Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T07:38:04.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prose Usages of Ἀκογειν ‘To Read’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Dirk M. Schenkeveld
Dirk M. Schenkeveld
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

When we encounter the following words: ‘A few moments ago, I think, you heard Plato saying that there is no specific name for the art which deals with the body’, it is easy to put these into a literary context. We may imagine some kind of fictional dialogue, in which out of two or more partners one reminds another of what a few minutes ago Plato had said to them about a particular subject. Whether Plato is still present or has left the room, we do not yet know, and we hope to get this information from the rest of the book. The book might be an historical novel by, say, Mary Renault. So much is clear, and with our knowledge of the Classics we are sure that the book is not by a Classical author.

Type
Articles
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , May 1992 , pp. 129 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Or, if one prefers, ἤκονσα το δεῖνα λγοντος.

2 ‘Silent Reading in Antiquity’, GRBS 9 (1968), 421–35Google Scholar with references to earlier discussions. See also the exchange of Letters to the Editor in TLS February–April 1991 with Ptol. Jud. 5, 2 as the earliest explicit reference to silent reading.

3 See e.g. Goodwin, W. W., Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb (London, 1889, repr. 1965), § 48Google Scholar on the differences between the two tenses in this expression. Smyth, H. Weir, Greek Grammar (Cambridge, Mass., 1920, repr. 1956), § 2112Google Scholar connects them with those in English between ‘I see a house burning’ and ‘I see a house burn’.

4 For Homer the situation is different, see e.g. Stahl, J. M., Kritisch-hist. Syntax d. gr. Verbums d. klass. Zeit (Heidelberg, 1907), pp. 702f.Google Scholar

5 Cf. e.g. Stahl, op. cit., pp. 702ff. and 212f. and Goodwin, op. cit., §§ 884–6.

6 In Soph. Phil. 595f. and 614f. the two constructions occur without the difference of direct v. indirect perception, at least according to Goodwin, op. cit., § 886. Commentators ad locc. axe silent on this point.

7 E.g. Cic. Att. 1.12.4, Plut. Crass. 2.7. The enormous literary production of Pliny the Elder was possible only because while being read to by his lector he made annotations (Pliny the Younger, Ep. 3.5).

8 Rohde, E., Der griech. Roman3 (Leipzig, 1914), pp. 327–9Google Scholar lists many texts on readings of new or old literary works. Terms like δημοσᾳ point to the character of a ‘Vortrag’.

9 The latter clause is added because I have found no passages in which someone says that he heard Sophocles speaking, when in fact a tragedy by him was being performed and Sophocles was among the audience in the theatre.

10 Cf. phrases such as ‘The king built this palace’, where the actual builders are not taken into account.

11 I do not imply that in type (iii) the meaning is different from that in types (i) or (ii); the meaning (semantic level) remains the same, the interpretation (pragmatic level) varies. It depends on one's general views on translation, whether one prefers a literal translation to one which is interpretative at the same time.

12 Of course, for reasons of his own the hearer may pretend that he personally heard X speaking, even when X is dead at the time of the statement, but this is a different matter. I will return to it in Section IX.

13 Patrologiae Graecae Cursus completus, ed. Migne, J.-P.Google Scholar. Unless otherwise stated, all references to Christian authors are by Migne volume, page and line.

14 Trevisan, P., San Basilio Commento (Torino, 1939)Google Scholar puts a comma after Kνρον. Other editors often follow the same procedure in similar texts, erroneously, although in this way I suspect they hope to avoid the consequences of ‘direct perception’.

