JWW paragraph 686

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Charlie Parker
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JWW paragraph 686

Post by Charlie Parker »

I would welcome some help with a few sentences here:
7. παρῆν δὲ καὶ Λακεδαιμόνιός τις ἐπὶ τῶν νεῶν, μετάπεμπτος ὑπὸ Κύρου. My attempt is "And there was also on hand a certain Lacedaemonian on the ships, to be sent for by Cyrus." I take the preposition to express place "on the ships." Perhaps, on one of the ships because he cannot literally be standing astride a number of them. Does the verbal adjective express necessity? That he must be sent for? Perhaps not. I think there is a difference in sense between verbal adjectives ending in τοϛ and those in τεοϛ, the former being in some cases the equivalent of a perfect passive particle. So, here perhaps the translation should be "sent for by Cyrus."
9. ἡμῖν δὲ πάντα ποιητέα ὡς μήποτ’ ἐπὶ τοῖς βαρβάροις γενώμεθα. My suggestion: "We should do everything necessary so as not to happen upon the Barbarians." I think one of my probles with these exercises is that there is no broader context to help determine meaning.

Aetos
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Re: JWW paragraph 686

Post by Aetos »

Charlie Parker wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 1:35 pm I think there is a difference in sense between verbal adjectives ending in τοϛ and those in τεοϛ, the former being in some cases the equivalent of a perfect passive particle. So, here perhaps the translation should be "sent for by Cyrus."
I think this is exactly how he's using it. See Smyth 425c.
Charlie Parker wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 1:35 pm
9. ἡμῖν δὲ πάντα ποιητέα ὡς μήποτ’ ἐπὶ τοῖς βαρβάροις γενώμεθα. My suggestion: "We should do everything necessary so as not to happen upon the Barbarians." I think one of my problems with these exercises is that there is no broader context to help determine meaning.
I would go with "we must do everything (we can) so that we never fall into the power of the foreigners". Xenophon uses γίγνομαι with ἐπί + τινι to express "fall into someone's power" in several places in the Anabasis.

Charlie Parker
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Re: JWW paragraph 686

Post by Charlie Parker »

Thank you very much, Aetos. I remember seeing that use of ἐπί in the lexicon. I should have thought of that possibility.

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