I am working on Introduction to Attic Greek by Dr. Mastronarde and am having a little translation trouble with the first sentence of the passage. The passage reads,
I translated it, "In that war other and wondrous [things?] he became in the battle and Alcaeus (Ἀλκαῖος) the maker (poet?) himself escaped, but left the shield, and the Athenians took it and dedicated [it] to the gods.”
Am I translating ἄλλα τε δεινὰ correctly? The first sentence is pretty rough.
No, sorry. First, it’s fine to translate the conjunction τε with “and” (although “both” here would be better), but it links the word it leans on to what precedes it, not to what follows it, as you interpreted it. Second, the subject of ἐγένετο is ἄλλα τε δεινὰ. Alcaeus was a poet.
I am not sure if I understand what you wrote in the first part of the first sentence. Are you saying I would translate it,
""In that war both other, wondrous [things?] he became in the battle, and Alcaeus (Ἀλκαῖος) the poet himself escaped, but left the shield, and the Athenians took it and dedicated [it] to the gods.”
“b. τε, and, an enclitic postpositive conjunction joining clauses, phrases, or single words. (Thus it is an alternative to καί in most of its uses.) A postpositive is a word that cannot be placed first in its clause or phrase but normally follows the first word of its clause or phrase. Thus τε follows the word it is coordinating, and the sequence X τε is usually and X, and it joins X to something preceding X. τε may be used alone or in combination with καί, and in a series there may be a τε following the first word, equivalent to the use of καί as both. (τε is elided to τ’ before a vowel with a smooth breathing or to θ’ before a vowel with a rough breathing.)”
δεινός, -ή, -όν (16) is a tricky word it has meanings which might seem to be opposing , terrible; wondrous; clever, skillful. But if you think about the ways in which terrible can be used in English in the sense of “awful” you will see that its not quite as odd as it first seems. Wondrous isn’t quite right here.
Bedwere’s post will help you to correct your main mistake.
“in that war” precedes other, so I would translate it, "In that war both other, terrible wondrous [things?] he became in the battle and Alcaeus (Ἀλκαῖος) the maker (poet?) himself escaped, but left the shield, and the Athenians took it and dedicated [it] to the gods.”
I am not sure how “other” connects with “in that war.”
What is the subject of γίγνομαι? Why do you translate it with he? Did you carefully read the question I asked about a neuter plural and a singular verb?
You have to think to yourself if the English translation you have written doesn’t make sense then you have misunderstood the syntax. Work out the grammar and stop trying to force the Greek into what you the think the sentence means in English.
Have another go. You have enough information in the posts to help you get over the line.
I’m very much a learner myself, but I assume that based on “in that war” the sentence belongs in the context of a previous sentence where the war and one or more terrible things are mentioned.
That very well could be. For quite a while, I was thinking Alcaeus (Ἀλκαῖος) was the subject, since the whole passage was about him. Plus I forget sometimes that a plural neuter subject can take a singular verb.
Alas no. It’s a free standing sentence and doesn’t depend on anything that came before.
“Ἀλκαῖος” is the subject of the verb ἐξέφυγε. “ἄλλα τε δεινὰ” the subject of ἐγένετο. If you tried to make Ἀλκαῖος the subject of ἐγένετο that would leave ἄλλα τε δεινὰ without any verb. More importantly word order should tell you what subject belongs with what verb.
Amongst the other things that have been forgotten is the meaning of “τὴν δ’ ἀσπίδα”. The article here is not “the” it is a possessive.
“b. The Greek article, in the context of a sentence, often has the force of an English possessive adjective (my, our, your, his, her, its, their). The proper English translation is obvious from the context. (Normally the subject of the sentence is the possessor.)
ὁ στρατιώτης τὸν ἵππον ἄγει. The soldier is leading his horse.” p 38
Mastronarde packs a lot of things into his exercises!
"In that war both other wondrous things came into being in the battle, and Alcaeus (Ἀλκαῖος) the poet himself escaped, but left his shield, and the Athenians took it and dedicated it to the gods.”