15 Abbreviations here and further on, in general, according to LSJ.

16 Apparently the oldest example, LSJ s.v. i.f.

17 Here the selection is very restrictive, for the texts of Gregory of Nyssa alone offer more than 50 items.

18 Followed by Gen. 49.10. This passage can be added to the list of texts quoted by Balogh, J., ‘Voces Paginarum’, Philologus 82 (1927), 214ffGoogle Scholar. as proof that in Antiquity writing aloud was common. Cf. also Stanford, W. B., The Sound of Greek (Sather Lect. 38, 1967), p. 3 and note 14.Google Scholar

19 Cf. a few lines later on ρῳδις […] ἔοικεν ὑποδηλον, ὡς αὐτς Ἀριστοτλης ϕνλξας λγει κτλ. Hercher deletes ὡς… λγει, Rose (Aristot. fragm. 253) keeps it.

20 RE s.v. Alexandras 100.

21 5.8; 7.4; 8.4 and 7 etc.

22 Stählin, W. Schmid–O., Gesch. der gr. Lit. 5 (Munich, 1913), ii.2, pp. 768ff.Google Scholar

23 Hdt. 2.32.1 (type (i), of course); ἤκονσα with a single genit. (reporter) or with acc. cum inf. (report) occurs eleven times.

24 In 7.8 and 8.6 ἰγνπτων κοω λεγντων the statement implies that Aelian has read somewhere something about the Egyptians, rather than that he has read books in Egyptian.

25 In his Loeb translation S. Usher (Dion. Hal., Crit. Essays, i) often inserts a ‘reader’ where the Greek has ἕκαστος, e.g. 24, p. 335, but translates our passage by ‘Let us hear how he speaks.’

26 Cf. what is said about Andronicus of Rhodes, ὂς νδκατος μν ἦν π το Ἀριστοτλονς, κοσας δ αὐτο (sc. Aristotle) καλοντς ν τοῖς προοιμοις τοδε το βιβλον (sc. Περ ρμηνεας) τ νοματα παθματα κτλ. (Ammon. in Int. v.5.28ff.).

27 For ναγιγνώσκειν ‘to read’ in the sense of ‘to adopt a reading’ see note 55.

28 E.g. Cic. Acad. 2.45.137; Quint. 1.5.61; 3.6.28 and 10.1.96; Suet. Jul. 87.1; Plin. Ep. 5.3.3, and see TLL s.v. lego (II), ii.

29 I know one clear example, Cic. De fin. 2.90 idque Socratem, qui voluptatem nullo loco numeral, audio dicentem cibi condimentum esse famem, potionis sitim. TLL s.v. audio ii.2c gives more passages with this construction, but all those would fall under my type (i). As to Cic. Ep. ad Att. 239.1 audi igitur me hoc γοητεύτως dicentem see § XI on the epistolary dialogue.

30 These have been discussed by Chantraine, P. in ‘Les verbes grecs signifiant “lire” (ναγιγνώσκω, πιλέγομαι, ντυγχάνω, ναλέγομαι)’, published in πAΓKAPπEIA. Mélanges Henri Grégoire 2, Annuaire de l'lnst. de Philol. et d'Hist. Orientales et Slaves, 10 (1950), pp. 115–26Google Scholar (not listed in l'Année phil.). See also Allan, D. J., ‘ναγιγνώσκω and Some Cognate Words’, CQ 30 (1980), 244–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 This usage from Ar. Ra. 52 and Eq. 1011 onwards, e.g. D.S. 20.1.4 and Luc. Ind. 27. In Pi. O. 10.1 Tν Ὀλνμπιονκαν νάγνωτέ μοι Ἀρχεστράτον παῖδα πόθι ϕρενς μς γέγραπται the sense is ‘read out the place where (the name of) the boy of A. is recorded’. See Verdenius, W. J., Commentaries on Pindar, ii (Leiden, 1988), ad loc.Google Scholar

33 Cf. 3.2.13ff.

33 Thus Schweighäuser. I owe the reference to Stellwag, H. F. W., Epictetus, Het Eerste Boek der Diatriben (Amsterdam, 1933), p. 125Google Scholar. See also Allan (note 30), pp. 248ff. for the interpretation ‘to read and expound’.

