CLAUDIA FILOS: This is Claudia Filos.
I am with the Center for Hellenic Studies
in Washington, D.C., and today I am talking
with Joel Christensen.
He’s a Professor at the University of Texas
at San Antonio.
Thanks for joining us, Joel.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: No problem, thanks for having
me.
CLAUDIA FILOS: So today we’re going to actually
show people how to use part of Perseus.
How do you talk to your students about using
tools like Perseus, and other things in the
classroom?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: To be honest, it depends
on what the class is and what the students
are, who the students are.
And it's a basic Greek language classroom.
I tell them not to use Perseus, unless absolutely
necessary.
Because I want them to be able to identify
words on their own.
Once students get a little more advanced,
Perseus is a good place to go if you’re
doing research or if you’re writing a paper,
or if you’re really stumped on a form, and
you can’t quite figure it out.
One of the things that’s frustrating about
Greek in the beginning is that lots of words
change their roots, and forms, from one tense
to another, or one case to another, and so
sometimes you actually can’t look up that
word in the dictionary unless you know what
that word is, which is paradoxical if you
need to look the word up in the dictionary!
CLAUDIA FILOS: Exactly!
Right.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Sometimes Perseus can be
really good for that.
CLAUDIA FILOS: I recently had a really good
discussion with Anna Krohn, who introduced
us to a variety of tools on the Perseus website.
We very briefly talked about reading some
of the ancient Greek dictionary entries that
people can access there, but today I was hoping
we could look at a little bit further and
you could talk to us about what we’re seeing.
So if someone goes to the website and perhaps
they don't have a lot of experience with the
Greek language, ancient Greek language they
might have a sense about what they're looking
at when they're looking at those dictionary
entries: they might feel a little bit intimidating
at first.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: And it is intimidating.
There are lots of symbols, and abbreviations,
that aren’t always spelled out.
But once you get the hang of it, it's actually
really simple to use.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Great.
Well, thanks so much for your time, and let’s
take a look at the website.
So if we’re on the Perseus website you’ll
see that this is the main text area, this
is where we can access the Greek text, and
over on the right-hand side we have — I
just want to point out one thing — you have
a few places where you can choose to also
load an English translation.
So you could have them side-by-side, sort
of like a Loeb.
But there are also some other tools that are
going to appear if we click on a word.
For instance, if I click on the first word
in the text, it’s going to open up a dictionary
entry for us.
This is going to take a second to load, I
think.
What are we seeing here, Joel?
So I see up here....
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: What you have on the left-hand
column you have the nominative singular version
noun, which means its subject form, its most
basic citation form.
And all the way to the right you have "wrath",
which is the basic definition, the simplest
definition.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Can we talk just for a second
about this form.
Some people might hear this called a "dictionary
headword" or a "lemma".
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Yup.
And what I usually call it: this is the "citation
form", or its simplest form.
So below the lemma, or dictionary citation
form, you have the parentheses.
Below that, you have the actual form you looked
up, μῆνιν [mēnin].
Then look underneath the hyperlinks LSJ, Middle
Liddell, Autenrieth. at the grammatical identification:
Noun.
S-G [sg] means it’s singular, instead of
plural.
Feminine means it’s feminine instead of
masculine or neuter.
And then you have your case.
Greek has five cases, four regular ones, and
that gives you the basic information.
It’s also nice underneath because it tells
you how many times that it occurs in the entire
corpus that’s available here.
And that’s really nice.
And you can actually click on that — here
you’ve got 28 — and see all the other
occurrences.
So you don’t have to worry about that.
CLAUDIA FILOS: That’s what we did this morning
with Anna, so right now let’s focus on what
are these dictionary entries.
So what we have there: the LSJ, the Middle
Liddell,
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: OK.
So yeah, there are three basic dictionaries
there.
The LSJ is a Liddell and Scott, it is the
dictionary put out by Oxford, and is the most
full ancient Greek to English dictionary.
The Middle Liddell is an abbreviated form
of that, that is often used in college classrooms.
And the Autenrieth is an English version of
a classic German dictionary that is just for
Homer, and Homeric work.
