ANWQEN and PALIN
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Jul 11 20:11:41 EDT 1999
At 9:25 AM +1200 7/12/99, N & RJ Hanscamp wrote:
>Is there any difference between ANWTHEN and PALIN in the sense of *again*?
>I know that ANWQEN can also be an adv of place i.e. from above / on high.
>It can also have a chronological sense of *from beginning*.
This has been discussed before, but upon checking the archives, it doesn't
seem to me that it's been discussed very definitively. Of course, I don't
expect the matter to be resolved to everyone's satisfaction by this either,
but I would like to consider closely what LSJ say about the two words:
PALIN, like Latin RURSUS = REVERSUS has as its original most fundamental
sense, "back" or "backwards"--"in reverse." When used of time, it seems
only gradually to assume the sense "over again," at first coupled with AU
or AUQIS in the sense of "back a second time"
LSJ: II. of Time, again, once more, rare in Hom., Hom. Il. 2.276, cf. Soph.
OT 1166, Xen. Mem. 1.6.11, etc.: freq. coupled with au, authis (q.v.); p.
ex archês Aristoph. Peace 997, etc.; p. kai p. Str.17.1.3, Plu.2.565d,
Ael.VH1.4; enchei kai p. eipe, p. p. "Hêliodôras" AP5.135(Mel.): both
senses (I and II) are appropriate in Hom. Od. 16.456, Plat. Prot. 322b, etc.
ANWQEN as a temporal adverb is close in sense to the Italian musical
notation "da capo": "again from the start"
LSJ: 3. over again, anew, afresh, philian a. poieitai J.AJ1.18.3,
Artem.1.14, cf. Ev.Jo.3.3; palin a. Ep.Gal.4.9, cf. Harp. s.v. anadikoi
kriseis; ktistês anôthe genomenos IG7.2712.58.
I think it significant that the examples of ANWQEN in the temporal sense
here cited are all Hellenistic; interesting too, that in Gal 4:9 Paul asks
the Galatians, PWS EPISTREFETE PALIN EPI TA ASQENH KAI PTWCA STOICEIA hOIS
PALIN ANWQEN DOULEUEIN QELETE? Here I take it that the first PALIN with EPI
is "right back to ..." while PALIN coupled with ANWQEN in the second half
is very forceful; I'd convey this loosely and colloquially something like:
"you want to be slaves to them--going right back where you started from!"
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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