ἀνέθεκεν ?

Dears,

ἀνέθεκεν is a common verb in archaic inspiration meaning the act of dedicating something, e.g. agalmata to the gods (e.g.: IG I² 485, IG I² 499, IG I² 703, etc.). More literally it means to put up. I found information that it is “the compound ανα + τίθημι (in perfect)”*, but I cannot find information about this grammatical form anywhere (Perseus, Wikipedia [under τίθημι / ἀνατίθημι], TLG, Montanari’s dictionary, Marinone’s dictionary, etc.). Could someone help me to identify this form (person, number, tens, mood, voice)?

Hi, this is just the aor. act. 3p. sg., = ἀνέθηκεν, like the verb at the start of the second line of this inscription:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priene_Inscription#/media/File:Dedication_of_Alexander_the_Great_to_Athena_Polias_at_Priene.jpg

What’s throwing you (I’m guessing) is the vowel ἀνέθεκεν. I assume this comes from a Greek inscription: look into the Greek alphabet changes over time, particularly for the period before 403 BCE. There is very basic information right at the beginning of Smyth’s grammar (sec. 2(a)), but the best book to check out is Threatte’s grammar of Greek inscriptions.

Cheers, Chad

Thank you Chad. I’m at the beginning of my study of ancient Greek, hence my problem finding this form in the tables of conjunctions on the wikipedia page ἀνατίθημι. Now I see it, even if I’m not quite sure why there are three different aorist conjunctions. Anyway, I know exactly what this form expresses, so thanks again for the reply.

One of the three there is just the epic version with dropped augment. The other two are because (ἀνα-)τίθημι takes its singular forms from the first aorist, and plural and dual from the second aorist. Like δίδωμι and ἵημι.

1st aorist sing.:
ἔθηκα, ἔθηκας, ἔθηκε

2nd aorist pl.:
ἔθεμεν, ἔθετε, ἔθεσαν

(Plural forms of the 1st aorist do exist though.)