Zuntz Lektion 6

[LaurentiusH]

Hello, I'm a beginner in Greek, using mainly Athenaze (Italian version), plus Zuntz's Griechischer Lehrgang, and Assimil for the sake of diversity. (I don't know any Italian or German, but up to now this has not been a problem: knowing French plus some Spanish and some Latin makes reading simple Italian a no brainer. And Dutch and Google Translate help for German...). Anyway, I'm currently working on Zuntz Lektion 6 and there are two sentences that I'm not sure I understand correctly. May I ask whether my understanding is correct:

Ἆρ'οὐκ οἰκτίρεις με; καὶ γὰρ ὁ τύραννος ᾦκτιρε τὸν υἱόν.​

Don't you have mercy on me? Even the tyrant had mercy on the (his?) son.​

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- Οἴμωζε, δοῦλε - Καὶ πρότερον ᾦμωζον πολλά.​

- Bemoan, slave! - I (already) bemoaned (for?) many things before.​

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According to Zuntz, οἰμώζω means "to say οἴμοι" and the sentence was often used to threaten slaves in comedies.

Thanks!

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[rmedinap]

Both of your translations are correct. Perhaps is the context that's lacking.

On the first phrase the speaker is reproaching his interlocutor (apparently his father or a close relative) for not having pity on him, for even a Tyrant (the worst thing imaginable in Greek mentality) has pity on his own son.

The second phrase it is taken out of a comedy. The master says something like "scream in pain" or something like that, to which the slave replies: I have already screamed a lot, as in; please do not hit me anymore, you have already hit me a lot. Or, you could (because of the lacking context) interpret it in a defiant manner. "You have already hit me a lot before"="I'm not afraid of you" or "Do your worst".

 

[LaurentiusH]

Thanks rmedinap. You're right: as Zuntz does not provide a lot of context, some sentences can be a bit hard to understand for self-learners.