Ἀρκτεῦσαι
to be a bear
Translated by David Whitehead24 Nov 2000Vetting: high5 revisions
Translation
Lysias used [the verb] "to be a bear" of consecrating virgins, before marriage, to Artemis.1 For the virgins are called "being bears", as Euripides and Aristophanes show.2
Greek original · Adler’s text
Ἀρκτεῦσαι· Λυσίας τὸ καθιερωθῆναι πρὸ γάμων τὰς παρθένους τῇ Ἀρτέμιδι ἀρκτεύειν ἔλεγε. καὶ γὰρ αἱ ἀρκτευόμεναι παρθένοι καλοῦνται, ὡς Εὐριπίδης καὶ Ἀριστοφάνης δηλοῖ.
Betacode
*)arkteu=sai: *lusi/as to\ kaqierwqh=nai pro\ ga/mwn ta\s parqe/nous th=| *)arte/midi a)rkteu/ein e)/lege. kai\ ga\r ai( a)rkteuo/menai parqe/noi kalou=ntai, w(s *eu)ripi/dhs kai\ *)aristofa/nhs dhloi=.
Notes (2)
- Abridged from Harpokration s.v. See also, more fully, alpha 3958.
The verb arkteuein -- here in the aorist active infinitive -- might have been expected to be transitive, "to make (someone into) a bear"; nevertheless, lexicographers and scholiasts seem confident that the active voice as well as the middle - also used here - was intransitive. - 1Lysias fr. 249 Sauppe, now 303 Carey OCT (from the lost speech On behalf of Phrynichus' daughter). ↩
- 2Euripides fr.767 Nauck; Aristophanes, Lysistrata 645 and fr. 370 Kock (386 Kassel-Austin). ↩
References
OCD(4) pp.248-9, s.v. Brauron
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Revision history5 revisions · last 31 Aug 2015
- Revised — David Whitehead
- Revised — David Whitehead
- augmented notes and keywords; tweaks and cosmetics — David Whitehead
- modified headword and translation, after discussion with CR; added notes and keywords — David Whitehead
- modified translation — Catharine Roth
- Translated — David Whitehead