FR CAP XXV - Theseus et Minotaurus
Nemo adhuc per se viam e labyrintho ferentem repperit.
(ferō, tulī, lātus, ferre) = to bring, bear, carry, give.
Could it mean “to lead out of” in this case, i.e. viam ferentem = . . . the way leading out of the maze?
. . . ibi vero nocte silenti Ariadnam dormientem reliquit . . .
nocte silenti (absolute ablative) = In the silent night. Could it perhaps also be translated as “at dead of night” or would that be stretching it?
How do you understand “e labyrintho”?
What do you see as the difference between your two formulations of “nocte silenti”? Don’t they mean the same thing? The Lexicon gives “still, calm, quiet, silent: nocte silenti, Ov. M. 4, 84; Verg. A. 4, 527: silenti nocte” The essence is the silence of the night.
I think my two formulations do mean the same thing. It comes down to style, and I actually prefer the more elegant “the silence of the night”.
My problem is “viam ferentem” which I’d like to mean “the way leading out of”, but my dictionaries don’t give “to lead” for “fero”, which doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Would this interpretation be acceptable? “As yet no one has found a way out of the labyrinth by themselves”., which would ignore “fero / ferentem” altogether.
Isn’t it literally " but no one has as yet by himself found the way carrying (leading) (him) from the labyrinth"? The sense of out of is given by “e”. Perhaps I am missing something here?
Edit: so fero can mean “lead” as well as carry and the sense of out of is given by “e”.
No, you are not missing anything! I only thought of carrying in the sense of carrying a weight/suitcase etc. But of course carrying s.o. away from, leading s.o. away from should have occurred to me!
I originally put “by himself” but then opted for the more current (pc?) “by themselves” which, in a Greek/Roman context probably doesn’t make sense.
Multas gratias tibi.
Cassell’s Latin Dictionary: “of a road, etc., to lead to”
Many thanks.