Anacreon round-up

LSJ s.v. νεᾶνις (cf. fr.13.3) cites 'CIG7629 (vase)', which reads: νῆνι νῆνι καλή.
See Smyth sect. 263, 1.

The following image of the black figures is from Die Gräber der Hellenen by Otto Magnus von Stackelberg (1837), Tab. XIII, 3.

Anacreon also has κοῦραι (fr. 45) and κοῦρα (fr. 73). Herodotus, it is said, once has the 'theo'nym Κόρη in 8.65.4 (in the OCT of Hude). The Ionic form Κούρη is a variant reading and was printed in the editions of J.E. Powell and A.M. Bowie and in the new OCT of N.G. Wilson. The OCT, like the Bude, keeps δύο κόρας and αἱ κόραι in 4.33.3 and 34.1 respectively, in which no variant readings are reported.

Published notes: E. Schywzer on πελεκύς (68.2 dat.sg.); 

Lobel on A.Supp.

H. Lloyd-Jones' review of M.L. West Aeschyli Tragoediae in Gnomon 65.1 (1993) 1-11 contains the following anecdote, at p. 5:

"Lobel once said to me <Supplices
would be to put down just what is in that Medicean manuscript without word divisions and enclose it all by two cruces>>; he was joking, but the joke was not a bad one; the editor can never take it for granted that what is in the manuscript is sufficient to enable him to arrive by conjecture at the truth."
Truly a locus desperatus.

Notes on inscriptions: Asianism in Commagene OGI 383

This long inscription of the Res-gestae type is now known as ISyr I 1. L.D. Reynolds and N.G. Wilson mention this text briefly in Scribes and Scholars and give some bibliography (OUP, 1991^3): 200-1 and 297.

A text with vocabulary can be found in Allen Wikgren (ed.), with the collaboration of Ernest Cadman Colwell and Ralph Marcus, Hellenistic Greek Texts (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947) 137-140.

The vocabularly (pp. 211-271) is for the whole volume (not a running vocabulary for this inscription); a glossary proper names (pp. 271-275).

There is a translation, commentary, and bibliography in F.W. Danker, Benefactor: an epigraphic study of a Graeco-Roman and New Testament semantic field (1982): 236-248 (no. 41).

Eduard Norden described its style as "bacchantic dithyrambic prose".

A search for Nemrud Dagh in LSJ returns more than one either for Nimrud Dagh or for OGI 383.

The British Museum has a statement about one of the reduced scale versions of one of the reliefs that constitutes this monument. It notes the damage that resulted from subsequent re-use. P.M. Fraser discussed this stone in relation to OGI 404 in ABSA 47 (1952) 96-101.

Some Septuagintal notes

Proverbs
Chapter 6 has an addition after verse eight about bees that came from Aristotle (of all people).

Daniel and its related additions
One group of witnesses (including P 967) has the chapters in the following order: 1-4, 7-8, 5-6, and 9-12.

This sequence is chronological (all of events of the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar, then of Belshazzar, then of the Persian kings). By contrast, the MT's order apparently separates the material by genre (third person narrative, then first person apocalyptic [reported in direct speech in chapter 7]) and by language Hebrew (1:1-2:4, cf. Συριστί), then Aramaic (2:4-7:28), then Hebrew (8-12).

The lifespan of a papyrus roll

A few weeks ago, I wanted to explore a passage in Galen about the lifespan of papyri, as three hundred years.

I recalled this being in L. Reynolds and N.G. Wilson, Scribes and Scholars (3rd edn., Oxford: 1990), but could not find the reference. The Galen passage - 18(2), 630 - is mentioned on page 34, which is not listed s.v. Galen in the Index.

I was pleased to find that Roger Pearse had posted a text and translation of this passage with some discussion and a full translation of the Preface of the Galenic work in question, a commentary on Hippocrates on the workshop of a doctor.

Some typos

(1) C.D. Buck, The Greek Dialects, University of Chicago Press. 1955: 79.
Page Header: 'PHONOLOFY' for 'PHONOLOGY', as it correctly appears otherwise throughout pages 17-85.

(2) LSJ s.v. στελεός cf. 'Antiph.121 (Rh.Mus.81.381)', in which Rh.Mus. 82.381 should be read. Incidentally, this indicates that material was still being collected in 1933 (see a post from long ago and the quotation below) and that the entry in the Periodicals list on p. xliii 'Rh.Mus. = Rheinisches Museum, Neue Folge, Frankfurt 1842-1920.' was incorrect even in 1925 when the Preface was first published (a later year could have been stated or the date range left open, as with the next item, Rivista di Filologia).