So if you want a basic definition, and its
use in Homer, you would go to the Autenrieth.
If you want a broader definition, but not
a synoptic view of its entire use in all of
Greek language, you go to the Middle Liddell.
If you want a boat-load of information, you
go to the LSJ.
For research on a word, you start with the
LSJ.
CLAUDIA FILOS: The “Great Scott”.
So let’s click on that and see if we can
bring this up.
Great.
So now we see a lot of information here.
So what are we looking at now?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: So you’re starting out
again with the word μῆνις [mēnis] again
in its lemmatic or dictionary citation form.
And then following are one or two abbrevations.
“Dor.” for Doric, and “Aeol.” for
Aeolic.
And so this is how you’d spell the word
in different Greek dialects.
And so the difference there is that in Doric
and Aeolic you often had an α [alpha] instead
of an η [ēta].
CLAUDIA FILOS: OK, so when you say α [alpha]
and η [ēta] we’re talking about this letter
here, that looks a little bit like an “n”
with a long tail, and then that’s the alpha
that looks a bit like our “a”, right?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Right.
Now the next symbol is really important.
And the next symbol is an ἡ [ēta]
CLAUDIA FILOS: You’re talking about this,
right here.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Right there.
That, there, tells you that the word is feminine.
OK?
And what you’re actually looking at there
is ἡ [hē].
That is called the Greek article.
Most Greek nouns take an article when they
appear.
And it’s like a “the” or “a” or
“an” in English.
And that is how a dictionary, so we don’t
have to use different languages, would indicate
what the gender of the noun is.
And so that means it’s feminine.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Right.
So before looking up here, Joel, we were getting
this information that it is F-E-M.
But when we’re looking down here, actually
in the dictionary entry, we’re going to
get one of these articles.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Right.
And that’s how the Greek dictionaries do
it.
CLAUDIA FILOS: And can you tell us a bit what
would it look like if it were a masculine,
or a neuter?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: If you’d had an ὁ [an
omicron] instead of that ἡ [ēta] it’d
be masculine.
And the marker for the neuter is the neuter
article τό [to] which is a τ [tau] plus
an ό [omicron].
CLAUDIA FILOS: Great.
Thank you.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: And then next to that you
have the abbreviation “gen.” which stands
for genitive.
And that gives you the genitive singular of
the noun, which is basically in English as
— if the word is “wrath” — the genetive
singular is “of wrath”.
And the reason this is important is that in
Greek, as well as in Latin, a lot of times
the genitive singular gives you the more stable
version of the noun.
So any dictionary citation for a noun will
give you the lemma, the dictionary citation
form or the nominative singular, and then
will follow up with the genitive singular.
And here it tells you after the words that
there are two possible genitive singulars
for μῆνις — one is μήνιος [mēnios]
and the later one is μήνιδος [mēnidos].
And the things you have on either side are
other texts where this appears.
CLAUDIA FILOS: OK, so you’re talking about
this, and this.
I’m just trying to clarify one thing we
just said.
So when we were talking about these articles
then followed by the genitive, we’re talking
about things that are, let’s say, nouns,
right?
So verbs might look a little bit different.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Yes.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Great.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: [inaudible] hyperlinks that
would take you right to the passage.
So in that, “Pl.” stands for Plato, “R.”
stands for “Republic” and 390e is the
strophe in this case, which is the citation
for the text.
CLAUDIA FILOS: OK.
So that’s a little confusing.
That’s not necessarily intuitive.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Right, not at all.
But what’s good here is that, you know,
this is the basic form of citation you find
in any classical text, and the nice thing
is, you can click on that, and it will take
you to it.
I don’t know if Perseus has an abbreviation
table.
It looks like up in the corner it has something
that says “view abbreviations”: I don’t
know if that will do any good.
*
CLAUDIA FILOS: Maybe, yeah.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: But most of the time you’ll
be able to follow these links.
And some of them, as in following μήνιδος
[mēnidos] there, there aren’t links there,
and some of them are mysteries even to me.
So the first one I know is Iliad, so I’m
not quite sure who the next one is.
