Re: Εὐφήμει, ὦ ἄνθρωπε· ἁσμενέστατα μέντοι αὐτὸ ἀπέφυγον, ὥσπερ λυττῶντά τινα καὶ ἄγριον δεσπότην ἀποδράς → Hush, man, most gladly have I escaped this thing you talk of, as if I had run away from a raging and savage beast of a master

[spiros]

Σοφοκλεῖ ποτε τῷ ποιητῇ παρεγενόμην ἐρωτωμένῳ ὑπό τινος· “Πῶς,” ἔφη, “ὦ Σοφόκλεις, ἔχεις πρὸς τἀφροδίσια;  ἔτι οἷός τε εἶ γυναικὶ συγγίγνεσθαι”; καὶ ὅς, “Εὐφήμει,” ἔφη, “ὦ ἄνθρωπε· ἁσμενέστατα μέντοι αὐτὸ ἀπέφυγον, ὥσπερ λυττῶντά τινα καὶ ἄγριον δεσπότην ἀποδράς.”

I remember hearing Sophocles the poet greeted by a fellow who asked, 'How about your service of Aphrodite, Sophocles—is your natural force still unabated?' And he replied, 'Hush, man, most gladly have I escaped this thing you talk of, as if I had run away from a raging and savage beast of a master.'

Question: why τινα has no accent?

[vbd.]

"τινά" of course is enclitic since it is the masc. accusative of the indefinite pronoun "τίς, τί". The reason why it lost its accent is because of the circumflex in the penult of λυττῶντα. If instead of a circumflex the accent was acute, then τινά 's accent wouldn't have moved to "λυττῶντά", but would instead have kept its position (for example "φροντίζω τινά" vs. "δῆμόν τινα").

[spiros]

I see; I guess this phenomenon of an enclitic two-syllable word being completely devoid of accents can only be found in Ancient Greek and not Modern Greek?

[vbd.]

Sounds plausible. I can't think of any enclitic two-syllable words in modern Greek though.

[spiros]

Same phenomenon with ποτε;

Σοφοκλεῖ ποτε τῷ ποιητῇ...