From the Postscript of 1940: 'The period of publication, 1925-40, was actually longer than the period of copy-writing, 1911-24, even although the earlier period was interrupted by the war, and in the later period there were two editors instead of one.'

(3) Xenophon, Hellenica IV 5.14 in the OCT of Marchant (reproduced in the TLG) and Loeb:
'οὖτοι μόνοι τῆς μόρας τῇ ἀληθεία ἐσώθησαν', in which the Teubner and the lemma in the commentary of G.E. Underhill on Marchant's OCT (p. 147) have τῇ ἀληθείᾳ, which makes sense.

(4) Isocrates V 4 in the Teubner of Mandilaras (reproduced in the TLG):
'ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀληθείαν τῶν πραγμάτων θαυμάζειν' (the acc.sg. accented thus here only, but as ἀλήθειαν, correctly, 24x in the same edition). Benseler and Blass give ἀλήθειαν, accented as is to be expected, in their Teubner editions.

(3) and (4) caught my eye because Aelius Herodianus (2.454) reports that ἀληθείᾱ was the form in Attic (Ἀττικῶς) but ἀλήθεια is Koine (κοινῶς). Cf. Ionic ἀληθείη, and ὑγίεια, Ionic ὑγιειή, and ὑγεῖα (e.g. Plu.Lycurg.8.4 and epigraphic instances).

The usual sorts of things

From tidying up some scraps of paper:
(1) a mistake in a Loeb: Aeschin.2.78 has ἀπολόψειν (*λόπτω/*λόψω/*λόφω) not the required ἀποκόψειν;

(2) a plural of a personal name: LSJ s.v. Πήγασος 'pl. Πήγασοι, as a sample of prodigies, Pl.Phdr.229d, cf. Cic.Pro Quinct.25.80, Plin. HN8.72, 10.136'; 

(3) an example of a counter-factual conditional sentence: Pl.Phd.107c-d εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἦν ὁ θάνατος τοῦ παντὸς ἀπαλλαγή, ἕρμαιον ἂν ἦν τοῖς κακοῖς ἀποθανοῦσι τοῦ τε σώματος ἅμ’ ἀπηλλάχθαι καὶ τῆς αὑτῶν κακίας μετὰ τῆς ψυχῆς· νῦν δ’ ἐπειδὴ ἀθάνατος φαίνεται οὖσα, οὐδεμία ἂνεἴη αὐτῇ ἄλλη ἀποφυγὴ κακῶν οὐδὲ σωτηρία πλὴν τοῦ ὡς βελτίστην τε καὶ φρονιμωτάτην γενέσθαι.

Xenophon, Memorabilia: Syntactic and other notes

2.6.31
Ἀλλ’, ὦ Κριτόβουλε, οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τῇ ἐμῇ ἐπιστήμῃ τὸ τὰς χεῖρας προσφέροντα ποιεῖν ὑπομένειν τοὺς καλούς. πέπεισμαι δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς Σκύλλης διὰ τοῦτο φεύγειν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ὅτι τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῖς προσέφερε· τὰς δέ γε Σειρῆνας, ὅτι τὰς χεῖρας οὐδενὶ προσέφερον, ἀλλὰ πᾶσι πόρρωθεν ἐπῇδον, πάντας φασὶν ὑπομένειν καὶ ἀκούοντας αὐτῶν κηλεῖσθαι.

2.7. 6 The only Attic demotic in Xenophon (as mentioned by a modern scholar on demes):
Εἶτ’ οὐκ οἶσθα ὅτι ἀφ’ ἑνὸς μὲν τούτων, ἀλφιτοποιίας, Ναυσικύδης οὐ μόνον ἑαυτόν τε καὶ τοὺς οἰκέτας τρέφει, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τούτοις καὶ ὗς πολλὰς καὶ βοῦς, καὶ περιποιεῖται τοσαῦτα ὥστε καὶ τῇ πόλει πολλάκις λειτουργεῖν, ἀπὸ δὲ ἀρτοποιίας Κύρηβος τήν τε οἰκίαν πᾶσαν διατρέφει καὶ ζῇ δαψιλῶς, Δημέας δ’ ὁ Κολλυτεὺς ἀπὸ χλαμυδουργίας, Μένων δ’ ἀπὸ χλανιδοποιίας, Μεγαρέων δ’οἱ πλεῖστοι ἀπὸ ἐξωμιδοποιίας διατρέφονται;

