Problems with pronouns? Herodotos
uses αὐτός in
ways that are bound to be confusing—sometimes like Attic, sometimes not. You
probably need to review Attic forms (Athenaze II.
288-92) and study the following examples:
Standard but unfamiliar forms for 3rd pl.
‘they/their/them’: where Attic might use αὐτῶν, αὐτοῖς, αὐτούς/αὐτάς, H
will use (σφεῖς) σφέων, σφί(σι), σφέας.
And similarly, where Attic might use singular dative, αὐτῷ/αὐτῇ, H
will use οἱ
(enclitic)
and for acc.
αὐτόν/αὐτήν, H
will often use μιν
(or ἑ).
That means that usually when H uses some form
of αὐτός/αὐτή it
means something other than ‘he/she...him/her’
The most important uses are (1) as the intensive
pronoun, αὐτός =
-self.
This can reinforce any person in the sentence: τὸν βασιλέα
αὐτόν, the king
himself
This is combined in ἐμ-αυτοῦ, -ῳ, -ον (and
fem. –ης, ῃ, -ην), my-self,
-
σε-αυτοῦ, -ῳ, -ον =your-self,
ἑ- αυτοῦ, -ῳ, -ον = him-self
(with fem. forms, of course).
The first example (p.54, 1-3) illustrates this: the αὐτόν is intensive, reinforcing
the σε that
follows it (and loses its accent to it): ‘either (you) kill Candaules
and have/possess me and the kingdom of the Lydians,
or you yourself must die at once
ἢ γὰρ Κανδαύλεα ἀποκτείνας ἐμέ τε καὶ τὴν βασιληίην ἔχε τὴν Λυδῶν,
ἢ αὐτόν
σε αὐτίκα οὕτω
ἀποθνήισκειν δεῖ
...
In the same passage we
have an illustration of that Ionic ‘him/her’, μιν, and it introduces an ambiguity: ἱκέτευε μή μιν ἀναγκαίῃ ἐνδέειν διακρῖναι...
The μιν could be either ‘him’ or ‘her’, but best taken as the
object of ἐνδέειν and subject of διακρῖναι: ‘he beseeched (her) not to bind him with the
necessity to choose’.
Again (beginning line 19),
καί μιν ἐκείνη ἐγχειρίδιον δοῦσα κατακρύπτει ὑπὸ τὴν αὐτὴν θύρην,
shows the use of μιν as him (‘having given a
knife, she hid him...’). And it also illustrates the other important use of αὐτός:
whenever it comes between the article and its noun, it
means ‘the same’ or ‘the very’ one mentioned early. So here, ‘she hid him
behind the same door’, the very one he hid behind before.
Notice
also οἱ
as dative of possession:
p. 55, 6, οὐκ
ολίγα, ἀλλ’ ὅσα μὲν
ἀργυρίου
ἀναθήματα, ἔστι οἱ πλεῖστα
lit.
‘not few, but as many as (there are) offerings of
silver, there are to him (οἱ = he has) the most ..’