Looking at Words
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Looking at Words |
Does word order mean anything in Greek? Here the students, reading their first poetry in Greek, learn to look at the structure of a language alien to their way of verbalizing and to grasp its possibilities.
The Argo is built for its eventual destruction.
If only the hull of the Argo had not flown through... (1)
Its hull is like the wings of a great bird with the word for "fly through" flying through it.
The clashing rocks are left behind; are they still closed?
Dark blue Symplegades (2)
In wishing away the past, the order of the Nurse's words is effective confirmation of her wish, that the Argo had never been built and, barring that, that it had been smashed to smithereens before it had reached Colchis.
Theirs is a love story of separation.
Medea (7) ... of Jason (8)
The two lovers are as far apart in the two lines that tell their story as can be.
Her arrival causes disruption in the land.
sailed (to the towers) of the land of Iolcus (7)
Her heart is besieged.
struck in her heart by love (8)
She will go wandering abandoned with an abandoned child in each hand (513).34
 Part Twelve: Medea in Performance: making decisions about the scenes Back to the top of this page
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