὺς τῶν Σινωπ έων

πρέσβεις, καὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους πολλά τε καὶ φιλικὰ διελέγοντο τά τε ἄλλα καὶ

περὶ τῆς λοιπῆς πορείας ἀνεπυνθάνοντο ὧν ἑκάτεροι ἐδέοντο. ταύτῃ μὲν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ

τοῦτο τὸ τέλος ἐγένετο. τῇ δὲ ὑστεραίᾳ ξυνέλεξαν οἱ στρατηγοὶ τοὺς στρατ ιώτας.

καὶ ἐδόκει αὐτοῖς περὶ τῆς λοιπῆς πορείας παρακαλέσαντας τοὺς Σ ινωπέας

βουλεύεσθαι.

  1. For the first one, εἶπεν ὅτι οὐ πόλεμον ποιησόμενοι ἥκοιεν , I translate it as, “said that they had not wish to come to make war. . .” The answer book translated it as they had not come to make war. . . ἥκοιεν is an optative. It seems that the translation is an indicative. They were really there. I know the answer book knows what it is doing. There is something(s) about the optative that I am not understanding. I read on a recent thread that the optative can be used in reporting to give a little distance between what is said and the reporter, but I do not think that is the case here since Xenophon was there.
  2. διελέγοντο should have a dative, but πρὸς ἀλλήλους is a masculine accusative plural. Is the rule about a verb taking a particular case bendable?
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In the first one, ἥκοιεν is optative simply because we’re in past sequence (εἶπεν being a past tense). Otherwise it would be ἥκουσιν, indicative. You need to master this use of the optative in past sequence. It’s not obligatory (he could have used indicative instead, ἥκουσιν), but it’s very common, normative even.

Also, ἥκοιεν is attended by a pair of future participles, οὐ πόλεμον ποιησόμενοι … ἀλλὰ ἐπιδείξοντες ὅτι φίλοι εἰσί. These indicate what they have come to do or with the intention of doing. He said they had come “not to make war but to show that they were friends.” This is a frequent use of future participle.

As to the other bit, διελέγοντο would have a dative if it just meant they talked/conversed/chatted with someone, but with πρὸς ἀλλήλους it just means they talked/conversed/chatted to one another.
And note πολλά τε καὶ φιλικὰ, lit. “they chatted many and friendly (things),” i.e. they had a long friendly chat. These are so-called “internal” accusatives, as distinct from direct objects, “external” accusatives.

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3

Just out of curiosity, if the verb was present tense, would writers have a choice of indicative or subjunctive?

4

Huh?? No!! Indicative and subjunctive each have their own uses. They’re never interchangeable.

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