# Medieval Greek



## greeksources

Hello,

I would appreciate it if someone could help me translate the excerpt below which is about a divorce case from the seventeenth century. Thank you very much in advance and apologies for the accents!

"...αιτιωμένη δέ αυτόν έδικαιολογειτο ότι διά την σκληρότητα αύτου μαστίζοντος αυτήν συνεχώς έφυγε του λυτρωθήναι. οΰτος μεν διαπαγορεύων ούκ ηθέλησε του λοιπου αυνοικειν αυτη δια το γενέσθαι αυτήν υπερόριον και δραπέτην και διατρίβων ένθεν κακείθεν παρεγενόμην αυτού.


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## ioanell

greeksources said:


> "...αιτιωμένη δέ αυτόν έδικαιολογειτο ότι διά την σκληρότητα αύτου μαστίζοντος αυτήν συνεχώς έφυγε του λυτρωθήναι. οΰτος μεν διαπαγορεύων ούκ ηθέλησε του λοιπου συνοικειν αυτη δια το γενέσθαι αυτήν υπερόριον και δραπέτην και διατρίβων [this masc. participle is associated to the person of the narrator] ένθεν κακείθεν παρεγενόμην αυτού.


“…in accusing him she justified herself that because of her husband’s cruelty, who was lashing her all the time, she left (him) in order to be saved. As for him, avoiding her he did not want to live with her any more, because she had run far and away and [I/me] spending time here and there [=in various places] I arrived here.

The last word of the excerpt [παρεγενόμην] is a verb, past tense 1st person singular, and means (in this context) “I arrived”, so it looks like being a narration of a case in which the narrator took part personally (or at least this is what the text denotes by the words διατρίβων and παρεγενόμην).


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## greeksources

ioanell said:


> “…in accusing him she justified herself that because of her husband’s cruelty, who was lashing her all the time, she left (him) in order to be saved. As for him, avoiding her he did not want to live with her any more, because she had run far and away and [I/me] spending time here and there [=in various places] I arrived here.
> 
> The last word of the excerpt [παρεγενόμην] is a verb, past tense 1st person singular, and means (in this context) “I arrived”, so it looks like being a narration of a case in which the narrator took part personally (or at least this is what the text denotes by the words διατρίβων and παρεγενόμην).



Thank you very much Ioanell!


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## ioanell

In case that the author of the text made the very serious grammatical mistake to write παρεγενόμην instead of παρεγένετο [3rd person singular], then the participle διατρίβων is associated with the husband and the translation changes accordingly as "and spending time here and there [=in various places] he arrived here."


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## greeksources

ioanell said:


> In case that the author of the text made the very serious grammatical mistake to write παρεγενόμην instead of παρεγένετο [3rd person singular], then the participle διατρίβων is associated with the husband and the translation changes accordingly as "and spending time here and there [=in various places] he arrived here."


I see. I think the narrator is the court scribe here. In that case, it might be "he arrived here" but in any case, the subject is the "man" I guess.


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## sotos

It may be the testimony of a third person.


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## greeksources

Hello, can anyone help me with the translation of the below text? It is a divorce case and I believe that it talks about the impotence of the husband but could not make sure...Thank you in advance!
"Τζουτζουνία εζήτησε διαζευχθήναι αυτου (Ιωάννου), προβαλούσα πολλάς αιτίας καταναγκαζούσας αυτήν αποστήναι ανδρικής συναφείας, τω μέν ώς αόμματός έστι, τω δέ ώς προβεβηκυία ημερών, και άλλοις κατεχομένη πάθεσι δι'ών ούκ έστιν αύτη του λοιπού συναφθήναι έν συζυγία γαμική, και οικίαν ανδρός επισκέπτεσθαι...."


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## sotos

It actually talks of "impotence" of the woman. It says that Tzoutzounia asked to divorce him, giving several reasons for refraining from attaching to a man, the one (reason) being that he is blind, the other that she is old, and that she has other ailments, therefore she cannot anymore live in a marriage, and enter the house of a man ...


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## greeksources

sotos said:


> It actually talks of "impotence" of the woman. It says that Tzoutzounia asked to divorce him, giving several reasons for refraining from attaching to a man, the one (reason) being that he is blind, the other that she is old, and that she has other ailments, therefore she cannot anymore live in a marriage, and enter the house of a man ...


Ah! thank you so much! It was just too complicated for me...


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## ioanell

greeksources said:


> I believe that it talks about the impotence of the husband but could not make sure.


Have in mind that the clause _τω μέν ώς αόμματός έστι_ as it stands it doesn’t at all refer safely to her husband as being blind. It could as well refer to herself. The nominalised adjective αόμματος [<AG ἀνόμματος] with the ending -ος, used by the court secretary who is writing in a neoatticist style (your previous texts as well), refers to both, masculine and feminine, genders, and not to the masculine gender exclusively. IMO the expressions τῷ μὲν…τῷ δὲ… (_on the one hand_ ... _on the other hand_ ...) show safely that the woman refers to herself as being blind· if she was referring to her husband, then the secretary -in order to be accurate- would most probably have written _τῷ μέν ώς οὗτος αόμματός έστι, τῷ δέ ώς αὕτη προβεβηκυία ημερών._ Besides, if her husband’s blindness hadn’t been a problem to that time, would that be from then on? In conclusion, all the reasons for her applying for a divorce had to do with Tzoutzounia herself, IMO.


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## greeksources

ioanell said:


> Have in mind that the clause _τω μέν ώς αόμματός έστι_ as it stands it doesn’t at all refer safely to her husband as being blind. It could as well refer to herself. The nominalised adjective αόμματος [<AG ἀνόμματος] with the ending -ος, used by the court secretary who is writing in a neoatticist style (your previous texts as well), refers to both, masculine and feminine, genders, and not to the masculine gender exclusively. IMO the expressions τῷ μὲν…τῷ δὲ… (_on the one hand_ ... _on the other hand_ ...) show safely that the woman refers to herself as being blind· if she was referring to her husband, then the secretary -in order to be accurate- would most probably have written _τῷ μέν ώς οὗτος αόμματός έστι, τῷ δέ ώς αὕτη προβεβηκυία ημερών._ Besides, if her husband’s blindness hadn’t been a problem to that time, would that be from then on? In conclusion, all the reasons for her applying for a divorce had to do with Tzoutzounia herself, IMO.


Thank you very much Ioanell. The text is confusing to me with regard to both its language and its content. But I'll try to make sense of it based on your comments too.


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## sotos

Well, it seems very possible that αόμματος refers to the woman, unless the scriber was a bit careless and ommitted ούτος or ο σύζυγος or something like that. My first impression was that the scheme "τω μεν ... τω δε" implies two persons (the one, ... the other). Maybe that wasn't the best possible syntax, for the modern standards.


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## greeksources

sotos said:


> Well, it seems very possible that αόμματος refers to the woman, unless the scriber was a bit careless and ommitted ούτος or ο σύζυγος or something like that. My first impression was that the scheme "τω μεν ... τω δε" implies two persons (the one, ... the other). Maybe that wasn't the best possible syntax, for the modern standards.


Thank you Sotos!


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