I just came back from Naxos yesterday and an old neigbour of mine there responded “Only the Gods know” to a question I had.
I was discussing what this sentence would be in ancient Greek with some friends of mine there and they were not certain of the grammar.
Anyone in here know the answer ?
οὐκ οἶδα ἔγωγε. μόνοι γὰρ οἴδασιν οἱ θεοί.
Should be ἴσασιν, shouldn’t it?
οὐκ οἶδ’ ἔγωγ’ ἴσασι γὰρ μόνοι θεοί would make a trimeter.
How about inverting the last two words - somehow it seems better to me.
οὐκ οἶδ’ ἔγωγ’ ἴσασι γὰρ θεοὶ μόνοι.
Ζεὺς γάρ που τό γε οἶδε καὶ ἀθάνατοι θεοὶ ἄλλοι
γὰρ being enclitic, our trimeters don’t have their caesura in the right place (see mwh’s post on the iambic trimeters in the thread on meter in Tradegy). Hmm.
According to LSJ, οἴδασι is attested, so maybe we can accept οἴδασιν as a poetic alternative to make our trimeter scan?
οὐκ οἶδ’ ἔγω· θεοὶ γὰρ οἴδασιν μόνοι.
To answer the original poster: I think what you wanted to know is θεοί ἴσασι μόνοι.
(I think θεοί doesn’t take the article here, but correct me if I’m wrong.)
Paul, doesn’t it seem preferable to put θεοί at the end to give it emphasis? After all, it’s the point of the remark, and it contrasts with emphatic ἔγωγ’. μόνοι seems like a weak word to end with. Ending with θεοί withholds the key item of information until the last word of the sentence. Seems more effective to me.
Yes, I know, it’s a weak caesura.
οἴδασι is weakly attested and not in poetry.
All right!
οὐκ οἶδ’ ἔγω· μόνοι γὰρ οἴδασιν θεοί.
and
μόνοι ἴσασι θεοί.
Yes, but it still qualifies for bad poetry!
Actually, ἴσασι is attested with a long ἴ-, at least in Odyssey 2.283. So we could use that and ditch οἴδασι.
οὐκ οἶδ’ ἔγω· μόνοι γὰρ οἴδασιν/ἴσασιν θεοί.
In both versions, -ν shouldn’t be added before a consonant, but when you drop the -ν, the line is unmetrical. -σι is short/light.
Smyth §135:
Movable ν is usually written at the end of clauses, and at the end of a verse in poetry. To make a syllable long by position (144) the poets add ν before words beginning with a consonant. Prose inscriptions frequently use ν before a consonant.
ουκ οιδεν ουτις ασφαλως ει μη θεος
My first and only well-formed (I think) trimeter ever.
Why does Textkit change trimeter to trimester?
just came back from Naxos yesterday and an old neigbour of mine there responded “Only the Gods know” …
Something to do with Dionysus?
εὖγε!
No. Nothing to do with Dionysos. Even if our apartment is on Dionysos street. Something as dull as the weather actually.
Thank you for all replies.
No. Nothing to do with Dionysos
Tragic! Not! 
Congratulations! That’s very nice indeed.
If you wanted a bit more leeway with the original idea, remember θεος can scan monosyllabic, opening up e.g. ουκ οιδ’ εγωγε· θεοι δ’ ισασι τοι μονοι, with chiastic word order.
But your version is final. It wouldn’t surprise me if it were actually attested. I’d have written ουδεις myself, and θεοι, but that’s nothing. Worthy of Sophocles!
Whew! I was afraid I’d be arrested and sent to jail and forced to register as a serial trimeter offender for violating someone or other’s law, or someone’s bridge.
ουκ οιδεν ουδεις ασφαλως ει μη θεος
[θεοισι γαρ ταδ’ εμφανη, βροτοισι δ᾽ου.]
Can I end the verse like this with ου, where it’s emphatic and not prepositive?
It’s in brackets because it’s the sort of thing a banalizing interpolator would add. But it is a trimeter, I think.
And someone (thanks, Joel) has fixed the trimester problem!