FABULE SYRIAE: struggling with Pygmaliōnī

Latin Learning Latin
1

Dear all, I’m struggling again for properly parsing a Latin sentence. This time, it is from FABULE SYRIAE:

Subitō tamen fōrmōsissima fēmina ad eum accessit […], quae Pygmaliōnī ex sellā suā surgentī, “Nōn iam signum” inquit […]

what “Pygmaliōnī ex sellā suā surgentī” means? Is it an absolute ablative construct? (“while Pygmalion was rasiing from his chair”) But in that case, what is “quae”? (I guess it is the relative pronoun referring to the girl but it doesn’t fit in the construct).

Or it is the girl that raises from the chair? Yet, in this case, I cannot really understand the meaning and in particular what Pygmaliōnī is: dative or ablative?

Thanks again!

Maza

2

I’ll give you some hints: what is the declension of Pygmaliōn (don’t get distracted by the final -n of the nominative)? Hence Pygmaliōnī is which case? So, which word does surgentī go with? But why Pygmaliōnī? Look for another verb later in the sentence.

Surgentī being the verb, suā is for whom?

3

so, Pygmaliōnī is third declension and it is dative, right? suā refer to a feminine subject. So, perhaps the translation is:

raising from her chair, she said to Pygmalion […]

Is that correct?

(Thanks for the hints, that I hope got’em right!)

Maza

4

Yes, Pygmaliōnī is dative, but it also goes with the participle surgentī. The quae refers to the fōrmōsissima fēmina (hence it is a relative clause), and quae is the subject of inquit, which takes a dative (says to Pygmalion rising out of his chair).

5

Ok, now I got it! That’s a very intricate construction, indeed.

Thanks very much!

Maza.