Κυροῖ
might happen upon
Translated by William Hutton6 Mar 2008Vetting: high2 revisions
Translation
"And he asked what sort of business he had happened upon."1 The [verb] kurw= ['I happen upon'] has the perispomenon in normal usage and among the Attic [writers]. But in the optatives the Attic [writers] make it barytone, with lengthening of the 'u', saying ku/roi instead of kuroi/h . But it is also attested instead of the indicative kurei= in Sophocles.
Greek original · Adler’s text
Κυροῖ· κἀνήρετ' ἐν τῷ πράγματος κυροῖ ποτε. τὸ κυρῶ περισπωμένως ἡ συνήθεια καὶ Ἀττικοί. ἐν δὲ τοῖς εὐκτικοῖς βαρύνουσιν αὐτὸ Ἀττικοὶ μετὰ ἐκτάσεως τοῦ υ, κύροι λέγοντες, ἀντὶ τοῦ κυροίη. κεῖται δὲ καὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ κυρεῖ ὁριστικοῦ παρὰ Σοφοκλεῖ.
Betacode
*kuroi=: ka)nh/ret' e)n tw=| pra/gmatos kuroi= pote. to\ kurw= perispwme/nws h( sunh/qeia kai\ *)attikoi/. e)n de\ toi=s eu)ktikoi=s baru/nousin au)to\ *)attikoi\ meta\ e)kta/sews tou= u, ku/roi le/gontes, a)nti\ tou= kuroi/h. kei=tai de\ kai\ a)nti\ tou= kurei= o(ristikou= para\ *sofoklei=.
Notes (1)
- The headword is present optative active, third person singular, of
kure/w ('happen upon'). It is apparently drawn from the quotation given, although there it appears in reported speech in secondary sequence, which in English we do not usually translate with 'might' or 'could', etc. The author(s) of the commentary that follows the quotation, writing in a time in which the optative is becoming defunct, seem(s) not to have recognized this usage and take(s) the verb as indicative. - 1Sophocles, Ajax 314 (web address 1), with comments from the scholia. ↩
External resources
- Web address 1 perseus.tufts.edu
Neighbouring entries
Revision history2 revisions · last 25 Mar 2013
- tweaking — David Whitehead
- cosmetics — David Whitehead
- Translated — William Hutton