[B-Greek] Sophocles' Ajax (was "Voice matters again")
Elizabeth Kline
kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Thu Mar 26 16:57:31 EDT 2009
On Mar 26, 2009, at 12:41 PM, Carl Conrad wrote:
> But Sophocles is a poet, and no mean one at that. I hardly think
> that this passage offers significant evidence regarding any sort of
> standard practice of voice usage or modes of indicating agent. And I
> get the impression that it's the Sophoclean passage rather than
> voice that you really want to talk about here. And as I begin, I
> note that you've added a thought that perhaps BASIS is the subject
> of EKFEREI (yes, and I'd say with a SH implicitly attached to it:
> "your pacing (= TO PROBHNAI) brings you nicely forth. just like some
> keen-scented (pacing) of a Spartan hound. The context is Athena's
> observation of Odysseus sniffing out the tracks (of Ajax) and seeing
> that they lead to his tent.
>
> καὶ νῦν ἐπὶ σκηναῖς σε ναυτικαῖς
> ὁρῶ
> Αἴαντος, ἔνθα τάξιν ἐσχάτην ἔχει,
> 5 πάλαι κυνηγετοῦντα καὶ μετρούμενον
> ἴχνη τὰ κείνου νεοχάραχθ᾽, ὅπως
> ἴδῃς
> εἴτ᾽ ἔνδον εἴτ᾽ οὐκ ἔνδον. εὖ δέ
> ς᾽ ἐκφέρει
> κυνὸς Λακαίνης ὥς τις εὔρινος
> βάσις.
> [KAI NUN EPI SKHNAIS SE NAUTIKAIS hORW
> AIANOS, ENQA TAXIN ESCATHN ECEI,
> PALAI KUNHGETOUNTA KAI METROUMENON
> ICNH TA KEINOU NEOCARACQ', hOPWS IDHiS
> EIT' ENDON EIT' OUK ENDON. EU DE S' EKFEREI
> KUNOS LAKAINHS hWS TIS EURINOS BASIS.]
>
> I don't think we have any "demotion of the subject" here. Athena has
> been watching the hunting "coursing" of Odysseus, and she makes that
> the subject of the sentence calling attention to the hunt's
> successful "outcome" (EKFEREI).
Thank you Carl, I had difficult time sorting out the syntax here. When
I sent the first post, I actually did think the subject of EKFEREI was
not expressed and the thus the agent was demoted, which I thought was
curious in light of the discussion of voice and agency, the idea of a
demoted agent with an active verb. G.Cooper (2.57.2.0.H p.2630) makes
BASIS the head noun of the genitive string "= BASIS EURINOU KUNOS
LAKAINHS". If that is the case then I don't see how we could make
BASIS the subject of EKFEREI, if we did read it that way, where would
we locate (syntactically) hWS? What is being compared to what with
hWS? I read hWS as introducing BASIS with genitive string in
comparison to the subjectless clause with EKFEREI. I note that John
Tipton just avoids the whole problem by completely recasting the idea
"You bloodhound -- snout to the ground."
Anyway, if there is an expressed agent here, then this is all off
topic. I will desist.
Thanks again,
Elizabeth Kline
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