[B-Greek] ...QEN

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Nov 26 16:12:31 EST 2003


At 12:47 PM -0800 11/26/03, Steve Raine wrote:
>Hello--
>
>Probably too simplistic, but...

If it's really a Greek question, it's worth posting here!

>does  "...QEN"
>
>in ANWQEN,  ENTEUQEN,  EXWQEN,  ESWQEN
>
>imply "from"?

Yes. -QEN is a very old "ablatival" ending meaning "away from"; see Smyth §342.

It's even used with stems of some nouns: OIKOQEN "from home", AQHNHQEN
"from Athens", etc.

>Not sure what to do with EMPROSQEN.

It's "from in front" = "in front of"; Greek may at times express a
perspective on relative spatial location that seems strange to
English-speakers: we English-speakers tend (I think) to think of these
spatial relational terms generally as "in the direction of" or "toward" a
point in space or thing; Greek,on the other hand, often seems to conceive
of such indicators as marking a point nearer or farther AWAY from its
spatial referent, so that EMPROSQEN means "frontward from" and is normally
completed with a genitive case that is by origin ablatival in nature and so
underscoring the notion of "away from."

Some of the older Homeric forms of pronouns have "ablatival genitive"
endings in -QEN: EMEQEN (= EMOU), SEQEN (= SOU).
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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