“Them.”,
CLAUDIA FILOS: So that’s not a full link,
because some texts, actually, are not available
on Perseus right now.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Right.
So while you’re learning this, don’t worry
too much about those.
But if you can get your hands on a hard copy
of LSJ, all the abbreviations are laid out
in the front, and I’m pretty sure you can
Google search for LSJ abbreviations, you can
find them and find the list that way.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Actually users can access a
list of abbreviations for authors and works
right on the Perseus website.*
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: After that you get what’s
called a full em-dash [“:—”] and then
you get the word “wrath” in italics,
CLAUDIA FILOS: Yes, right here.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: And it gives its earliest
attestation, so from Homer, right, and “frequently
of the wrath of the gods”.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Right there.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: And CHS community member
and master, Leonard Muellner, has a book all
about μῆνις [mēnis].
CLAUDIA FILOS: Exactly.... all about the anger
of Achilles, right?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Yeah.
And finally, following, which you’ll often
get, are some other more idiomatic uses of
the word.
So “μῆνιν ἔχειν ἀπὸ θεοῦ”
[mēnin ekhein apo theou] and it tells you
this is where it’s used, a common way to
use it.
And you’ll also find here in this space
as we move on a bit in the dictionary definitions,
if there are special uses or special grammatical
functions of a noun.
So if it often, for a word like “dear”
or “worthy” often take whatever, like
“worthy of”, or “dear to”, so you’ll
often find specific uses like that.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Can you explain this?
I’m looking at this, that looks like the
letter “μ.”
[“ M” ], that we’re seeing with the
μῆνις [mēnis], as a μ [mu], and then
a period.
What’s going on there?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: There the author, or the
editors, decided not to spend any more time
printing “μῆνις [mēnis]”!
CLAUDIA FILOS: OK!
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: And you can see that repeated
in the next line, after “worshipped as heroes,”
“τοῖσι μ. [toisi mu] and then moving
on of course in the bottom line as well, yeah,
right there.
So the old-school lexicography is to build
up a different definition by providing a full
semantic sphere of a noun or a verb, so by
looking at every major occurrence, and that’s
really what’s going on here, tracing various
instances.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Great.
And so, that’s really important, because
in terms of the way that we tend to approach
looking at this literature and trying to understand
these words, that’s really the way to build
up your understanding of the word, right?
By looking at many, many examples.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: OK, yes, because words don’t
exist in the abstract.
They exist in context and use.
And this is really what’s going on here:
you’re getting hyperlinked outline of the
word use in its earlier appearances., and
it’s really useful.
To start out, though, it’s probably most
useful just to look at the beginning parts
of the word.
And, you know, for nouns it’s — I’m
going to call it transparent — but maybe
it might be useful to go back and look at
a verb —
CLAUDIA FILOS: Great, yes.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: — and see how much more
complicated that is.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Shall we look at ἄειδε
[aeide] ?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Sure!
That one might be... yes, let’s start there.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Do you want me to look at a
different one?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Let’s not gain the system.
Let’s start there.
CLAUDIA FILOS: OK.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: So ...
CLAUDIA FILOS: So this is a lot longer, right?
We’re seeing a lot.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Right.
We’re seeing a lot more here.
So let’s start from the beginning again.
So it will go to the lemmatic form, the dictionary
citation form, again, with ἀείδω [aeidō]
and that is the citation, the simplest form
of anything, which is the first person singular
present of the verb.
And what’s following is defining that this
is not a common form.
So you have “Ion”, period, and “poet”,
period.
Which is cited as an Ionic form, it’s another
Greek dialect, and poetic, and it’s used
by “H, o, m, period”, which is Homer,
and “P, i, period” which is Pindar.
And sometimes in tragedy and comedy, and then
it says “even in trimeter”!
CLAUDIA FILOS: OK.
Look at all that information, that’s super-compressed.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Right.
And then it continues to give you more information:
it also occurs in Ionic Prose.
And then following, you get an additional
bit of information: you get the contracted
form, which is in the Anacreonta as it tells
you.
I’m basically looking at the contracted
form: it’s just the vowels have been smashed
together.