34 Cf. Is. 111.15; Dem. 245.1; Th. 347.21 and 413.14; Imit. 210.11 U.-R.

35 More examples of this use of the single dative instead of παρά+dat. in D. A. Russell on Longin. 9.10 and Radt, S. L., ZPE 64 (1986), 10ffGoogle Scholar. and Mnemos. 43 (1990), 31.Google Scholar

36 Marin. Procl. 12 Boissonade ναγινώσκει οὖν παρ τοτω Ἀριστοτλονς μν τ περ ψνχς, Πλάτωνος δ τν Φαδωνα. refers to ‘attend someone's lectures on..’ (LSJ s.v. ii).

37 Ἐπιλγεσθαι, not ναγινώσκειν, in this sense in Hdt. (see Powell s.v.), in Paus. 1.12.2 etc., Luc. VH 2.36, Hld. Aeth. 4.8.1; 10.34.1 etc. For ναλγεσθαι see LSJ s.v. iii (‘read through’, from Ascl. AP. 9.63 onwards), but Chantraine, op. cit. (n. 30), p. 126 is right in calling Wyttenbach's conjecture in Plut. 71 Id Σαπϕος ναλεγονμνης ‘très douteuse’. For ντυγχάνειν see LSJ s.v. iii (from Plato, Lys. 214b3 onwards) and Chantraine's discussion (pp. 122–6).

38 For κρασις = ‘reading’ cf. Th. 1.21 and 22; for κροστς = ‘reader’ Plb. 9.1.2 etc., and for κροσθατ = ‘to read’ Str. 1.2.3 etc.

39 In PI. R. 606el ff. ὅταν Ὁμρου παινέταις ντχῃς λέγονσιν ὡς κτλ. the locution may be compared to our phrase, not to one with ναγιγώσκειν.

40 See Hendrickson, G. L., ‘Ancient Reading’, CJ 25 (1929), 191Google Scholar on modern examples, like when ‘we ask if you have heard from John, who lives perhaps beyond the sea.’

41 And by the fact that authors of books with a claim to literary merit wrote these to be read aloud, cf. Knox, B., ‘Books and Readers in the Greek World’, in Easterling, P. E. and Knox, B. M. W. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, i (Cambridge, 1985), p. 14.Google Scholar

42 P. 192 (note 40). See also Knox (note 2), p. 434.

43 E.g. Quint. 8.6.34 abusio est ubi notnen defuit, translatio ubi aliquid fuit. A survey of ancient theories on κατάχρησις may be found in Schuursma, J. A., De poetica vocabulorum abusione apud Aeschylum (Amsterdam, 1932), pp. 3–11.Google Scholar

44 Walsdorff, F., Die antiken Urteile uber Platons Stil (Bonn, 1927), pp. 49ff.Google Scholar

45 Magic, Reason and Experience. Studies in the Origin and Development of Greek Science (Cambridge, 1979), pp. 92ff.Google Scholar

46 Cf. 2.4.76ff. καί τατα μν γράϕω περ τοτων, καί λέγω τοιατα ἕτερα.

47 At any rate, if it was a public lecture, it must have been written down later to be read by others.

48 Nothing pertinent on this linguistic aspect in Havelock, E. A., Preface to Plato (Cambridge, Mass., 1963)Google Scholar and his later publications and neither in Harris, W. V., Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, Mass., 1989)Google Scholar. Rosalind, Thomas, Oral Tradition and Written Record in Classical Athens (Cambridge, 1989)Google Scholar, rightly stresses the coexistence of oral and literate modes of thought in the fourth century but is sometimes too careful to accept as preferable interpretations of reading, e.g. pp. 51 and 61 on σκοπεῖν, for which one may compare ϕορν in Hdt. 1.48 (see § X).

