Hansen and Quinn Chapter 5 exercises

Greek Learning Greek
1

Unit 5
Exercises

  1. ἀθάνατος ἡ δόξα ἡ τοῦ ποιητοῦ τοῦ ταῖς Μούσαις ἱε?οῦ, ?πειδὴ καλὰ βιβλία πε?ί τῆς τῶν ἀνθ?ώπων ἀ?ετῆς καί τῶν πολέμου κινδύνων Όμή?ῳ γέγ?απται.

I am not sure why there is an article (ἡ) after δόξα.

2

I think it refers back to δόξα. The glory is immortal, that(glory) of the poets…

3

Thanks. That was helpful.

4

That isn’t exactly correct. The second article indicates that the genitive τοῦ ποιητοῦ is attributive, not predicative. When the attribute is not between the first article and its substantive, the article must be repeated before it.

5
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6

No. that’s the opposite of what I mean. ἀθάνατος is predicative because there is no article before it, but τοῦ ποιητοῦ is attributive because it is preceded by the article. Let’s say you wanted to say "? μεγας ἀνή?“ or “the great man,” but you wanted the attribute to follow the noun. If you said “? ἀνή? μέγας,” the sentence would mean “the man is great,” but, if you repeated the article, i.e. “? ανή? ? μέγας,” it would still be “the great man,” just with a different emphasis. Hence, the repetition of the article before τοῦ ποιητοῦ makes it an attribute.

7

Okay that is a relief. I thought I had totally missed something. I had originally thought that τοῦ ποιητοῦ τοῦ …ἱε?οῦ was attributive, it just has a dative stuck in there, just as you say.

Regarding the first part though, if I understand you right, the second article in the phrase ἀθάνατος ἡ δόξα ἡ refers back to ἀθάνατος, but since it comes after the adjective the phrase is predicate: the reputation of…is immortal. I do not remember and cannot find that Hansen and Quinn mention this possibility of using an article like that. Seems strange they would use a construction not covered in the text or a note.

So the sentence, in what I take to be decent English, is:

ἀθάνατος ἡ δόξα ἡ τοῦ ποιητοῦ τοῦ ταῖς Μούσαις ἱε?οῦ, ?πειδὴ καλὰ βιβλία πε?ί τῆς τῶν ἀνθ?ώπων ἀ?ετῆς καί τῶν πολέμου κινδύνων Όμή?ῳ γέγ?απται.

The reputation of the holy poet to the Muses is immortal, since the good books about the virtue of men and the dangers of war were written by Homer.

8

That’s not what I am saying. Let’s say that you wanted the attributive phrase τοῦ ποιητοῦ τοῦ ταῖς Μο?σαις ἱε?οῦ to come before δόξα instead of after it. The sentence would then read thus:ἀθάνατος ἡ τοῦ ποιητοῦ τοῦ ταῖς Μο?σαις ἱε?οῦ δόξα. However, since the author has reserved the attributive phrase τοῦ ποιητοῦ τοῦ ταῖς Μο?σαις ἱε?οῦ until after the noun δόξα, the article must be repeated before it. ἀθάνατοs has nothing to do with the repetition of the article.

See Hansen and Quinn pg. 29 3.2.c +d.

9

I see. Thanks, I appreciate the help.

10

I think what you are describing in technical terms, I tried to bring across in translation.