From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Oct 24 2000 - 19:57:50 EDT
At 5:37 PM -0400 10/24/00, Larsendon@aol.com wrote:
>Greetings. I am puzzled by the adjective PONTOBROCOUS in 3 Macc. 6:4.
>
>SU FARAW PLHQUNONTA hARMASIN, TON PRIN AIGUPTOU TAUTHS DUNASTHN, EPARQENTA
>ANOMWi QRASEI KAI GLWSSHi MEGALORRHMONI, SUN THi hUPERHFANWi STRATIAi
>PONTOBROCOUS APWLESAS...
>
>"You utterly destroyed Pharaoh, multiplying with chariots - formerly the
>ruler of this Egypt - having been lifted up by means of wicked insolence and
>a boasting tongue, with [his] arrogant army in the drowning seas."
>
>In my translation, I make two assumptions. First, that PONTOBROCOUS (an
>adjective of 2 terminations) is feminine accusative plural, with QALASSAS as
>the implied noun - much like XHRA standing alone often implies the noun GH.
I think the first of those assumptions is certainly true: (a) compound
adjectives are normally 2-termination adjectives; the second I think is
unnecessary, because ...
>But then, how to explain the accusative case becomes the next question, since
>there is no antecedent in the sentence. So my second assumption:
>PONTOBROCOUS is an Accusative of Respect, limiting the verb APWLESAS.
FARAW TON ... DUNASTHN, EPARQENTA ... SUN THi STRATIAi implicitly supplies
a plural object to APWLESAS, and PONTOBROCOUS can then be acc. pl. masc. in
a predicative sense: "You destroyed (them) drowned in the sea."
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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