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ΑΥΤΟΣ ΕΚΕΙΝΟΣ: A neglected idiom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. Janko
R. Janko
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Extract

The use of αὐτ⋯ το⋯το, ‘this very thing’, is perfectly familiar in classical Greek; but there is no general awareness, as witness the silence of the reference grammars and lexica, of the parallel usage of αὐτός juxtaposed with ⋯κεῖνος, which is in fact not infrequent in the classical period, and mentioned in Apollonius Dyscolus (Synt. 2. 88). The examination of this construction which follows is intended not only to add to our knowledge of Greek syntax, and thereby to defend some passages against erroneous emendations, but also to place in a wider context one of Plato's ways of referring to the Forms.

As far as I can establish, the only scholar who has ever paid much attention to αὐτ⋯ς ⋯κεῖνος is J. Vahlen in 1906, and that in an obscure place, to explain an obscure passage; moreover, he simply accumulated parallels from authors of the Imperial period, without discussing how the construction is employed. It will emerge that the usage is no less frequent earlier, when it is used in a greater variety of ways, especially by Plato.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , May 1985 , pp. 20 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1985

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References

1 One searches in vain for a reference to the construction in Kühner, R. and Gerth, B., Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, ii (Hannover and Leipzig, 1898–1904), 648–61Google Scholar; or in Schwyzer, E., Griechische Grammatik, ii (Munich, 1950–1953) 208–12Google Scholar; or in Smyth, H. Weir, Greek Grammar, rev. G. M. Messing (Cambridge, Mass., 1956), 302 ff., 307 ff.Google Scholar; yet all of these mention αὐτ⋯ το⋯το. The usage is recorded, but given no prominence, by Havers, W. in ‘Das Pronomen der Jener-deixis im Griechischen’, Indogermanische Forschungen 19 (1906), 1–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar (referred to hereafter as ‘Havers’). H. Stephanus, Thesaurus Linguae Graecae s.v. αὐτός col. 2557, cites only Maximus of Tyre and Damascius for αὐτ⋯ς ⋯κεῖνος, which gives a completely misleading impression of its distribution; s.v. ⋯κεῖνος col. 406, ⋯κεῖνος αὐτ⋯ς receives several citations: neither is mentioned in Liddell-Scott-Jones. Heath, J. M., Studies in Greek Personal and Demonstrative Pronouns based on the text of Thucydides (Diss. Princeton, 1964)Google Scholar does not discuss the usage, which is avoided by Thucydides: his conclusions on ⋯κεῖνος (pp. 435 ff.) are useful (cf. Havers 7,10–14).

2 ‘De praecepto quodam anonymo ΠΕΡΙ ΚΩΜΩΙΔΙΑΣ’, Opuscula Academica, ii (Leipzig, 1908, repr. Hildesheim, 1967), 558–70Google Scholar.

3 Cf. Havers 11, Heath, op. cit. 436 f.

4 Havers (92) renders ‘gleich als er ziele nicht auf ihn selbst’. For pseudo-reflexive ⋯αυτόν cf. Kühner–Gerth I 560. ⋯κεῖνον alone, without αὐτόν, may also be used in this way (ibid. i 649).

5 Koster, W. J. W., Scholia in Aristophanem i, fasc. 1A, Prolegomena de Comoedia (Leiden, 1975)Google Scholar, Prolegomenon XV pp. 63 ff., lines 43–5.

6 In Aristotle on Comedy (London and Berkeley, 1984)Google Scholar I argue that the whole derives from Aristotle, , Poetics 2Google Scholar.

7 Cf. op. cit. ad para. XIV (my numeration). M. D. Reeve (in correspondence) suggests emending αὐτο⋯ to ⋯κάστον.

8 The literature on Plato's language for the Forms is substantial, but as far as I can ascertain it has not been studied in connexion with the wider usage of αὐτ⋯ς ⋯κεῖνος. For a survey of αὐτός des Places, v. E., ‘ΑΥΤΟΣ et Ὁ ΑΥΤΟΣ chez Platon’, Charisteria F. Novotny (Prague, 1962), 127–30Google Scholar, reprinted in the same author's Études platoniciennes (Leiden, 1981), 56–9, esp. n. 4Google Scholar. αὐτ⋯ς ⋯κεῖνος is exemplified in the same scholar, 's Lexique de la Langue philosophique et religieuse de Platon (Paris, 1964, Budé ed. of Plato vol. xiv) s.v. ⋯κεῖνοςGoogle Scholar. V., also Ross, W. D., Plato's Theory of Ideas (Oxford, 1951), 14 ffGoogle Scholar.

9 Without tremendous labour it would have been impossible to assemble all the instances from published indices, special lexica and concordances, which do not always list the pronouns, let alone the construction (Powell, J. E.'s Lexicon to Herodotus (Cambridge, 1938)Google Scholar and Mauers-berger, A.'s Polybius–Lexikon (Berlin, 1955–1966)Google Scholar are signal exceptions). After gathering about sixty instances by various means, I was fortunate enough to secure the services of Prof. Scott Carson, of Project Wordsearch (Dept. of Classics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), whose computerised searches of some of the asterisked authors yielded over a hundred more examples; and of Prof. J. A. Hanson, of the Dept. of Classics, Princeton University, who very kindly enabled me to explore other authors currently available in machine-readable form in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae; this brought the total to over 350 examples. I also wish to thank Professor James Coulter, Dr N. J. Richardson, Dr C. J. Ruijgh, Professor F. H. Sandbach for supplying some examples from his own knowledge, and the editors for Herculean labours.