dickey's prose comp: chapter eight

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Tugodum
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dickey's prose comp: chapter eight

Post by Tugodum »

The sentence to translate into English is: ἐπορεύετο σὺν ᾗ εἶχε δυνάμει.
I translated: "He was traveling with the woman whom he had (obtained) by force."
This turned out to be not at all what Dickey meant.Yet I'm wondering whether this sentence can have, also, the meaning I saw in it; and if not, why. Thanks in advance for your help.

Hylander
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Re: dickey's prose comp: chapter eight

Post by Hylander »

δυνάμει means "power". "Force" would be βιαι (dative, with adscript).

Your translation is very unnatural. One would expect some noun with ᾗ, e.g., γυναικι, and in its absence, ᾗ goes naturally with δυνάμει. In any event, two datives would be confusing.

εἶχε, imperfect, in your version would mean "he was holding", not "he had obtained".
Bill Walderman

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jeidsath
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Re: dickey's prose comp: chapter eight

Post by jeidsath »

The exercise is on pg. 93. Dickey says to "translate the following into English, then rewrite them in Greek with "normal" (unattracted, antecedents expressed) relative clauses. Her solution in the back is:

He marched with the force that he had. ἐπορεύετο σὺν τῇ δυνάμει ἣν εἶχεν.
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

Tugodum
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Re: dickey's prose comp: chapter eight

Post by Tugodum »

Thanks a lot! Apparently I was confused about the force of δύναμις here. LSJ gives a variety of meanings.

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