καὶ τοσούτου ἐδέησεν αὐτῷ μεταμελῆσαι τῶν ὑβρισμένων, ὥστε ἐξευρὼν οὗ ἐδειπνοῦμεν ἀτοπώτατον πρᾶγμα καὶ ἀπιστότατον ἐποίησεν, εἰ μή τις εἰδείη τὴν τούτου μανίαν.
The phrase in question: τοσούτου ἐδέησεν αὐτῷ μεταμελῆσαι τῶν ὑβρισμένων
“far from repenting his violence”
I don’t understand what meaning is added by αὐτῷ
I think it is this use of δεῖ
with dat. pers. added, δεῖ μοί τινος A. Ag. 848, E. Med. 565, Th. 1.71, etc.
Oh, thank you bedwere. If I understand you, then:
καὶ τοσούτου ἐδέησεν αὐτῷ = καὶ τοσούτου ἐδέησεν Σίμονι (dative singular)
The English translationese might be "and to such a degree it was wanting in Simon. . . "
I read it a bit differently:
Personal δέω:
freq. in Att., πολλοῦ δέω I want much, i.e. am far from, mostly c. inf. pres., πολλοῦ δ. ἀπολογεῖσθαι I am far from defending myself…
And impersonal μεταμέλει:
1 c. dat. pers. et gen. rei, ὑμῖν μεταμελησάτω τῶν πεπραγμένων…
I’ll lay out my present understanding, the Greek keyed to the translationese, as a target.
I am not far enough along to debate points of grammar; the best I can do is lay out my analysis for criticism.
καὶ τοσούτου ἐδέησεν αὐτῷ to such a degree it was wanting in-him [i.e.Simon]
μεταμελῆσαι τῶν ὑβρισμένων, to repent of his violence
ὥστε ἐξευρὼν οὗ ἐδειπνοῦμεν that, finding out where we were eating,
ἀτοπώτατον πρᾶγμα [in] the strangest manner
καὶ ἀπιστότατον ἐποίησεν, and the most incredible he behaved
εἰ μή τις εἰδείη τὴν τούτου μανίαν. [as it would seem] to anybody not knowing his craziness.
“To repent of his violence” would be the personal form, μεταμεληθῆναι. But the active aorist μεταμελῆσαι is what we have, “to repent him of his violence”, taking both a dative and genitive object.
Whether the ἐδέησεν is impersonal or personal can go either way, and I could well be wrong. (Though see An. 7.6.18 for an example of a personal verb governing an impersonal like this, πολλοῦ μοι δοκῶ δεῖν τὰ ὑμέτερα ἔχειν.) But either way it’s just δεῖ/δέω + inf. “it/he lacks to…”
Translationese (if it helps any): and to so much it/he lacked [note aorist] to repent him of his outrages
Oh, thank you Joel. I may see your point.
I looked for an antecedent of αὐτῷ, in connection with one verb, but you say that its antecedent is controlled by a different verb.
So now, I shall fall silent and do some studying of these two verbs, for I had not even considered the point you raise!