Re: hEAUTOIS

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Mon, 3 Feb 1997 16:18:09 -0600

At 2:56 PM -0600 2/3/97, James H. Vellenga wrote:
>> From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu>
>>
>> At 10:17 AM -0600 2/3/97, Eric Vaughan wrote:
>> >Hello,
>> >[original query omitted for brevity]
>>
>> I don't think that there is an iota of difference between the meaning and
>> usage of ALLHLOU (a compounded form of ALLOS ALLOU,KTL.--the distributive
>> of "one vis-=3DE0-vis another") in all its forms and the plural of=
hEAUTOU in
>> all its forms; they are variant ways of expressing reciprocity. I was goi=
ng
>> to suggest that the forms of hEAUTOU are later--Hellenistic--equivalents
>> for ALLHLOU to express reciprocity of agents to each other, but I find th=
at
>> Sophocles already in the 5th and Plato in the 4th are using forms of
>> hEAUTOU as equivalent to forms of ALLHLOU.
>>
>Carl, let me make sure I understand this by turning the question
>around. Suppose Paul (or whoever) wanted to tell his users to
>"speak to yourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" --
>meaning to use these songs as a form of self encouragement. Would
>he have used hEAUTOU or would he have used some other form? (I
>am assuming here that the Greek is used in the plural when giving
>a command to multiple people whether you are prescribing individual
>actions or group actions.)

(1) Since it is a distributive form, the command would be plural but
understood as put to each to act thus towards another or others.

(2) (a) I think that the cleanest and classical way would be: LEGETE PROS
ALLHLOUS (or ALLHLOIS--or use LALEITE, the NT Koine verb, with no
difference in sense);(b) I think next best would be: LEGETE PROS hUMAS
AUTOUS (or hUMIN AUTOIS), but I'm doubtful this would have been used in the
Hellenistic era; (c) the third alternative would be: LEGETE hEAUTOIS. While
I'm inclined to find this third alternative sort of abhorrent because it
uses what was originally a third-person reflexive pronoun in the second
person (the Delphic Apollo says GNWQI SEAUTON; it's hard to imagine him
saying GNWQI hEAUTON!), it appears that the 3rd person reflexive pronoun
had already come into use as early as the 5th century B.C. as an
all-purpose reflexive pronoun for any number or person. Somewhat similar is
the extension of the use of what was originally a 3rd person accusative
dual pronoun, SFE, as an all-purpose accusative pronoun in poetry employed
for any number or person. The developmental history of Greek pronouns,
personal and otherwise, is a fascinating chapter in its own right.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/