[B-Greek] SIKELOS OMFAKIZETAI What kind of middle?
Stephen Carlson
stemmatic at gmail.com
Sat Jan 1 13:08:34 EST 2011
On Sat, Jan 1, 2011 at 11:37 AM, Mark Lightman <lightmanmark at yahoo.com> wrote:
> LSJ defines ὀμφακίζω (OMFAKIZW) "to be unripe, properly of grapes" and refers to
> Isaiah 18:5 where the active is found. Then it goes on to say "in Mid.,
> Σικελὸς ὀμφακίζεται the Sicilian steals sour grapes, proverb. of one who will
> steal anything worthless, Epich. 163 Ahr., cf. Aristaen. 2.7 Erasm. Adag. p.
> 240."
>
> I don't get how the middle is working here. If the active means to produce sour
> grapes, how does the middle come to mean steal sour grapes? I understand that
> this is a free translation, but what is going on here? Is this some special
> kind of a middle that I am unfamiliar with? Are there other examples?
According to TLG, this verb occurs in the MP only here in this
proverb, which is cited multiple times and explained as stealing
something worthless (whence the explanation in LSJ).
I'd view it as a middle: "the Sicilian sours," presumably because he
stole sour grapes and ate them, leaving a sour taste in his mouth.
The Sicilian is experiencing the sourness of the grapes, so I'd
consider this a middle of perception (per Allan's classification) like
γεύομαι GEUOMAI ("I taste"). The LSJ's proposed gloss of "steals
sours grapes" comes from the explanation of the proverb, rather than
anything inherent in the verb or its morphology.
Stephen
--
Stephen C. Carlson
Graduate Program in Religion
Duke University
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