Euripides Al. σὺν ἂν ἔσχεν 901

[C_S_Bartholomew]

Euripides Alcestis
Line 901

δύο δ’ ἀντὶ μιᾶς Ἅιδης ψυχὰς
τὰς πιστοτάτας σὺν ἂν ἔσχεν, ὁμοῦ
χθονίαν λίμνην διαβάντε.

Do we have here συνέσχεν with ἂν between the components of the verb?

[seneca2008]

σὺν ἂν ἔσχεν

yes its tmesis. Parker says “its not unusual for ἂν to divide compounds in this way.”

I saw Alcestis a few months ago. It was the King’s Greek play.

[C_S_Bartholomew]

@seneca2008

σὺν ἂν ἔσχεν

yes its tmesis. Parker says “its not unusual for ἂν to divide compounds in this way.”

I saw Alcestis a few months ago. It was the King’s Greek play.

Thank you, seneca. It took me a while to process this. That pattern is virtually nonexistent in biblical Greek.

[polemistes]

@C. S. Bartholomew

@seneca2008

That pattern is virtually nonexistent in biblical Greek.

Yes, and it is almost nonexistent in any classical Greek prose as well, but more usual in poetry.

[anphph]

@polemistes

@C. S. Bartholomew

@seneca2008

That pattern is virtually nonexistent in biblical Greek.

Yes, and it is almost nonexistent in any classical Greek prose as well, but more usual in poetry.

Less usual in tragedy, rather common in epic.

[seneca2008]

Less usual in tragedy, rather common in epic.

Yes tmesis is common in epic but I have also come across several examples in Tragedy (Sophocles and Aeschylus). Its difficult to make comparisons but no doubt there are statistics on this somewhere.

[Paul_Derouda]

I wonder if you might call them epicisms in tragedy? At least they are poetic.