[B-Greek] GRONT Score for Dionysius of Halicarnassus (was the Gront Scale)

Donald Cobb docobb at orange.fr
Mon Nov 15 03:01:07 EST 2010


Mark,

Of course you realise it's absolutely impossible to line up ones 
subjective impression of one author with someone else's subjective 
impressions of other authors. But, since you asked, here's a shot:

DIONISIOS OF HALICARNASSOS       Close to NT   6     Easy 5    Good  8 
TOTAL 19   

I haven't read too much from Josephus, but from what I have, I would 
venture to say that Dionisios's greek, in terms of difficulty, is 
probably along the same lines, but much more pleasurable to read. 
Mutatis Mutandis, the level of difficulty is fairly close to Polybius.

I personally find that his fluid style draws the reader into material 
that wouldn't initially attract me, at any rate, as much as, say, 
Epictetus. What's especially interesting for this forum is that 1) he's 
almost contemporary to the NT (the second book of his "History" can be 
dated to 7 BCE) and 2) he's often cited as a reference in BDAG (over 575 
times).

He does affect an attic style, but if you're looking to build up what 
can be considered as NT-era koinè vocabulary and expressions, or wanting 
to see an example of koinè period literary Greek, he's a good author to 
read.

The edition I'm reading him in says this about Dionisios's style (sorry 
for the French): "D'un côté [il y a chez Denys], un souci de purisme 
grammatical qui s'affirme en particulier dans l'usage plus varié et plus 
fréquent de l'optatif par comparaison avec Polybe, Diodore et Strabon, 
ainsi que dans le large emploi des cas d'attraction du pronom relatif ; 
de l'autre, la permanence de traits typiques de la langue hellenistique, 
dans l'emploi des temps et des modes, et des particules de liaison, dans 
la syntaxe de πρίν [PRIN], dans la construction des prépositions. Le 
vocabulaire surtout porte la double marque de la langue hellénistique : 
d'une part, il admet des termes de la langue courante, d'autre part, il 
recherche des mots composés ou dérivés et fait des emprunts à la langue 
poétique"

Valérie Fromentin in Denys d'Halicarnasse, *Antiquités romaines. 
Introduction générale*, t 1, Paris, Editions Belles Lettres, 2006, xlvi 
et f.

Donald Cobb
Aix-en-Provence, France



Mark Lightman a écrit :
> Hi, Donald,
>
> I read on another forum
>
>
> http://schole.ning.com/profiles/comment/list?attachedToType=User&attachedTo=26einx98pfzto&commentId=3482468%3AComment%3A2415&xg_source=activity
>
>  
> that you are reading Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
>
> Please provide us with a GRONT score for same.
>
> Thank you. 
>
>  Mark L
> Φωσφορος 
>
>
> FWSFOROS MARKOS
>
>
>
>   



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