κήρυκας ὑποστρωννύμενοι

Andrew Chapman
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Re: κήρυκας ὑποστρωννύμενοι

Post by Andrew Chapman »

Thanks very much, Carl. I certainly could swallow it, but it would also be nice to have some usage (apart from this case) to demonstrate the meaning of 'lie down on'.

It has been suggested to me that what Wallace [Exegetical Syntax 425ff] calls the permissive middle might be relevant here - something like 'they allowed sharp shells to be spread under them'. Polycarp himself is I think (I am only up to section 7 so far) depicted as neither volunteering nor resisting his martyrdom, especially after his vision which convinced him that it was the will of God for him to suffer, and perhaps one could almost go so far as to say that he cooperated in the process once it was underway. Might this be a way of looking at it?

Andrew
cwconrad
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Re: κήρυκας ὑποστρωννύμενοι

Post by cwconrad »

Andrew Chapman wrote:Thanks very much, Carl. I certainly could swallow it, but it would also be nice to have some usage (apart from this case) to demonstrate the meaning of 'lie down on'.

It has been suggested to me that what Wallace [Exegetical Syntax 425ff] calls the permissive middle might be relevant here - something like 'they allowed sharp shells to be spread under them'. Polycarp himself is I think (I am only up to section 7 so far) depicted as neither volunteering nor resisting his martyrdom, especially after his vision which convinced him that it was the will of God for him to suffer, and perhaps one could almost go so far as to say that he cooperated in the process once it was underway. Might this be a way of looking at it?
I must confess that I'm more interested in the way language transformation works than in the psychology of martyrdom. I'm awed by Acts 9:16 ἐγὼ γὰρ ὑποδείξω αὐτῷ ὅσα δεῖ αὐτὸν ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματός μου παθεῖν and Gen. 22:2 καὶ εἶπεν Λαβὲ τὸν υἱόν σου τὸν ἀγαπητόν, ὃν ἠγάπησας, τὸν Ισαακ, καὶ πορεύθητι εἰς τὴν γῆν τὴν ὑψηλὴν καὶ ἀνένεγκον αὐτὸν ἐκεῖ εἰς ὁλοκάρπωσιν ... and I can only shake my head whenever I try to read SK's Fear and Trembling.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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