Wednesday 29 June 2016

Hesychius, Cypriot, and Lesbian?

According to LSJ s.v. ἀπο-λούω, Hesychius glossed ἀπολουσέμεναι· κολ[λ]οβώσειν (Cypr.). That would involve a (1) Lesbian infinitive in -(ε)μεναι for (2) a thematic verb (3) in Cypriot. Therein are three surprises (see Buck, Greek Dialects, sections 154.2 and 155.2-3). Cf. the glossing of athematic σπελλάμεναι by Hesychius as στειλάμεναι. 

[The latter is otherwise only in the grammatical tradition, as in Herodian:
παρ’ Αἰολεῦσι δὲ τῶν ἀμεταβόλων γίνεται, ἀγείρω ἀγέρρω, ἐγείνατο ἐγέννατο, στειλάμεναι στελλάμεναι, εἷμα ἕμμα καὶ τοῦ σ τοσοῦτον τοσσοῦτον.]

The entry in Hesychius simply reads (as per TLG): (6466) ἀπολουσέμεν· κολοβώσειν Φ 455 v. l. Il.21.455 reads, στεῦτο δ’ ὅ γ’ ἀμφοτέρων ἀπολεψέμεν οὔατα χαλκῷ, preceded by a diple. There may well be less sense in 'to wash off ears with a sword' than in ἀπολεψέμεν 'to lop off...' or to 'peel off...'. There is no -αι after -μεν and no reference to Cypriots.

That said, Schmidt ed.min. tells me that the codex has -μεναι· κολλοβῶσιν. His entry ends '(Κύπριοι)'.

Here, though, is an example of a -σεμεν infinitive as a future, not as a sigmatic aorist (thematic aorists are different again in this regard).

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