Instead of ἀείδω [aeidō] you get ᾁδω
[adō]
CLAUDIA FILOS: Great.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: OK?
And so you see it’s in those other forms.
And then you start to get some slightly different
forms of verbs.
If you start to learn Greek, you’ll learn
the Greek principal parts: the Greek verbs
have six principal parts.
Which is sort of like what we said earlier,
with the genitive and the noun, which is that
those six principal parts, the six different
forms, represent all the mutations or transformations
a verb can go through.
So in a full word you’ll get the future
form, an aorist form, which is one past tense,
a second past tense called the perfect, you’ll
get passive stems for the perfect and aorist,
and ... the present form.
So what happens following the big letter “A”
is the basic form of the verb, right?
So to the right of the big letter “A”
you have ἤειδον [ēeidon] and it says,
if you look before the “A” you have the
abbreviation “Impf.”
CLAUDIA FILOS: Yeah: what does that mean?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: That means “imperfect”.
A type of past tense.
And after that you find out that there are
two different types of imperfect forms in
Homer: ἄειδον [aeidon] which is in
the Odyssey, and ἤειδον [ēeidon] which
is in the Odyssey, and ἄειδον [aeidon]
which is in the Iliad.
And there’s a tragic and Attic form ᾖδον
[ēdon]
CLAUDIA FILOS: OK.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: So you’ve just been given
three different potential variations for the
imperfect, for this tense.
Then you have — so you get after that a
semi-colon — you have the abbreviation “f,
u, t” which gives you the future form, ἀείσομαι
[aeisomai], then some other variations, till
you get all the way, for basically — where’s
the next one? these are future form variations
— basically until you get to the abbreviation
“a, o, r, period”, in the fourth and fifth
line down.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Here it is, yes.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: ἤεισα [ēeisa], and
then, because this is an early Greek verb,
you get a range of variations for aorist,
right?
CLAUDIA FILOS: OK.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Scan down until you get
to some passive forms.
OK?
So all this is very typical for Greek verbal
morphology, the forms of verbs.
CLAUDIA FILOS: And so for someone who’s,
let’s say, looking to explore and learn
more about a Greek word — you may be interested
in a particular form, or you you’re finding
a form and you’re not sure form you’re
looking for — the Perseus tools are going
to help you, right?
It can parse for you.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: If you find a varied form,
or a strange form, it’s going to link you
back to the main dictionary citation.
For example, this is a beautiful variation,
all the forms you find in early Greek dialects
and poetry, right?
And there are many different ways you can
do the future, or the aorist, for this era.
So most people when they’re looking now
aren’t going to want to move through all
that morphological information.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Exactly.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Until you get to that dictionary,
you start to get the definitions down in this
part —where are we?
Fifth, sixth line from the bottom.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Yeah.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: You’re starting to get
various definitions.
So after you get down to Roman numerals, you
start to get some real important information.
There’s something I just want to talk about
for a minute.
So under this Roman numeral II, there’s
a little asterisk [*], and then a number 1.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Right: we’re right here.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: So starting with that, that
“c, dot, a, c, c, rei” [c. acc. rei] is
really important, because that means that
it goes with an accusative of the thing, right?
I’ll give you an example, it is of course
μῆνιν ἄειδε [mēnin aeide] “sing
the rage”.
The reason this is a bit difficult, is in
English “sing” is not what we call a directly
transitive verb.
It doesn’t tend to take a direct object
of things like that.
You sing about rage, you don’t sing an object,
generally.
So right here this is telling you that’s
normal in Greek and that it just takes a regular
accusative direct object.
CLAUDIA FILOS: And just to clarify: that “c.”
is what’s telling you “with” and the
“acc.” is telling you what case that it’s
with.
The accusative case in this case.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Right.
And so this is Latin, which is really useful
of course for people who want to learn Greek!
But we have to remember that this comes from
a long tradition of people knowing Latin and
Greek, and Latin really being used as a lingua
franca of Europe, so that people were speaking
German, translated into English, we have to
use the same reference tools.
CLAUDIA FILOS: So Joel, can I ask: I’m seeing
something similar down here.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: OK.
Where you’re pointing, OK.
