Question

Textbooks Greek Textbooks and Study Groups
1

I’m working out of the White, and came across this sentence to translate, which confused me a bit:
[size=134]
κελεύσει τὸν στρατηγὸν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους λύειν.

2

Just got it. [size=134]λύειν

3

Or more like “he will command”. Damnit!

4

Yes. :slight_smile:

I would be inclined to take λύειν as “loose” or “free” here, rather than “destroy.” There are lots of other verbs for destruction that seem more likely if that was intended here.

5

Thanks annis. So, just to check, a similar sentence translated into Greek from the same page:

“He will command the general to pursue the enemy.”
[size=134]κελεύσει τὸν στρατηγὸν τοὺς πολέμιους διώκειν

6

Nope. Greek word order has to do with emphasis, not grammatical roles. You have to depend on context to determine this.

7

I suppose it would not be too odd if “he wi0ll order the men to free the general” were the meaning - at least if it were the general of a different army, or if the general was captured by the enemy or something. But, in the context vacuum, I woud go with “he will order the general to free the men.”