Eur. Med. 1268

Greek Learning Greek
1

I’m having problem with this sentence:

χαλεπὰ γὰρ βροτοῖς ὁμογενῆ μιάσματ᾽, ἕπεται δ᾽ ἅμ᾽ αὐτοφόνταις ξυνῳδὰ θεόθεν πίτνοντ᾽ ἐπὶ δόμοις ἄχη.

The second clause confuses me a bit. To begin with I don’t know what ξυνῳδὰ means and I haven’t found it in Perseus but it must be the subject and it should be a neutral noun in plural which goes with πίτνοντ᾽ so ξυνῳδὰ follow the murderers falling from the gods to (the murderers’) houses and then I have no idea how ἄχη fit in here and what i means. I would appreciate if someone could help me out with the parts I don’t get in this sentence.

2

Try συνῳδα (“harmonious, singing in accord”). ξυν- for συν- is a fairly common substitution, but it’s confusing until you’ve seen it a few times.

ἄχη (neuter pl. from ἄχος, “anguish, distress”). Both ξυνῳδα and πίτνοντα modify it.

Kovacs has “woes harmonious [with their deeds]”.

3

Aha, I didn’t know about the συν → ξυν thing, that’s what caused me the problems. I sort of get the feeling I should have encountered this before but must’ve forgotten about it then. Are there any rules for when this can happen?

Thanks a lot anyways I get it now. :smiley: