Question regarding accentuation as seen in Λόγος

Greek Learning Greek
1

I’m working through Λόγος by Santiago Carbonell Martinez alongside Athenaze and other resources following the method outlined by Ranieri and Roberts and have a question regarding accentuation that I cannot seem to understand.

As an example, in these sentences from κεφάλιον Α’: Πυθαγόρας θεὸς ούκ ἔστιν, άλλ’ ἄνθρωπος. Και Όρφεὺς ἄνθρωπός έστιν.

  1. Why are there two sets of accentuation for ἄνθρωπος /ἅνθρωπός
  2. Why are there different spellings for ἔστιν /ἐστιν

I’ve seen quite a bit of what I think is shifting accents but I’m not sure when this should happen, when it shouldn’t etc. Any guidance would be sincerely appreciated!

2

ἐστιν is usually enclitic, as in Όρφεὺς ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν (cf. ἄνθρωπός τις). But after οὐ it carries its own accent, οὐκ ἔστιν, as in Πυθαγόρας θεὸς ούκ ἔστιν (“P. isn’t a god”)—or so ancient grammarians say.

This is not to be confused with the dogma according to which “existential” ἐστι is orthotone, as in Πυθαγόρας ἔστιν “P. exists.” I don’t know if your book follows that practice.

3

Many thanks for the explanation! This makes more sense.