“…unde prospiciens navem Thesei procul in mari vidit”.
Isn’t that a combination of seeing and saw?
Paul.
I am not sure why you think that as you correctly identify prospiciens as a precent participle. Vidit is also present tense.
Perhaps if you thought of a comma after prospiciens it might make things clearer. Take navem Thesei as the object of vidit.
Prospiciens is not seeing. Think of the pro- prefix. (prospect etc in English).
Slight correction for Seneca (and I almost made the same mistake); vidit is perfect tense, so it does mean he saw.
I am a little unsure as to what you are asking though. If you are wondering about the tense relationship between the participle and the verb, the tense of the participle indicates when it happens in relation to the verb. In other words a present participle happens at the same time as the main verb, which in this case is in the past (perfect tense).
Whoops never do things quickly when you are about to start a zoom meeting. Veni vidi vici. lol
Thanks!
I was concentrating on “looking out she sees”.. or “looking out she saw” as it should be.
There seems to be a rare usage of the verb, meaning “having a good view”, so “unde prospiciens” could be “from where she had a good view”. I only found this meaning in my Kindle version of Collins. Every other definition is “look/see”.
Paul.
Perhaps not. I think that version is transitive.
I think its best to stick in the first instance to the meaning that Ørberg gives. On p 236 of the Companion prospicio is glossed as “look out, look ahead”. See also the marginal note “pro-spicere -io = ante se aspicere” (see also p 67 of Companion).
Clearly she does have a good view but thats not what the latin actually says.