[14]
τὸν δ᾽ ἕτερον…ἀίταν. The word ἀίτας (deriv. ἀίω, 'to hear,' Vanietcbreve;ek, Etym. Wörterb. i. p. 66) must be taken as a local Thessalian use, though it was brought into literary use by Alcman. A branch of Aeolic was spoken in Thessaly, see Ahrens, Dial. i. § 50. The construction of the line presents a curious example of attraction; we should expect ὁ δ᾽ ἕτερος…ἀίτας or ὁ δ᾽ ἕτερος…ἀίταν. The nominative is changed to the accusative under the influence both of εἴποι and the preceding φαίη. There is no instance exactly like this, but we have frequent instances of a parenthetical clause drawing what follows out of its own construction into dependence on the parenthetical words. Aesch. Persae 187:
“
τούτω στάσιν τιν᾽ ὡς ἐγὼ 'δοκοῦν ὁρᾶν
τεύχειν ἐν ἀλλήλαισι
”
(for ἔτευχον, or for τούτῳ ἐδόκουν τεύχειν); Soph. Trach. 1238 ἀνὴρ ὅδ᾽ ὡς ἔοικεν οὐ νέμεῖν ἐμοὶ μοῖραν: Herodotus, i. 65 (Stein, ad loc.). Here not only what follows but what precedes is drawn into the construction of the parenthesis.
Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
poem:
This text is part of:
The Idylls of Theocritus. R. J. Cholmeley, M.A. London. George Bell & Sons. 1901.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This text was converted to electronic form by professional data entry and has been proofread to a medium level of accuracy.
