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The Greek Novelists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

John Jackson
Affiliation:
Caldbbck, Cumberland

Extract

If only from a sense of duty, I have filled the evident lacuna, so as to safeguard the κα⋯ and furnish some little excuse for the copyist (ζ⋯σα κατώρυγμαι, βοηθεῖτε Reiske, ζ. τ⋯θαμμαι, β. Hercher). There remains, however, the melancholy fact that Callirrhoe was consigned to her living grave as a consequence, not of ⋯γων⋯α in any known or imaginable sense of the word, but of a profound swoon produced by a kick from Chaereas; whose foot, says Chariton in his best manner, εὐστ⋯χως κατ⋯ το⋯ διαφρ⋯γματος ⋯νεχθε⋯ς ⋯π⋯σχε τ⋯ς παιδ⋯ς τ⋯ν ⋯ναπνο⋯ν (I 4). I have therefore restored a common word for ‘unconsciousness’ (the sense is almost technical enough to deserve a place in the dictionaries): cf. II 5 γενομ⋯νην δ⋯ με ἄ φ ω ν ο ν ⋯ξ αἰφνιδ⋯ου πτώματος ἔθαψαν οἱ γονεῖς πολυτελ⋯ς, I 2 ἄφωνος εὐθὺς ἦν κα⋯ σκ⋯τος αὐτ⋯ς τ⋯ν ⋯φθαλμ⋯ν κατεχ⋯θη, I 4 fin. Καλλιρρ⋯η μ⋯ν οὖν ἄφωνους κα⋯ ἄπνους ἔκειτο νεκρ⋯ς εἰκ⋯να π⋯σι παρ⋯χουσα, and so frequently. The same change is imperative at Xen. Eph. III 6 σκηφαμ⋯νη δ⋯ ⋯φων⋯ᾳ (*: τῇ ⋯γων⋯ᾳ cod.) κατειλ⋯θαι, ⋯κ⋯λευσεν αὑτῇ τινι τ⋯ν ὕδωρ ⋯νεγκεῖν. The confusion is simple and occurs, for instance, at Max. Tyr. i, where Markland restored διαφων⋯ας for διαγων⋯ας. As for the sequence ⋯φων⋯ας … ἔρρηξε φων⋯ν, neither the author nor his readers could have even been aware of it: the weakness which deters the modern from the equivalents of ἔδωκεν ⋯ποδο⋯ναι (Lys. XX 7), συν⋯πεμψε παραπ⋯μψοντας (Luc.VH. i 27), παμμ⋯γεθες ⋯λ⋯κον, ταρτ⋯ρειον τ⋯ μ⋯γεθος (Philops. 24), χωρ⋯α δ⋯σιππα πρ⋯ς τ⋯ν ἵππον (Plut. Crass. 19), δυσδ⋯οδον ἔχει τ⋯ν π⋯ροδον (Polyb. V 7, 10), ⋯ποκατ⋯στησαν εἰς τ⋯ν ⋯ρχα⋯αν κατ⋯στασιν (XXIII 17), στελλομ⋯νῳ βασιλεὺς ⋯π⋯στειλεν (Procop. t. iii p. 96, 10–12 Haury), and all their numberless analogues, was to the Greeks foolishness. On that point the judgment of Chariton was as sound as that of Pascal.

Type
Other
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1935

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