Complete Works of Plutarch Part 49

They having a martial heart each one rushes on.

The word [Greek omitted] is singular, being applied to a mult.i.tude has the same effect as all ([Greek omitted]). The same kind of figure is the following (O. iii. 4):--

And they reached Pylas, the stablished castle of Neleus, and the people were doing sacrifice on the seash.o.r.e.

The people of Pylas are meant.

He has changes of cases, the nominative and the vocative being interchanged in the following verse (I. ii. 107):--

To Agamemnon last Thyestis left it,--

and (I. i. 411):--

Cloud-compelling Zeus,--

and (0. xvii. 415):--

Friend [Greek omitted] give me for thou dost not seem to me to be the worst of the Greeks.

The genitive and dative are changed in the next example (I. iii. 16):--

G.o.dlike Paris fights in front for the Trojans,--

instead of "in front of." And the contrary in the next (O. v. 68):--

There about the hollow cave trailed a gadding vine.

Where in the original the Greek word "cave" is in the genitive case, not as it should be, dative. And the cause of the mutation is that the nominative accusative and vocative seem to have a certain relation to one another. On which account nouns of the neuter gender and many masculine and feminine ones have these three cases alike. Likewise the genitive has a certain affinity with the dative. This is found in the dual number of all words. Hence the cases are changed contrary to what is usual. Sometimes it is possible to discover the reason for the change, as in the expression (I. v. 222):--

Understanding of the field,--

and (I. ii. 785):--

They crossed the field,--

just as if he had used the preposition "through."

A fine example of change of case is found in the beginning of both his poems:--

Sing, O Muse, the vengeance, etc., whence to Greece unnumbered ills arose.

Tell me, Muse, of that man, of many a s.h.i.+ft and many the woes he suffered.

Sometimes after the genitive he brings in the nominative, as in this (I.

i. 272):--

Of others who are now mortal.

He arranges many things in figures in various ways, as the following pa.s.sage (I. ii. 350):--

For well I ween, that on the day when first We Grecians. .h.i.therward our course address'd To Troy the messengers of blood and death Th' o'erruling son of Saturn, on our right His lightning flas.h.i.+ng, with auspicious sign a.s.sur'd us of his favor.

And the following is not unlike it (I. vi. 510):--

His bright arms flas.h.i.+ng like the gorgeous sun Hasten'd with boastful mien and rapid step.

And these things, according to the ancient fas.h.i.+on, he exalts not unreasonably. If any one changes the participles into verbs, he will discover the sequence, for the word "lightning" has the same value as "when it was lightning," and "relying" "since he relied." Like these cases are the following (O. xii. 73):--

There are two crags, one reaches the broad sky,

and (I. vii. 306):--

They parted: Ajax to the Grecian camp And Hector to the ranks of Troy returned.

And others of the same kind. For it is reasonable when one is about to speak of two individuals to put first what is common to the two, keeping the nominative in both cases. It is plain that this common use displays much grace. Sometimes employing a common case he signifies only one, as in the following (I. iii. 211):--

Both sat down, Ulysses was the higher in honor.

The form of words he often changes, sometimes putting the comparative instead of the absolute (I. i. 32):--

That you may return a more sane being.

Sometimes the superlative for the positive, as (I. xi. 832);--

Most just of Centaurs.

Such is the change in nouns. But in verbs there is a change in moods, as when the infinitive is used for the imperative, as (I. v. 124):--

Go fearless onward, Diomed, to meet the Trojan darts,--

where the imperative "meet" might be expected.

Or the indicative in place of the optative, as (I. ii. 488):--

The crowd I shall not relate nor name,--

where one would expect "I could not relate nor name." And, on the contrary, the optative for the indicative, as (I. v. 388):--

Mars would then be lost,--for "was lost."

There is a variation of tenses when the present is used for the future (I. l. 29)--

Her I release not till her youth be fled,--

instead of "shall flee." Or for the imperfect (O. vi. 86):--

Where truly were the unfailing cisterns, and bright water wells up free from beneath,--