Struggling with X. An. 1.9.12

Greek Learning Greek
1

I’m really struggling over this one:

καὶ γὰρ οὖν πλεῖστοι δὴ αὐτῷ ἑνί γε ἀνδρὶ τῶν ἐφʼ ἡμῶν ἐπεθύμησαν καὶ χρήματα καὶ πόλεις καὶ τὰ ἑαυτῶν σώματα προέσθαι.

This is basically a comparison construction, right? But even after reviewing CGCG ch. 32 I’m still confused. Does this sentence involve a superlative together with a partitive genitive? A genitive of comparison? A dative of measure? Can someone please translate this literally for me and pick apart the syntax items involved?

Thanks :frowning:

2

OK let me try to answer this myself:

“Consequently, the greatest number of all those living in our time (πλεῖστοι δὴ…τῶν ἐφʼ ἡμῶν, superlative with partitive genitive, CGCG 32.8) to this one man himself (αὐτῷ ἑνί γε ἀνδρὶ) eagerly desired to yield their property and cities and even their own bodies.”

Am I getting close?

3

You’ve almost got it but not quite. The only difficulty here is ἑνί γε ἀνδρὶ τῶν ἐφʼ ἡμῶν, which is really not much of a difficulty and is syntactically dispensable. Omit it and we have “Loads of folks longed to entrust to him (αὐτῷ) XY&Z …”. ἑνί γε ἀνδρὶ simply expands αὐτῷ, in apposition to it (so not “this one man himself”). He was just one guy (ἑνί γε ἀνδρὶ).

4

Deleted post xxxxxxxxxx

5

Ah, so datives can also be in apposition? I thought it was only nominatives and accusatives.

6

It can be any case, naturally.
And note no articles with καὶ χρήματα καὶ πόλεις: “possessions and cities and their very own bodies”—a nice tricolon crescendo.

7

Thanks Michael and yes just recently I’ve been feeling that I’m starting to get a sense of the style of Xenophon’s writing, his use of various syntactical constructions in Anabasis for different rhetoriocal purposes. For example his use of particles in section 9 of book 1 really makes his argument flow, and chapter 59 of CGCG on particles has been terrifically helpful in understanding what the different Greek particles mean and how they can be used in different text-types. And his use of repitition almost seems to make his prose musical at times, for example:

…ὅτι περὶ πλείστου ποιοῖτο, εἴ τῳ σπείσαιτο καὶ εἴ τῳ συνθοῖτο καὶ εἴ τῳ ὑπόσχοιτό τι, μηδὲν ψεύδεσθαι. (X. An. 1.9.7)

Then there’s this, which really expresses beautifully:

ὥστε εὐθὺς παῖδες ὄντες μανθάνουσιν ἄρχειν τε καὶ ἄρχεσθαι. (X. An. 1.9.4)

And so on.

Is there a good article or academic paper available somewhere describing Xenophon’s different rhetorical devices, or more generally on different kinds of rhetorical devices used in Classical Greek?

8

Yes εἴ τῳ σπείσαιτο καὶ εἴ τῳ συνθοῖτο καὶ εἴ τῳ ὑπόσχοιτό τι is another good trio, of course.

I don’t know about Xenophon specifically, but there’s tons of stuff on rhetoric (I don’t really like “devices”) in Greek and Latin, e.g. Lausberg’s Handbuch der literarischen Rhetorik (subsequently englished I think), or George Kennedy’s Art of Persuasion in Greece.

9

The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon looks like it might be helpful in this regard. Part III Techniques deals with his language and expression, authorial voice, narrative style etc. Might see if our university has a copy I can borrow.