Αισωπος. Aesop #1/test

[xthnru]

1. The Cock and the Robbers.
Κλέπται, εἰς οἰκίαν τινὰ εἰσελθόντες, οὐδὲν εὗρον ὃτι μὴ ἀλεκπρυόνα,
καὶ τοῦτον λαβόντες ἀπῇσαν. ὡς δὲ ἔμελλε θύεσθαι, ἐδεῖτο τῶν κλεπτῶν
μὴ ἀποκτεῖναι αὐτόν, λέγων χρήσιμος εἶναι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, νθκτὸς
αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τὰ ἔργα ἐγείρων. Οι δὲ ἔφασαν, “ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦτό σε μᾶλλον
θύομεν· ἐκείνους γὰρ ἐγείρων, κλέπτειν ἡμᾶς οὐκ ἐᾷς.”

I'm getting weird boxes as I type this, but hopefully it will go
through alright, if not, I'll redo it so it works.

[Nik Vital]

FUCK. okay, no accents, sorry guys. If anyone knows a good way to fix this, let me know. I'll attach a copy from Word.

[xthnru]

1. The Cock and the Robbers.

Κλέπται, εις οικίαν τινα εισελθόντες, ουδεν ευρον οτι μη αλεκπρυόνα,
και τουτον λαβόντες απησαν. ως δε εμελλε θύεσθαι, εδειτο των κλεπτων
μη αποκτειναι αυτόν, λέγων χρήσιμος ειναι τοις ανθρώποις, νυκτος
αυτους επι τα εργα εγείρων. Οι δε εφασαν, “αλλα δια τουτό σε μαλλον
θύομεν· εκείνους γαρ εγείρων, κλέπτειν ημας ουκ εας.”

[Thesaurus]

Thanks for posting this! The group is rollin'.

Here is another version I found so you don't have to stress over
typing it in exactly. Howeve,r it seems to be a little more complex
grammatically (note the subjunctive), and has the moral tacked on:
http://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%9A%CE%BB%CE%AD%CF%80%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%B9_%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%B9_%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%B5%CE%BA%CF%84%CF%81%CF%85%CF%8E%CE%BD

Κλέπται καὶ ἀλεκτρυών

Κλέπται εἴς τινα εἰσελθόντες οἰκίαν οὐδὲν εὗρον ὅτι μὴ ἀλεκτρυόνα, καὶ
τοῦτον λαβόντες ἀπῄεσαν. Ὁ δὲ μέλλων ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν θύεσθαι ἐδεῖτο ὡς ἂν
αὐτὸν ἀπολύσωσι, λέγων χρήσιμος εἶναι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις νυκτὸς αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ
τὰ ἔργα ἐγείρων. Οἱ δὲ ἔφασαν· Αλλὰ διὰ τοῦτό σε μᾶλλον θύομεν·
ἐκείνους γὰρ ἐγείρων κλέπτειν ἡμᾶς οὐκ ἐᾷς.
Ὁ μῦθος δηλοῖ ὅτι ταῦτα μάλιστα τοῖς πονηροῖς ἐναντιοῦται ἃ τοῖς
χρηστοῖς ἐστιν εὐεργετήματα.

Here is my shot at a literal translation:

Thieves and a Rooster

Thieves entering a certain house discovered nothing besides a rooster,
and seizing him, they departed. But the rooster, about the be
slaughtered by the thieves, stopped them so that they would free him,
saying that he is useful to men, at night awakening them for their
work. Yet the thieves said, "But we want to slaughter you because of
this; for waking up those men you do not permit us to steal."
This myth shows that what greatly hinders wicked men is a boon for
good men.

A question is the function of νυκτὸς. As I see, in the genitive it
means "by night" (http://artfl.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/
getobject.pl?c.4:618.minilsj). Is the idea the cock wakes up farmers
for the fields while it is still dark outside... early morning?

Second, how is the verb δέω used, as in ἐδεῖτο? I gather that it's
used in the sense, "to stop one from a thing," so here does it mean
"the rooster stopped the thieves [from killing him]" (http://
artfl.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.19:368.minilsj)?
And I take it the voice is middle, because it's for his own life?

Generally, I recommend using this resource for morphology:
http://grade-devel.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/morph.pl?unistring=
It uses the tools of Perseus, but it doesn't suck to use like Perseus.
(More to be found on this website, http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/PERSEUS/)

At my level I like these Aesop tales, so I'd welcome more if others
are so inclined.

[Faust]

Here's my take:

Theives went inside a certain house and found nothing other than a
single rooster, and left having taken it. Since it was going to be
killed by them, the rooster wanted them to release it, saying that it
is useful to the men themselves, waking them up in the field by
night. The theives said, "But we (want to) kill you moreso because of
this; for by waking those men you do not let us steal."

The story shows that what is most opposed to bad men is good for well-
doers.

I took ἐδεῖτο as meaning 'to want/need'. νυκτὸς is almost certainly
genitive of time within which.

[Nik Vital]

Howeve,r it seems to be a little more complex
grammatically (note the subjunctive), and has the moral tacked on:

So how does the subjunctive function, grammatically speaking? I'm not familiar with that one.

[Thesaurus]

Here's some info about the subjunctive.
The subjunctive in question is ἀπολύσωσι in the following phrase:
ἐδεῖτο ὡς ἂν αὐτὸν ἀπολύσωσι.
The subjunctive is a grammatical mood, like indicative, imperative,
and optative. It is often used to indicate purpose, or somehow
subordination of one verb to another. The optative has similar
uses.You can identify a subjunctive verb by an augmentation (making
longer) of the thematic vowel. Here omega "ω" instead of the diphthong
"ou." The subjunctive has many uses, but it is often used in a
subordinate clause like this one to indicate purpose. We see this as a
purpose clause because of ὡς ἂν. "ὡς" means something like "in order
to" or "thus." And "ἂν" is a particle that marks a use of the
subjunctive or purpose. Taken together, we get the rooster begging for
the purpose of being let go.

Faust, thank you for your reading of ἐδεῖτο. I just took the first
dictionary entry for δέω which I see is now not accurate. Instead,
here as a deponent it means, to "beg a thing from a person."
http://artfl.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.8:2:87.lsj