χαίρετε,
The other day I was working again on Greek Boy at Home (from Rouse) when I encountered this sentence which I’m trying to understand since the writer seems to be using a neuter pronoun τό with a masculine adjective ἵππιος, although he uses the normal masculine pron. in the sentence before.
What do you think of this?
ὁ δ’ ἵππιος διπλοῦς ἐστι δίαυλος , διαθεόντων τῶν δρομέων δὶς πρός τε τὴν βαλβῖδα καὶ πάλιν.
τὸ δ’ ἵππιος σημαίνει τὸ μῆκος μόνον: οὐ γὰρ ἵπποις χρῶνται.
Cite your page numbers, otherwise other people can’t look up the section that you are quoting. (In this case, chapter 42, pg. 99).
Rouse’s explanation appears motivated by this usage from Electra:
ἢ δρομεὺς δισσοὺς διαύλους ἱππίους διήνυσεν
The second sentence is talking about the word itself.
τό is often used where we would use quotes, using the word as a word in definitions, and so forth.
I appreciate your answers guys and yes, I will add more specific information in the future about what I’m reading.
And finally, if I understand correctly this use of τό, this would be my translation of that sentence:
τὸ δ’ ἵππιος σημαίνει τὸ μῆκος μόνον: οὐ γὰρ ἵπποις χρῶνται.
“and/but the word “ἵππιος” indicates only the lenght: for they don’t use horses.”