Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Superlatives of Superlatives
Sophocles, Philoctetes 64-65 (tr. Hugh Lloyd-Jones):
In Latin cf. Naevius, comic fragment 118, in Otto Ribbeck, ed., Scaenicae Romanorum Poesis Fragmenta, 3rd ed., Vol. II: Comicorum Fragmenta (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1898), p. 31 (pessimorum pessime = worst of the worst), and Plautus, Captivi 836 (optumorum optume = best of the best).
Related post: King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
Newer› ‹Older
And you may add as many of the most extreme insults against me as you please.More literally:
λέγων ὅσ᾿ ἂν
θέλῃς καθ᾿ ἡμῶν ἔσχατ᾿ ἐσχάτων κακά.
Speaking against me evils, most extreme of most extreme, as many as you wish.T.B.L. Webster ad loc. (on ἔσχατ᾿ ἐσχάτων) cites two works by Holger Thesleff — Studies on Intensification in Early and Classical Greek (Helsingfors, 1954 = Societas Scientiarum Fennica, Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum, XXI.1), § 342, and Studies on the Greek Superlative (Helsingfors, 1955 = Societas Scientiarum Fennica, Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum, XXI.3), §§ 13, 35, both of which are unavailable to me.
In Latin cf. Naevius, comic fragment 118, in Otto Ribbeck, ed., Scaenicae Romanorum Poesis Fragmenta, 3rd ed., Vol. II: Comicorum Fragmenta (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1898), p. 31 (pessimorum pessime = worst of the worst), and Plautus, Captivi 836 (optumorum optume = best of the best).
Related post: King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
