21st Century Classical Greek -- lambano and kata

Thucydides Book I section 7.

τῶν δὲ πόλεων ὅσαι μὲν νεώτατα ᾠκίσθησαν καὶ ἤδη πλωιμωτέρων ὄντων, περιουσίας μᾶλλον ἔχουσαι χρημάτων ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς τοῖς αἰγιαλοῖς τείχεσιν ἐκτίζοντο καὶ τοὺς ἰσθμοὺς ἀπελάμβανον ἐμπορίας τε ἕνεκα καὶ τῆς πρὸς τοὺς προσοίκους ἕκαστοι ἰσχύος: αἱ δὲ παλαιαὶ διὰ τὴν λῃστείαν ἐπὶ πολὺ ἀντίσχουσαν ἀπὸ θαλάσσης μᾶλλον ᾠκίσθησαν, αἵ τε ἐν ταῖς νήσοις καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἠπείροις (ἔφερον γὰρ ἀλλήλους τε καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὅσοι ὄντες οὐ θαλάσσιοι κάτω ᾤκουν), καὶ μέχρι τοῦδε ἔτι ἀνῳκισμένοι εἰσίν.

Learn idi.

Copy apelambanon into Wiktionary, take off the ape- prefix, and learn the verb lambano. It is not only a high-frequency concept, it is also the root of a lot of compound verbs. Also look at the LSJ entry and notice at the top it says this verb has an “aor. 2”. This is used in the Odyssey, Book 5 line 525.

Thucydides starts section 7 by saying “of the cities such as had been most recently settled…” Jowett does nothing with this. It is a topic order sentence. Thucydides is going back to section 5 and picking his story up again with the history of marine travel. Jowett’s sources did not recognize topic order sentences as a thing, nor did they understand that oral mindsets use such structures, which I have found in Jewish Torah and Talmud. Instead of giving us all the material in translation, Jowett cuts and pastes according to his own limited viewpoint of how literature works.

Okisthisan is imperfective eventive. The root, as you can see from the word tool, starts with omicron; this becomes omega when augment is needed.

Click on ep’ which is a contraction of epi. Look at the LSJ entry.  Notice that it can be used with any noun case; here we have it with the -ois case.

Now notice that throughout the entry for epi, LSJ shows the phrase “with verbs of X” where X is some category. I think you know what is coming.

It’s evidence that the lexicon is tied to the old grammar. The old grammar books have sections on noun cases and they have repeated for generations that case X is used with verbs in a specific category.

But that category may apply to only one of many uses of the verb. Having to memorize these categories fixes in the student’s mind an idea that the verb means only that thing to which the grammar book has tied use of some noun case or other. This is the analog of describing grammar only in terms of morphology and ignoring context.

It’s the reverse of how the verb really works, which is verb X plus the Y case means Z, not the Y case is used with any verb X that falls into the Z category.

The same is true with prepositions that can be used with more than one case: preposition X plus the Y case means Z, not the Y case is used with preposition X.

For the rest of it:

καὶ τοὺς ἰσθμοὺς ἀπελάμβανον ἐμπορίας τε ἕνεκα

καὶ τῆς πρὸς τοὺς προσοίκους ἕκαστοι ἰσχύος:

αἱ δὲ παλαιαὶ διὰ τὴν λῃστείαν ἐπὶ πολὺ ἀντίσχουσαν ἀπὸ θαλάσσης μᾶλλον ᾠκίσθησαν,

αἵ τε ἐν ταῖς νήσοις καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἠπείροις

(ἔφερον γὰρ ἀλλήλους τε καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὅσοι ὄντες οὐ θαλάσσιοι κάτω ᾤκουν),

μέχρι τοῦδε ἔτι ἀνῳκισμένοι εἰσίν.

Eneka is called a preposition but it always comes after what it refers to. “For the sake of” bringing trade to the isthmus.

“… and strength against each one’s neighbors

“the ancients because of piracy mostly set their ground, mostly settling away from the sea

“both those on islands as well as on the mainland

“(they suffered [repeatedly] from each other and from those others who not being sailors settled kato),

“and insofar they settled upcountry.”

Kato from kata (which you should learn because you’ll see it a lot) means not just downward, but further on. This may be related to if not a source of the British idiom “going down from London,” far into the country.