132/9: Who hit whom?

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hyptia
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132/9: Who hit whom?

Post by hyptia »

I'm having trouble with exercise 132, sentence 9, specifically:

οὐκ ἄξιον ἦν τῷ ὁπλίτῃ παίειν τὸν Περσικὸν τοξότην.

White's book was not the first Greek textbook I began studying, so admittedly my thinking may be influenced by outside sources here, but I am unsure of who hit whom. In infinitive construction, when the subject of the main clause is not the same as the subject of the subordinate clause, then the latter is placed into the accusative. Or is this a dative of agent with the direct object in the accusative as it normally is? (And does word order have anything to do with it - I know it does in English but in Greek I've seen sentences with the subject placed last so I'm unsure on that.)

Did the Persian archer strike the hoplite or vice versa? :?

Bert
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Re: 132/9: Who hit whom?

Post by Bert »

hyptia wrote: Or is this a dative of agent with the direct object in the accusative as it normally is? (And does word order have anything to do with it - I know it does in English but in Greek I've seen sentences with the subject placed last so I'm unsure on that.)

Did the Persian archer strike the hoplite or vice versa? :?
I think that the dative is because of ἄξιος. If you look in Middle Liddell you'll see that it often comes with the dative of person.
As far as word order goes, if there are two accusatives the first one is usually the accusative of reference (i.e. the subject of the infinitive) and the second one the object.
So...the hoplite hit the Persian bowman. (But is was not right for him to do so :) )

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klewlis
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Re: 132/9: Who hit whom?

Post by klewlis »

Bert wrote:So...the hoplite hit the Persian bowman. (But is was not right for him to do so :) )
That's how I read it too.
First say to yourself what you would be; then do what you need to do. ~Epictetus

hyptia
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Post by hyptia »

OK that's the direction I was leaning - IOW, to take the dative with ἄξιον.

Thanks! :)

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