Translation - Μετάφραση
Translation Assistance => Other language pairs => Ancient Greek→English translation forum => Topic started by: gregroz on 27 Feb, 2015, 12:43:11
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Ἡ δὲ Σελήνη γενομένη μὲν ἐκ τῆς ἀντανακλάσεως τοῦ ἡλιακοῦ φωτὸς [καὶ (...)]
I assume should be "properly" translated the following:
The Moon being (truly/indeed) born/made from the solar light
But:
μέν - does it add any meaning. I know it's often not translated, so I'm not confident.
Would it be acceptable to translate it in active form: "The Moon is ..." without changing the meaning?
ἡλιακοῦ φωτὸς - is it possible, that φωτὸς is used as a riddle that represents both φῶς (light) and φώς (male) - so that the Moon is reflection of both brilliant gaze of Ἥλιος, as well as being the opposite sex of him and even perhaps his spouse? The ἡλιακοῦ can be either masculine or neutrum, but I'm not sure if I'm not confusing and digging too much (though this is highly dense in philosophical context astrological text).
Thank you for looking at this
GR
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"Since the moon is made from the reflection of sunlight" would also be an acceptable translation. There is no "truly/indeed" in the sentence.
The astrologer Vettius introduces his discourse on those born under the Moon with μέν ("on the one hand") simply as a contrast to his discourse on those born under Saturn (paragraph 2 of the same text). Mέν is answered by δὲ ("on the other hand") in paragraph 2.
is it possible, that φωτὸς is used as a riddle that represents both φῶς (light) and φώς (male)
Not likely, since φώς does not refer to a male specifically, but only to any human being.
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Thank you, that says a lot.
First time with this text I felt it does use this elaborations in the beginning of each paragraph with the contrast intent, but I was not sure about connecting phrases, and followed people who have translated few books.
Actually each paragraph about the planet/star goes with the same schema:
Ὁ/Ἡ δὲ PLANET VERB μὲν ...................... (end of a sentence). _ δὲ ...... . _ δὲ ......
So i would say than not the planets are contrasted, but rather each one is contrasted with itself:
(On the one hand) such planet is of such and such nature and describes these and these IN THE NATIVITY. On the other hand of the body parts it governs such and such, from the substances such and such and (one or more sub-sentences).
Repeat with each planet.
My looking for a RIDDLE with φῶς (light) and φώς (male)
is based on dictionary entries that say:
φώς is the opposite of woman; is the opposite of (immortal) god - these two are signification of the Sun in the same text.
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Φῶς and φώς are two different nouns. Usually (except in epic/heroic contexts, where women are out of the picture) φώς refers to mortals in general. See the authoritative Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek Lexicon:
φώς, gen. φωτός, ὁ: dual φῶτε, φωτοῖν: pl. φῶτες, φωτῶν, φωσί: poet. Noun (Com., only paratrag., as Ar.Pax528, or pseudo-orac., Diph.126.3 (hex.); also in late Prose, PRyl.77.34 (ii A. D.)):—
man, sts. coupled with ἀνήρ, δύο δ' οὔπω φῶτε πεπύσθην, ἀνέρε κυδαλίμω . . Il. 17.377; ἀλλότριος φ. 5.214, cf. 11.462, 614, al.; in gen., equivalent to a possessive pronoun, his, χρόα φωτός 4.139, al.; in Trag. either of heroes, as A.Th.499, S.Ant.107 (lyr.), or of men generally, A. Pers.242 (troch.); φῶτ' ἄδικον Id.Ag.398 (lyr.); φ. ἀνόσιος, ἀμαυρός, S.OC281,1018; ὦ σκῆπτρα φωτός, i.e. ἐμοῦ, ib.1109; joined with other Nouns, φῶτ' Ἀσκληπιοῦ υἱόν Il.4.194, cf. 21.546, Od.21.26; φωτί . . δέκτῃ 4.247; φῶτες Αἰγεΐδαι Pi.P.5.75; κλωπὸς φωτός E.Rh. 709.
man, opp. woman, Od.6.129, S.Ant.910, Tr.177, etc.; but δύ' οἰκτρὼ φῶτε, of a man and his wife, E.Hel.1094; so of lovers, AP5.248.5 (Iren.).
mortal, opp. a god, πρὸς δαίμονα φωτὶ μάχεσθαι Il.17.98; φωτῶν ἀλαὸν γένος A.Pr.549 (lyr.); φῶτα βρότειον E.Ba.542 (lyr.).
https://lsj.gr/wiki/%CF%86%CF%8E%CF%82
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Now usage is clear. Thank you