ἐπὶ ἐνιαυτὸν

Greek Koine and Biblical and Medieval Greek
1

Ok, so this, as a phrase, is translated “for a year”. But ἐνιαυτὸν means “year, anniversary, any long period of time, cycle, astronomical period” and some of the meanings for ἐπὶ are (with acc., of time) for or during (a certain time), for (a long time); up to, until (a certain time). So shouldn’t it be possible that ἐπὶ ἐνιαυτὸν also means ‘for a cycle’? Or ‘for or during an anniversary’?

A search for ἐπὶ ἐνιαυτὸν in Diogenes shows pages of “for a year”. But since it was translated from the language it was originally written in, is it possible ἐπὶ ἐνιαυτὸν could have those other meanings?

How likely is it?

2

Yes I think that’s right – the cycle, I mean. When I was reading Homer there was some line – “περιπλομένων ἐνιαυτῶν” – and in some commentary it was described as “the revolving of the years”, year because apparently it refered to the heavens being in the same (αὐτός) position

3

Thanks, I was thinking it was possible, because of the context. One of these days, I’m going to have to figure out how to do a better corpus search that excludes the English meaning “for a year”, to know for sure. Don’t know if that’s possible, though. :slight_smile:

Cheers