From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Jul 19 2000 - 17:47:46 EDT
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--></style><title>Re: [b-greek] Participle/Finite Verb constituent
orde</title></head><body>
<div>At 2:04 PM -0700 7/19/00, clayton stirling bartholomew
wrote:</div>
<div>>The old question about Participle/Finite Verb
constituent order came up<br>
>again yesterday in a private exchange.<br>
><br>
>Anyway, I was just now taking a look at Homer's Iliad book 1 line
311 and<br>
>noted:<br>
><br>
>hEISEN AGWN<br>
><br>
>I was wondering if someone would like to explain the connection
between word<br>
>order and temporal relationships here. It seems that AGWN
could be either<br>
>prior to hEISEN, or it could be a general idea which takes
into view the<br>
>whole event or AGWN may be an action which transpires after
hEISEN.<br>
><br>
>The fact that AGWN is not an aorist puts it outside the normal
discussions<br>
>of this matter, which usually focus on the aorist participle and
the finite</div>
<div>>verb.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Text:</div>
<div>ATREIDHS D' ARA NHA QOHN hALADE
PROERUSSEN<x-tab> </x-tab>1.308</div>
<div>ES D' ERETAS EKRINEN EEIKOSIN, ES D' hEKATOMBHN 1.309</div>
<div>BHSE QEWi, ANA DE CRUSHIDA KALLIPARHiON<x-tab>
</x-tab>1.310</div>
<div>hEISEN AGWN, EN D' ARCOS EBH POLUMHTIS ODUSSEUS.1.311</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font color="#007700">What we have here is a sequence of
actions, four by Agamemnon (ATREIDHS)--bringing a ship off of the
shore into the water (PROERUSSEN), putting in the rowers
(ES-EKRINEN), boarding the 100 oxen for the hecatomb to Apollo(BHSE),
settling Chryseis on board and the final one--boarding the ship
himself as a captain--by Odysseus.</font></div>
<div><font color="#007700"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#007700">It seems to me that the participle AGWN
here, following as it does the verb hEISEN, is circumstantial and in
this instance explains HOW Agamemnon got Chryseis onto the ship--by
leading her. Yes, the verb is aorist; this is the salient fact of
this little expedition, his prize and mistress Chryseis he is sending
back to her father, the priest of Apollo, along with 100 oxen to be
offered to Apollo as appeasement. What does it mean that the
participle AGWN is present tense? Probably that he didn't simply give
orders as he did to the others involved in the dispatch of this
little embassy; she'd been his mistress and prize for some time and
she'd been the occasion of the bitter quarrel with Achilles, so he
took her by the hand and led her, step by step, into the ship and sat
her down in it. I think the present participle with the aorist verb
is a nice touch: in this one instance, at least, Agamemnon behaves
like a gentleman rather than like a swaggering WANAX
ANDRWN.</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>>I have no theory to promote. I just saw this and was
thinking that it might<br>
>generate some discussion. I generally look for examples which put
strain on<br>
>the currently popular ways of thinking about things. I am not
sure this<br>
>example does that, but someone who has read Homer might be able
to clarify</div>
<div>>this for all of us.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>That's an attempt, at any rate.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>-- <br>
<br>
Carl W. Conrad<br>
Department of Classics, Washington University<br>
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243<br>
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com<br>
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/>
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