2.7.12
 Ἐκ τούτων δὲ ἐπορίσθη μὲν ἀφορμή, ἐωνήθη δὲ ἔρια·

καὶ ἐργαζόμεναι μὲν ἠρίστων, ἐργασάμεναι δὲ ἐδείπνουν,

ἱλαραὶ δὲ ἀντὶ σκυθρωπῶν ἦσαν· καὶ ἀντὶ ὑφορωμένων

ἑαυτοὺς ἡδέως ἀλλήλους ἑώρων, καὶ αἱ μὲν ὡς κηδεμόνα

ἐφίλουν, ὁ δὲ ὡς ὠφελίμους ἠγάπα. τέλος δὲ ἐλθὼν πρὸς

τὸν Σωκράτην χαίρων διηγεῖτο ταῦτά τε καὶ ὅτι αἰτιῶνται

αὐτὸν μόνον τῶν ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ ἀργὸν ἐσθίειν. 

 

3.11.14

Πῶς οὖν ἄν, ἔφη, ἐγὼ λιμὸν ἐμποιεῖν τῶν παρ’ ἐμοὶ δυναίμην; Εἰ νὴ Δί’, ἔφη, πρῶτον μὲν τοῖς κεκορεσμένοις μήτε προσφέροις μήτε ὑπομιμνῄσκοις, ἕως

ἂν τῆς πλησμονῆς παυσάμενοι πάλιν δέωνται, ἔπειτα τοὺς δεομένους ὑπομιμνῄσκοις ὡς κοσμιωτάτῃ τε ὁμιλίᾳ καὶ τῷ <μὴ> [cj. Cobet] φαίνεσθαι βουλομένη χαρίζεσθαι καὶ διαφεύγουσα, ἕως ἂν ὡς μάλιστα δεηθῶσι· τηνικαῦτα γὰρ πολὺ διαφέρει τὰ αὐτὰ δῶρα ἢ πρὶν ἐπιθυμῆσαι διδόναι.

 

Books overboard: the cargo of a ship-wreck near Thrace

ἐνταῦθα ηὑρίσκοντο πολλαὶ μὲν κλῖναι, πολλὰ δὲ κιβώτια, πολλαὶ δὲ βίβλοι

γεγραμμέναι, καὶ τἆλλα πολλὰ ὅσα ἐν ξυλίνοις τεύχεσι ναύκληροι ἄγουσιν. ἐντεῦθεν ταῦτα καταστρεψάμενοι ἀπῇσαν πάλιν.

"Here there were found great numbers of beds and boxes, quantities of written books, and an abundance of all the other articles that shipowners carry in wooden chests. After subduing the country in this neighbourhood they set out upon their return." (Transl.: Marchant)

Xenophon, Anabasis 7.5.14

Poem on Emendation

Anonymous poem about emendation (The University College London Union Magazine 1.5 (March 1906) 177):

'I have found it: heureka! heureka!'
  I cried. 'Now the riddle is solved.
When before has so neat, so unique a
  Solution as this been evolved?'
With a hand that still shook with elation,
  The words in the margin I wrote,
Then I gazed at my great emendation,
  My marvellous critical note.

Though it flashed on my mind in a minute,
  No force would suffice to express
All the wealth of Greek learning that's in it—
  I've got the Greek spirit, I guess.
The Greek spirit—Professor G. Murray,
  At least as he seeks to imply,
Thinks he has it; he'll just have to hurry
  To get it as badly as I.

Where were Scaliger, Porson and Bentley?
  And Housman—ah! where wandered he?
(Yet with him I should wish to deal gently,
  That he may deal gently with me.)
Has he e'er in his books or his lectures
  Once chanced on a comment so fine?
(But I'm ready to praise his conjectures,
  If he will do justice to mine.)

When the study of classics is ended
  (And many to end it now seek),
And the line I so grandly emended,
  Has gone the long road of all Greek;
Yet my fame shall abide even then, and
  These words on my tomb you shall see:—
'He inserted a comma at μέν and
  Deleted the colon at δὲ.'

~Typhlos