49 Socrates did not leave any writings; therefore subtype (iii b).

50 Anderson, J. K., Xenophon (London, 1974), p. 174.Google Scholar

51 See for this matter of Socratic dialogues by Aeschines and others also Slings, S. R., A Commentary on the Platonic Clitopho (Amsterdam, 1981), pp. 27f.Google Scholar

52 Studies on 5th and 6th Essays of Proclus' Commentary on the Republic (Göttingen, 1980), p. 31.Google Scholar

53 E.g. 1.13.6 (οί κοοντες) and 12.27.1-2 (κο).

54 Not so Thuc. 7.16 ο δ Ἀθηναῖοι κοσαντες (sc. τς πιστολς) (the letter was read out to the audience, cf. 10), nor Isocr. Pan. 168 τς γρ οὐκ οἶδεν ἣ τς οὐκ κκοε τν τραγωδοδιδασκλων Διονυσις τς Ἀδρστον […] σνμϕορς κτλ.

55 I am not concerned here with the use of κοειν in the technical sense of ‘to understand, take in a certain sense’ (LSJ s.v. iv) but only point out that this usage occurs much earlier than LSJ (Jul. Or. 4.147a) and DGE (Athenaeus and Galen) suggest, although for dKovoreov they give texts from Strabo. The earliest occurrence is in the Derveni Papyrus, whereas the title of Chrysippus' περ το πς δεῖ τν ποιημτων κοειν (D.L. 7.200) comes next. See also Ph. Leg. Alleg. 2.16; Heres. 292.1 and Plut. Solon 25.4.

For ναγιγνώσκειν in the sense of ‘to adopt a reading’ both dictionaries refer to Sch. Ar. Pax 593, but this use is very common from S.E. M. 1.59 and Gal. Elem. i.438.12 onwards.

56 See note 38 for similar passages with κροσθαι etc.

57 Thraede, Kl., Grundzüge griech.-rüm. Brieftopik (Munich, 1970), p. 22.Google Scholar

58 Cf. Ep. 978.2 δι' πιστολν κοσας.

59 E.g. Epp. 662.1; 879.1; 904.1; 929.1; 956.1; 1320.1; 1533.1.

60 Cf. Epp. 695.5 and 1400.3.

61 For similar examples see e.g. Palm, J., Über Sprache und Slil des Diodoros von Sizilien (Lund, 1955)Google Scholar, Sachindex s.v. ‘Analytischer Tendenz’.

62 In his edition in the Sources Chrétiennes 119, p. 516, also referring to the survey in Festugière, A.-J., Hippocrate, l'Ancienne Médecine (Paris, 1948), pp. xx–xxvii.Google Scholar

63 In Theol. Stud. u. Kritiken 67.2 (1894), pp. 314ffGoogle Scholar. I owe this reference to Pöschl, V. (ed.), Bibliogr. z. ant. Bildersprache (Heidelberg, 1964)Google Scholar, s.v.Rose unter Dornen.

64 Kl Thraede, op. cit. (note 57). pp. 180ff., takes these words as a reference to a real occasion, but quotes enough parallels for the view mentioned by Synesius to make my interpretation plausible.

65 ‘This may reflect the ancient habit of reading aloud.’ Thus de Vries, G. J., A Commentary on the Phaedrus of Plato (Amsterdam, 1969)Google Scholar, ad loc. More positively Hendrickson, op. cit. (note 40), p. 189.

66 St. Basil on Greek Literature (London, 1975), p. 52.Google Scholar

67 I do not quote from Plut. Quomodo adui., although it seems obvious that he will use κοειν in the sense of ‘reading’ also. But it is not easy to distinguish situations where one of the two fathers, a paedagogus, or a teacher, is supposed to read from a book to the boys from those where they read by themselves. However, I am convinced that in 37a ἧττον ταρττονται κα δυσκολανουσι παρ τοῖς ϕιλοσϕοις κοοντες ὡς κτλ. the plural ϕιλοσϕοις points the way to an interpretation of type (iii).

I thank the members of the ‘Hellenisten Club’ in Amsterdam for their stimulating comments on an earlier draft, and the Editor of this journal for his suggestions.