So here, you could also use it with the genitive!
But if you look at the second one, you sing
a song of something.
And so there are variations, especially in
Greek poetry, in the way that nouns and verbs
relate.
So a good dictionary gives you all that information.
And if you look down and move down to the
number 2.
It says, you know, you can sing praises of
people, or praise people.
Sometimes they try to get a little nuance
to the verb, like English verbs, that let’s
say would lubricate the translation a little
bit, and instead of “sing the hero” we
say “praise the hero” or “celebrate
the hero”....
CLAUDIA FILOS: Right, right.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: ... which is interesting.
Then, of course, the verb can be used in different
ways depending on the voice: whether it’s
active, passive, or Greek has a thing called
the middle, which is somewhere in between.
So if we look at number .... 2 here is a passive
option.
And the heroes are celebrated, or she is celebrated
as the nurse of heroes.
There’s the example given there.
CLAUDIA FILOS: And before, you mentioned “middle”.
What would be the abbreviation for middle?
Could you tell us about that?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: It’s Med. [medio], because
it’s Latin.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Great, and so that’s up here,
right?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Right.
And so this is important — just one more
note to make — [inaudible] for you.
In Greek, the middle and the passive forms
are almost always the same, except for the
future and aorist tenses.
CLAUDIA FILOS: OK.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: So if you look at that,
where you were pointing right there, where
it says “M,e,d, dot, a, o, r ”[Med. aor]
the important thing is....
CLAUDIA FILOS: Up here.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: ... that is the middle aorist
form.
As opposed to the aorist passive form.
And I’m trying to scan through that: do
we have any ...?
So: ...
[both speak together]
... sometimes you just have to start with
these entries, and piecing them together,
and using them.
And what’s really nice about this individual
format, as opposed to a print one, is that
if you don’t know what one of these things
mean, and there’s a hyperlink, you can just
click on it, and start to do experimentation.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Like for instance, this “h.
Hom”, this is a Homeric Hymn, right, you
just click on it, and: beautiful, we’ll
see, Hymn to Aphrodite.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Right to where you found
it, which is really neat.
I can tell you, before this was possible,
you know, when we were undergrads, you had
to get over your fear and embarassment and
ignorance, and go and ask someone who knew!
And one of my favorite experiences from undergrad
is being slightly ahead of that experience,
when I was a senior, and having a good friend
come up to me and showing me a word, and saying
“I’ve been thinking all day, and can’t
figure out what it is.”
And I was like, “Oh, that’s easy: that’s
from ἔρχομαι [erkhomai], the verb
to come or go, which has a fabulously insane
form: it goes ἔρχομαι, ελεύσομαι,
ἤλυθον, [erkhomai, eleusomai, ēluthon]
so Greek demands some study and memorization
at the beginning.
But over time it loses some of its mystery.
And the tools on Perseus are really great
to help with that.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Exactly.
And so even these dictionary entries that
at first may seem sort of overwhelming and
give us a lot of information, a lot of this
information, if you’re new and you’re
just looking for the basic definition, you
wouldn’t necessarily even need to look at
it.
You could come down and scan, and look for
the definitions, and you could look and see
what authors it’s appearing in.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: It might be easier, though
— let’s just show them and then contrast
the other two dictionary entries for word.
So from the Middle Liddell, and the Autenrieth.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Yeah, look at that.
That’s much less intimidating, right?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Middle Liddell, if you look
at it, just gives the basic information to
translate it, right, which is nice.
And it also gives you some combinations, so
if you look down at number 1 and 2, it says
it sometimes goes to the [inaudible] to sing
about someone; in the passive it’s to be
sung, the song is sung; and then again, see
under a it’s “c, dot, a, c, c, dot, person”
so to sing, to praise, someone.
CLAUDIA FILOS: So you’re right here, right?
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: And to show again, this
is important in early Greek, if we go to the
Autenreith — oh, wait, before we go, there’s
another dictionary entry that’s been added,
and that’s the Slater, which is a dictionary
that’s just for Pindar.
It’s a beautiful dictionary.
But you see a lot of information, that’s
typically tied to Pindaric usage, and what
people have said about Pindaric usage.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Right.
