Friday, 27 December 2013

Hedylus and Future Optative Example

Athenaeus 111. 473a quotes one of Hedylus' Epigrams which I'm sharing because it has a fine example of the Future Optative and a lovely well expressed idea which tells us something about how Hedylus viewed his own style.

Εὕροιμ̕ ἂν λεπτὸν καὶ τι μελιχρὸν ἔπος.

Literally

 I shall find subtle and a sweet song.

Note ἂν plus the optative I will try... I probably will find … I wish want it to become real ….

Don't forget the convention of placing the breathing sign over the next vowel if its an eu.

The pronunciation was probably heuroim an lepton kai ti melikhron epos.

 Heuro not euro!


No comments:

Post a Comment