Κνώδοντος
of a spear's tooth, of a sword
Translated by Nick Nicholas21 Dec 2008Vetting: high4 revisions
Translation
Greek original · Adler’s text
Κνώδοντος· τῆς ἀκμῆς τοῦ ξίφους, τῆς ὀξείας εἰς τὸ καίνειν. ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ μέρους τὸ ξίφος δηλοῖ. πῶς ἀποσπάσω πικροῦ τοῦδε κνώδοντος, ὦ τάλας, ὑφ' οὗ φονέως ἄρ' ἐξέπνευσας;
Betacode
*knw/dontos: th=s a)kmh=s tou= ci/fous, th=s o)cei/as ei)s to\ kai/nein. a)po\ de\ tou= me/rous to\ ci/fos dhloi=. pw=s a)pospa/sw pikrou= tou=de knw/dontos, w)= ta/las, u(f' ou(= fone/ws a)/r' e)ce/pneusas;
Notes (3)
- An approximation of Sophocles, Ajax 1024-1026 (from which the present headword, in the genitive case, is extracted: see web address 1), with scholion.
- 1Literally,
knw/dontes are the teeth of a hunting spear, which were generalised to refer to swords. The ending iso)/dwn "tooth"; LSJ s.v.knw/dwn explains the initialkn- by referring to Lithuanian kándu "bite". The Sophoclean scholion (to line 1025) continues "sharp in slaying like a tooth; for it is being compared to sharp teeth". ↩ - 2The scholiast and the Suda realise that the word is related to "tooth", which is why the Suda correctly posits synecdoche ("from the part"): naming the whole (sword) from a part (point of sword). The scholiast, more literally, has "from the point" (i.e. the synecdoche is from the point of the sword to the whole sword). ↩
- 3The original has "how will I draw you[r corpse] off from this bitter gleaming sword[point]"? ↩
External resources
- Web address 1 perseus.tufts.edu
Neighbouring entries
Revision history4 revisions · last 30 Sep 2019
- tweaked translation and note, added a link — Catharine Roth
- coding — Catharine Roth
- Revised — David Whitehead
- more keywords; tweaks and cosmetics — David Whitehead
- Translated — Nick Nicholas