Τῆς νυκτὸς ἐπὶ θᾶκον ἀποχωρήσαντα

Greek Learning Greek
1

I met a sentence by Theophrastos:
“Καὶ πολλὰ δειπνήσαντα καὶ τῆς νυκτὸς ἐπὶ θᾶκον ἀποχωρήσαντα πλανώμενον ἡ τοῦ γείτονος κύων δάκνει.”
I am confused by the “ἐπὶ”. I guess it is almost impossible to be “ἐπὶ τῆς νυκτὸς”, so it here dominates the accusative “θᾶκον”, maybe. But, “ἀποχωρήσαντα” means “get away from”, and “ἐπὶ” is then strange, if so.

2

τῆς νυκτὸς ἐπὶ θᾶκον ἀποχωρήσαντα will mean “after going off to the loo in the night.” There’s nothing strange about the syntax.

3

So, “ἀποχωρήσαντα” here is intransitive, and “ἐπὶ θᾶκον” shows the purpose?

4

αποχωρεῖν is always intransitive (“go away”), and επί w/ acc. regularly means “to” or “onto."

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5

It seems that “αποχωρεῖν” can mean “excrete”. Maybe it means “excrete over the toilet”?

6

No. αποχωρεῖν could be used of excrement, since it “departs” from the body (so it will be “to be excreted” rather than “to excrete”), but Theophrastus’ use of the verb is much more ordinary. After a heavy dinner (πολλὰ δειπνήσαντα) the man “goes away to a seat”—evidently euphemistic for “goes off for a shit"—and the neighbor’s dog bites him while he’s wandering in the dark.

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7

It’s a vignette in Theophrastus’ character-sketch of ὁ ἀναίσθητος, the guy who doesn’t really comprehend what’s going on around him—someone like Dylan’s Mr Jones.

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