[B-Greek] DOKEIS MOI +inf
Elizabeth Kline
kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Sat Feb 20 16:10:56 EST 2010
On Feb 20, 2010, at 12:42 PM, Carl Conrad wrote:
> On Feb 20, 2010, at 3:31 PM, Elizabeth Kline wrote:
>> Homer:
>>
>> δοκέεις δέ μοι οὐκ ἀπινύσσειν Od.5.342
>> DOKEEIS DE MOI OUK APINUSSEIN Od.5.342
>>
>> Sophocles
>> Ajax
>> 594 {ΑΙ.} Μῶρά μοι δοκεῖς φρονεῖν,
>> 595 εἰ τοὐμὸν ἦθος ἄρτι παιδεύειν νοεῖς.
>>
>> O.T.
>> 401 Κλαίων δοκεῖς μοι καὶ σὺ χὠ συνθεὶς τάδε
>> ἁγηλατήσειν· εἰ δὲ μὴ 'δόκεις γέρων
>> εἶναι, παθὼν ἔγνως ἂν οἷά περ φρονεῖς.
>>
>> The second person singular DOKEIS with MOI w/ :or: w/o infinitive doesn't seem to be a New Testament idiom, and for that reason I spent some time pondering it yesterday. It is common in Greek prior to Koine.
>
> It's not clear what you're trying to get at; I don't know how wide-ranging your search was, but it may be worth noting that all the examples you've cited are in verse; what's common in verse is often rare in prose.
Homer:
δοκέεις δέ μοι οὐκ ἀπινύσσειν Od.5.342
DOKEEIS DE MOI OUK APINUSSEIN Od.5.342
Sophocles
Ajax
594 {ΑΙ.} Μῶρά μοι δοκεῖς φρονεῖν,
595 εἰ τοὐμὸν ἦθος ἄρτι παιδεύειν νοεῖς.
594 {AI.} MWRA MOI DOKEIS FRONEIN,
595 EI TOU)MON HQOS ARTI PAIDEUEIN NOEIS
O.T.
401 Κλαίων δοκεῖς μοι καὶ σὺ χὠ συνθεὶς τάδε
ἁγηλατήσειν· εἰ δὲ μὴ 'δόκεις γέρων
εἶναι, παθὼν ἔγνως ἂν οἷά περ φρονεῖς.
401 KLAIWN DOKEIS MOI KAI SU CW) SUNQEIS TADE
hAGHLATHSEIN· EI DE MH 'DOKEIS GERWN
EINAI, PAQWN EGNWS AN hOIA PER FRONEIS.
Carl,
It is hard to explain since I not totally sure what I am getting at :-)
DOKEW can be used in the third person singular + inf as an impersonal "it seems" or with MOI "it seems to me". The second person argument seems to be similar to the impersonal in one respect, i.e., the subject of the verb isn't the one doing the perception. In other words, the one performing the cognition is encoded as a dative MOI, "you seem to me" +inf or "I think that you are" +inf. I am just speculating here, the english glosses give me cold chills since I think glossing these things actually obscures the Greek issues.
The examples I found in the NT of DOKEW in the second person did't fit this pattern. The second person was the one performing the cognition.
I found something less than 200 examples of DOKEIS MOI or MOI DOKEIS in both verse and prose. I didn't go for the prose since it was in documents I am not familiar with, Plato, etc.
Elizabeth Kline
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