Sunday, January 05, 2025
Exclamatory Genitives
Greek Anthology 5.132 (by Philodemus; tr. Niall Rudd):
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O feet! O legs! O thighs for which I died (and with good reason)! O buttocks, O fringe, O flanks, O shoulders, O breasts, O slender neck, O arms, O eyes that fill me with madness, O clever movement, O superlative kisses, O little cries of 'love me!' If she's Italian and her name is Flora and she does not sing Sappho—well, Perseus loved the Indian Andromeda.See David Sider, The Epigrams of Philodemus. Introduction, Text, and Commentary (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 103-110 (epigram number 12).
ὦ ποδός, ὦ κνήμης, ὦ τῶν ἀπόλωλα δικαίως
μηρῶν, ὦ γλουτῶν, ὦ κτενός, ὦ λαγόνων,
ὦ ὤμοιν, ὦ μαστῶν, ὦ τοῦ ῥαδινοῖο τραχήλου,
ὦ χειρῶν, ὦ τῶν μαίνομαι ὀμματίων,
ὦ κατατεχνοτάτου κινήματος, ὦ περιάλλων 5
γλωττισμῶν, ὦ τῶν θῦ᾽ ἐμὲ φωναρίων.
εἰ δ᾽ Ὀπικὴ καὶ Φλῶρα καὶ οὐκ ᾁδουσα τὰ Σαπφοῦς,
καὶ Περσεὺς Ἰνδῆς ἠράσατ᾽ Ἀνδρομέδης.
