Wednesday, January 11, 2012

 

Asyndetic, Privative Adjectives in Fragments of Old Comedy

While reading Fragments of Old Comedy, edited and translated by Ian C. Storey, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011), I noticed some examples of asyndetic, privative adjectives.

Nicochares, fragment 21 (vol. II, pp. 392-393):
ἀλλ' εἰλήμμεθα / λαβὴν ἄφυκτον, ἀδιάγλυπτον

But we are caught in an unbreakable hold, inescapable.
Phrynicus, fragment 20 (vol. III, pp. 58-59):
τηλικουτοσὶ γέρων / ἄπαις ἀγύναικος

An old man of my generation, childless, wifeless.
Phrynicus, fragment 57 (vol. III, pp. 72-73):
ἄσιτος, ἄποτος, ἀναπόνιπτος

Without food, without drink, with hands unwashed.
Theopompus, fragment 72 (vol. III, pp. 350-351):
ἄπνους, ἄνευρος, ἀσθενής, ἀνέντατος

Without breath, without nerve, without strength, without exertion.
In volume II of this Loeb Classical Library edition, the passage at the top of p. 289 (continued from the bottom of p. 287) should be printed in italics.

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