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A note on αὐτοματίζω in Connexion with Prophecy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
In his carefully balanced and analytical investigation of the ὅρκιον τῶν οἰκιστήρων of Cyrene (JHS lxxx 94–111), A. J. Graham seems to me to have been somewhat misled in his treatment of the verb αὐτοματίζω by the not very exact entry in LSJ Add. et Corr. 2055. Under the original entry in LSJ the meanings are correctly enough given. The fourth-century B.C. authors quoted used it either of persons—‘to act of oneself, act off-hand or unadvisedly’ (X. Cyr. 4.5.21) or of things—‘to act spontaneously’ (Arist. GA 715–27). But when after the publication of the Cyrene inscription the entry was amended and amplified to cover the activity of the Pythia, the editors rather unfortunately chose simply to translate it to ‘deliver an oracle’. Hence Graham following them writes that ‘contemporary (i.e., fourth-century) uses of the word which have been recorded are quite different in meaning’, and concludes that ‘it is an unusual word and χράω would be expected in its place’.
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