Luc. J Conf. 11 use of δέον with nominative and infinitives?

Greek Learning Greek
1

The philosopher Cyniscus is pointing out (to Zeus!) the pointlessness of praying to the gods given their seemingly subordinate position to the fates.

The sentance I’m struggling with is in bold (the rest is for context). I don’t understand the combined use here of δέον with nom. οἱ ἄνθρωποι alongside the infinitives. I might have expected οἱ ἄνθρωποι to be acc.?

Also, could εἰς δέον in the next sentance (also bold) be rendered adverbially, something like ‘necessarily’?

ὥσπερ, οἶμαι, καὶ τὸ σκέπαρνον τῷ τέκτονι καὶ τὸ τρύπανον συνεργεῖ μέν τι πρὸς τὴν τέχνην, οὐδεὶς δ᾽ ἂν εἴποι ὡς ταῦτα ὁ τεχνίτης ἐστίν, οὐδ᾽ ἡ ναῦς ἔργον τοῦ σκεπάρνου ἢ τοῦ τρυπάνου, ἀλλὰ τοῦ ναυπηγοῦ: ἀνάλογον τοίνυν ἡ μὲν ναυπηγουμένη ἕκαστα ἡ Εἱμαρμένη ἐστίν, ὑμεῖς δέ, εἴπερ ἄρα, τρύπανα καὶ σκέπαρνά ἐστε τῶν Μοιρῶν: καί, ὡς ἔοικεν, οἱ ἄνθρωποι δέον τῇ Εἱμαρμένῃ θύειν καὶ παρ᾽ ἐκείνης αἰτεῖν τἀγαθά, οἱ δ᾽ ἐφ᾽ ὑμᾶς ἴασι προσόδοις καὶ θυσίαις γεραίροντες: ἢ οὐδὲ τὴν Εἱμαρμένην τιμῶντες εἰς δέον ἂν αὐτὸ ἔπραττον οὐ γὰρ οἶμαι δυνατὸν εἶναι οὐδὲ αὐταῖς ἔτι ταῖς Μοίραις ἀλλάξαι τι καὶ μετατρέψαι τῶν ἐξ ἀρχῆς δοξάντων περὶ ἑκάστου: ἡ γοῦν Ἄτροπος οὐκ ἀνάσχοιτ᾽ ἄν, εἴ τις εἰς τὸ ἐναντίον στρέψειε τὸν ἄτρακτον ἀναλύων τῆς Κλωθοῦς τὸ ἔργον. [p. 76]

2

εἰς δέον has plenty of examples in the LSJ article.

In the first section, it’s easiest for me to understand δέον as an aside, an accusative absolute, with οἱ δέ there to remind us of the subject.

Less likely possibilities that strike me would be 1) a dropped verb, taking δέον as on object. πράττουσι is the obvious one, but doesn’t quite fit the context.

Or 2) a dative τοῖς ἀνρώποις δέον [ἐστίν] might make sense, but the οἱ δέ following would seem weird. And I don’t think that the οἱ δέ would be enough to have forced it into nominative.

3

Yes, the οἱ δ᾽ is resumptive, reasserting οἱ ἄνθρωποι as the subject once the unanticipated prolongation of the δεον acc.abs. phrase has made it unwieldy and has left the initial οἱ ἄνθρωποι in danger of being lost track of. It’s all designed to give the impression of spontaneity.
Joel’s alternative suggestions are not so much “less likely” as quite out of the question, I’d say.

As for the continuation, ἢ οὐδὲ τὴν Εἱμαρμένην τιμῶντες εἰς δέον ἂν αὐτὸ ἔπραττον, the position of ἄν makes it clear that εἰς δέον applies not to τιμῶντες but to the main clause (“not even if they do honor Fate would they be doing it properly”). The εἰς δέον is not “necessarily” but more “duly,” “as they ought.”

4

Michael, Joel
Thanks for your insights as ever, this whole section is much clearer to me now. I suspect there might also be a slight concessive force accompanying the acc.abs. δέον.

5

Yes you could read it as concessive but I’d prefer simply circumstantial, “when they ought to be sacrificing to Fate and asking for their goodies from her—but they’ll go resorting to you lot …"