Herodotus III,125,3

Greek Learning Greek
1

Hi all,

Here’s a bit from Herodotus, book III,125,2:

οὐδὲ εἷς τῶν ἄλλων (ελληνικῶν τυράννων ἄξιος ἐστι πολυκράτεϊ μεγαλοπρεπείην συμβλησθῆναι

We discussed it in class today, but nobody could tell me why there’s a sigma before the -θεναι in συμβλησθῆναι.

I hope someone out there can tell.

χάριν οἶδα

2

A typo?

Hude’s Oxford Classical Text has συμβληθηναι with no sigma (and lists it as the last word of 3.125.2, incidentally), and the app. crit. doesn’t list your form as an alternate. συμβληθηναι, of course, is the aorist passive infinitive of συνβαλλω. Which text are you using?

3

This is an intrusive analogical sigma.

The normal outcome of two dental consonants right next to each other is for the first one to become a sigma. For example, the aorist passive of ᾄδω is ᾔσθην, with the delta becoming sigma before the theta. This sigma was generalized out to a bunch of verbs where there’s no historical reason for it to be. We will see it sometimes in that popular paradigm example παύω, i.e. ἐπαύσθην. This seems to have happened here.

Smyth 489 has a long discussion. He mentions that the sigma becomes increasingly common in later manuscripts.

4

Hi Will,

Hmmm…how sure are you about this “intrusive analogical sigma”? Among aorist passive forms of [size=150]βάλλω[/size] I can find no evidence for any such formation. Nor do I find it attested anywhere, at least not within the Perseus collection.

Why isn’t “typo” a more likely explanation?

Cordially,

Paul

5

Sure, but whose, and when? :slight_smile: Where is amans getting the text? The OCT has an awfully restrained apparatus.

6

Yeah, that’s a good question…amans?

Cordially,

Paul

7

Hi Paul and Will,

Thanks for your comments so far. It is my teacher’s own text, based on Hude OCT 1927. We don’t have the original edition but only a transcript of it.

8

The edition which I checked was the very same text (the OCT that is, not the transcript!) - and the errant sigma is not there. Given that the comparision is a transcript of this text, I believe the typo theory is the correct one.

9

Q.E.D.

Thanks.

-pb

10

But it is charming, I think, that it is a type of error with a long history (if I’m reading Smyth correctly).