The Little Prince in Ancient Greek

Greek Learning Greek
1

The first page of the book contains the author’s (St-Ex) dedication to his friend Leon Werth. In said dedication, he seeks forgiveness from children for having dedicated this children’s (?) book to an adult, but in the end he changes his dedication “to Leon Werth, when he wall a little boy”.

“..βούλομαι ταύτεν τὴν βιβλον τῷ παιδὶ…” etc. From my current study of M (I’m on unit 19), I know that “βοοκ” is “βιβλιον” and not “βιβλον”, and that it is neuter and not feminine, so why the feminine demonstrative and article?

Maybe the book is not in the Attic dialect?

All comments will be appreciated.

2

From Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon.:

βύβλος and βίβλος (v. sub fin.), ἡ,
A.the Egyptian papyrus, Cyperus Papyrus, Hdt.2.92, A.Supp.761, Str.17.1.15: in pl., stalks of papyrus, PTeb.308.7 (ii A. D.).
2. rind enclosing the pith of this plant, Thphr.HP4.8.4, etc.: generally, bark, “φελλῶν καὶ βύβλων” Pl.Plt. 288e, cf. Hdt.2.96, Plot.2.7.2.
b. in pl., slices of the pith used as writing-material, Hdt.5.58, Hermipp.63.13: sg., strip of “β., βύβλον εὐρύναντες ἀντὶ διαδήματος” Ph.2.522.
3. roll of papyrus, book, Hdt.2.100, A.Supp.947, etc.: heterocl. pl., βύβλα, τά, AP9.98 (Stat. Flacc.); esp. of sacred or magical writings, “βίβλων ὅμαδον Μουσαίου καὶ Ὀρφέως” Pl.R.364e, cf. D.18.259, Act.Ap.19.19, PPar.19.1 (ii A. D.); “ἱεραί β.” OGI56.70 (Canopus, iii B. C.); “β. ἱερατική” PTeb.291.43 (ii A. D.); so of the Scriptures, “ἡ β. γενέσεως οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς” LXX Ge.2.4, etc.; ἡ β. the Sacred Writings, Aristeas 316; β. Μωυσέως, ψαλμῶν, προφητῶν, Ev.Marc.12.26, Act.Ap.1.20, 7.42; “β. ζωῆς” Ep.Phil.4.3: pl., of magical books, Act.Ap.19.19.
4. a division of a book, Plb.4.87.12, D.S.1.4, etc.; αἱ β. the nine books of Hdt., Luc. Herod.1.
II. β. στεφανωτρίς flowering head of papyrus, Theopomp. Hist.22c, Plu.Ages.36. [υ^, A.Supp.761.] (βύβλος, βύβλινος, βυβλίον, etc., are the original forms: βιβλ-seems to have arisen in Attic by assimilation in βιβλίον, and is found in earlier Attic Inscrr., cf. IG2.1b, etc., and prevails in Ptolemaic papyri; Inscrr. vary, “βυβλία” Test.Epict.8.32 (iii/ii B. C.); “βιβλία” IG5(1).1390.12 (Andania, i B. C.); in Roman times βυβλ- was restored.)

3

-ιον is a diminutive suffix, so the two words need not be thought of as different. I am not sure, however, whether βιβλίον means “little book” or, if that is not the case, why the word has a diminutive suffix at all.

4

βιβλίον or βυβλίον, τό, strip of βύβλος, Thphr.HP4.8.4: hence, paper, document, Hdt.1.123, 3.128, Ar.Av.974, etc.; τὸ β. τοῦ ψηφίσματος IG2.1.61; β. ἀποστασίον notice of divorce, Ev.Matt.19.7.
2. = βιβλίδιον, petition to the Government, = Lat. libellus, BGU422 (ii A.D.), POxy.86.16 (iv A. D.), etc.
3. -δέλτος tablet, LXXTo.7.14.
II. book, Eup.304, Theognet.1.8, Ap.26d, etc.; μέγα β. ἴσον τῷ μεγάλῳ κακῷ Call.Fr.359.
2. book as the division of a work, ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ β. Dsc.2 Praef., Ph.1.329, etc.
3. τὰ β. place in which books are kept, library, ἀνεθήκατε εἰς τὰ β. D.Chr.37.8.
4. τὰ β. τὰ ἅγια the sacred books or Scriptures, LXX1Ma.12.9; τὰ β. τοῦ νόμου ib.1.56


Liddell, H. G., Scott, R., Jones, H. S., & McKenzie, R. (1996). A Greek-English lexicon (p. 315). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

5

OK - but why would the diminutive be neuter and the “full size” word be feminine?

Maybe that’s just the way it is - like the grammatical gender assigned to inanimate objects: there is no rationale.

6

Again, I may be off the mark; there are people here who would answer your questions better, but I think -ιον diminutives are always neuter, just as in German, where -chen diminutives are always neuter (e.g. der Hund [dog] vs. das Hündchen [little dog]).