ἐπὶ τῇ θέᾳ τῇ αὑτοῦ

Greek Learning Greek
1

ἐπὶ τῇ θέᾳ τῇ αὑτοῦ, Cyr,1, 4, 24
Not ‘at his sight’ says the commentary but ὅτι τοὺς πεπτωκότας ἐθεᾶτο. Why? The first meaning is there as well.

2

Here’s the passage: ἐκ τούτου δὴ ἀνῆγεν ὁ Ἀστυάγης, μάλα χαίρων καὶ τῇ ἱπποκρατίᾳ, καὶ τὸν Κῦρον οὐκ ἔχων ὅ τι χρὴ λέγειν, αἴτιον μὲν ὄντα εἰδὼς τοῦ ἔργου, μαινόμενον δὲ γιγνώσκων τῇ τόλμῃ. καὶ γὰρ τότε ἀπιόντων οἴκαδε μόνος τῶν ἄλλων ἐκεῖνος οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ τοὺς πεπτωκότας περιελαύνων ἐθεᾶτο, καὶ μόλις αὐτὸν ἀφελκύσαντες οἱ ἐπὶ τοῦτο ταχθέντες προσήγαγον τῷ Ἀστυάγει, μάλα ἐπίπροσθεν ποιούμενον τοὺς προσάγοντας, ὅτι ἑώρα τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ πάππου ἠγριωμένον ἐπὶ τῇ θέᾳ τῇ αὑτοῦ.

Both are grammatically possible, θέα referring either to Cyrus’s protracted look at the corpses or to Asytages’s “sight of him”. Given the emphasis on ἐθεᾶτο earlier in the sentence, I lean toward the former. Xenophon strongly emphasizes that Cyrus was the only one riding around and gazing upon the corpses, and that it was only with difficulty that he could be dragged away from doing so.