That’s beautiful.
That’s a beautiful thing to do, right, because
sometimes the way that a word use of a particular
author can be very specific, and I know, for
instance, you’re very interested in Homer,
right?
Like I am.
And we sometimes find that.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Right, and it is, and especially
for Pindar, if you’re interested in that
poet, it used to be that you couldn’t find
this dictionary because it was out of print,
and was so rare I almost stole it for my graduate
school, but I held back from that!
CLAUDIA FILOS: And the “Great Scott” is
so big, and heavy, and expensive, right?
I asked to get that for my tenth anniversary.
I hardly ever need it now!
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: I know, exactly, and when
I was in college, I asked for it as a Christmas
present, and my father looked at me and thought
I was insane!
CLAUDIA FILOS: All right, so let’s take
a look at the Homeric dictionary, because
we love Homer.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: All right, so look, here,
there’s some nice and simple things.
First of all, let’s start from the left
and move over.
It tells you that the word is spelled differently,
right?
What we have there between the alpha [ἀ]
and the epsilon [ε] is the digamma [ϝ] which
explains some of the chronological, morphological
difficulty of the verb, because Greek lost
the digamma when it developed.
CLAUDIA FILOS: So you’re talking, Joel,
you’re talking about this little thing that
might look to some people like an “F”.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: They’re saying that at
one point it was ἀϝείδω [aWeidō] instead
of ἀείδω [aeidō].
The reason this is important is that it tells
us “Hey: this is why that alpha didn’t
disappear, didn’t contract with the vowels
that came after it.
It was there.”
And then you have your really simple forms:
you have the future, “f, u, t” is the
symbol for the future.
And then the aorist.
Notice this “indicative”, instead of the
passive or the middle.
And then because it’s irregular, I guess,
it’s giving you the imperative form, which
is the command form in Greek, and the aorist
imperative is the most common imperative in
Homer.
And then it gives you the infinitive, which
is basically how you’d say “to sing”.
Now you’re not going to get the same exact
options for every Greek verb, because Greek
verbs have different semantic fields, and
different morphological traditions.
So what the dictionaries do, they give you
all the information that makes this verb different
from others.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Got it.
Because when before you were talking about
those six principal parts, those are sort
of, in a perfect world, if every verb were
completely regular, those are the only forms
you would need to know.
Every possible form, right, but that’s just
not the way it works.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: It’s not the way it works,
and here ἀείδω [aeidō] is basically
deficient.
They’re not going to define all six principal
parts.
But for a basic word like παύω [pauō]
if you’re learning Greek, your six principal
parts, παύω, παύσω, ἔπαυσα,
πέπαυκα, πέπαυμαι, επαύθην
[pauō, pausō, epausa, pepauka, pepaumai,
epauthēn] but that doesn’t work for every
verb.
So, moving on to this, we might get different
translations, and we also get elaborations,
right, so you can say “to sing songs of
heroes”, and then you can sing themes, so
you sing the rage, or there’s a great example
from the Odyssey: you sing the homecoming
of the Achaeans, which means that this is
a pirate[?] story that would be sung.
And you also get some examples where things
combine with adjectives where μάλ᾽ ἀεῖσαι,
[mal'aeisai].
And very nice, simple, as much information
as you need.
And if you want to do more study you can go
back to your “Great Scott”.
CLAUDIA FILOS: Yeah.
That’s great.
Well, Joel, thank you so much.
I really appreciate the time you’ve taken
to show us the intricacies a reading needs,
and also to show us that they can give us
all that beautiful information, but also that
we can choose to just get the information
we need, and not be overwhelmed, and that
we can see what these abbreviations are that
are used over and over again.
And in our community we’re going to try
and post the list of abbreviations from the
“Great Scott” that may be a big help to
people.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: Well, I’m sure the community
over time will generate its own list, if it’s
not available, but it should be.
CLAUDIA FILOS: True, true, great.
Well, thank you so much again, and we hope
to talk to you again soon.
JOEL CHRISTENSEN: OK.
Have a great day!
CLAUDIA FILOS: Thanks.
