devám márta ̄sah
̇
, ‘(we have chosen you,) mortals a god’, cf. 4. 2. 10, 5. 2, 11. 5;
- 1; Il. 2. 821 θεα` βροτω
ι ε1νηθε4σα, ‘goddess bedded with mortal’; 22.
9 θνητ: $dν θε:ν Eμβροτον, ‘(why do you pursue me,) a mortal (pursu-
ing) a god?’; Hes. Th. 942 α, θα ́ νατον θνητ ; epitaph of Naevius, immortales
mortales si foret fas flere, ‘if it were proper for immortals to weep for mortals’.
To the same category belong RV 1. 33. 5 áyajva ̄no yájvabhih
̇
‘the impious
(contending) with the pious’; Y. 49. 4 fsˇuyasu ̄ afsˇu y a n
̇
to ̄, ‘non-stockraisers
among stockraisers’; Hes. Op. 490 %ψαρο ́ τη πρωιηρο ́ τηι, ‘the late-
plougher (might rival) the early-plougher’.
This last example opposes two compounds, both probably coined ad hoc,
with the same second element and contrasted fore-elements.^119 We may com-
pare the two that appear in a disjunctive phrase at Y. 31. 12, miθahvacå
va ̄ ərəsˇvacå va ̄, ‘one of false words or one of straight words’. Elsewhere
(Op. 471 f.) Hesiod opposes ε1θημοσ3νη to κακοθημοσ3νη, and the poet
of the Odyssey (22. 374) ε1εργη to κακοεργη. The phrase quoted above
from Y. 49. 4 is continued by yae ̄sˇa ̨m no ̄it
̃
huvarsˇt a ̄is ˇ v a ̨s duzˇvarsˇt a ̄, ‘through
whose not (doing) good works the ill works prevail’.
Juxtaposition of like terms (polyptoton)Common as such antithetical combinations are, they are less abundant than
collocations of like terms. In the great majority of cases it is a noun or
adjective that is juxtaposed with the same word in a different case (governed
perhaps by a preposition). But there are also instances with verb forms,
especially with an opposition of active and passive action, as in RV 8. 84. 9
nákir yám
̇
ghnánti, hánti yáh
̇, ‘whom none slay, (but) who slays’;Il. 4. 451
%λλ3ντων τε κα? %λλυμνων, ‘killing and being killed’ (cf. 11. 83); 18. 309 κα τε
κτανοντα κατκτα, ‘and he slays him who would slay’; Aesch. Sept. 961
παιθε? #παισα·––σ7 δ’#θανε κατακταν.ν, ‘stabbed, you stabbed. –– And you
were killed, that killed’;Y Gododdin 1128 cyd ryladded wy,wy lladdasant,
‘before they were slain, they slew’;Llawsgrif Henregadredd 60a4 ef wanei
wanwyd, ‘he who would slay was slain’;Togail Bruidne Dá Derga 783 génait 7
ní génaiter, ‘they will kill and not be killed’.^120
With nouns and adjectives we may use the term polyptoton, which also
covers the rarer instances where three or four cases of the same word are
employed in a single sentence. Three principal uses of the figure may be
(^119) For this type cf. Gonda (1959), 270–2.
(^120) Cf. Gonda (1959), 246, and for further Irish and other material Watkins (1995), 258, 260,
262, 326–9.
- Phrase and Figure 111