Cyril of Jerusalem, Προκατήχησις, §3: λευχειμονοῦν

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Mike Baber
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Cyril of Jerusalem, Προκατήχησις, §3: λευχειμονοῦν

Post by Mike Baber »

Can someone parse the word λευχειμονοῦν in the following passage from Cyril of Jerusalem's Προκατήχησις:
Ἔδει δὲ αὐτὸν ἰδόντα τὸ λευχειμονοῦν πάντων, καὶ αὐτὸν ἀναλαβέσθαι τοιοῦτον ἔνδυμα.
I'm assuming it's a neuter-gendered, singular number participle, but what tense, I am not certain. Again, I can look at Schaff's translation to get the meaning, but that's the easy way out. I'm more interested in the root verb (which seems to have the root λευκ- denoting "white") as well as the parsing of this actual word (bolded).

Thank you in advance.
cwconrad
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Re: Cyril of Jerusalem, Προκατήχησις, §3: λευχειμονοῦν

Post by cwconrad »

Mike Baber wrote:Can someone parse the word λευχειμονοῦν in the following passage from Cyril of Jerusalem's Προκατήχησις:
Ἔδει δὲ αὐτὸν ἰδόντα τὸ λευχειμονοῦν πάντων, καὶ αὐτὸν ἀναλαβέσθαι τοιοῦτον ἔνδυμα.
I'm assuming it's a neuter-gendered, singular number participle, but what tense, I am not certain. Again, I can look at Schaff's translation to get the meaning, but that's the easy way out. I'm more interested in the root verb (which seems to have the root λευκ- denoting "white") as well as the parsing of this actual word (bolded).

Thank you in advance.
Present active participle acc. sg. neuter of λευχειμονεῖν, "wear white clothing", a denominative verb based on the adjective λευχείμων, "wearing white" (from λευκός/ή/όν "white" and -ϝεσ- "clothe", cf. ἕννυμι.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Mike Baber
Posts: 97
Joined: May 30th, 2011, 11:25 pm
Location: Texas

Re: Cyril of Jerusalem, Προκατήχησις, §3: λευχειμονοῦν

Post by Mike Baber »

cwconrad wrote:
Mike Baber wrote:Can someone parse the word λευχειμονοῦν in the following passage from Cyril of Jerusalem's Προκατήχησις:
Ἔδει δὲ αὐτὸν ἰδόντα τὸ λευχειμονοῦν πάντων, καὶ αὐτὸν ἀναλαβέσθαι τοιοῦτον ἔνδυμα.
I'm assuming it's a neuter-gendered, singular number participle, but what tense, I am not certain. Again, I can look at Schaff's translation to get the meaning, but that's the easy way out. I'm more interested in the root verb (which seems to have the root λευκ- denoting "white") as well as the parsing of this actual word (bolded).

Thank you in advance.
Present active participle acc. sg. neuter of λευχειμονεῖν, "wear white clothing", a denominative verb based on the adjective λευχείμων, "wearing white" (from λευκός/ή/όν "white" and -ϝεσ- "clothe", cf. ἕννυμι.
1. For the conjugation "Present active participle acc. sg. neuter," I was expecting to see something like λευχειμονον rather than λευχειμονοῦν. Isn't -ον the typical ending for that particular conjugation? Would you be able to tell me why it ends in -οῦν instead of -ον?

2. Should I assume that Cyril uses τὸ λευχειμονοῦν collectively, i.e. in reference to a group of individuals clad in white?
cwconrad
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Joined: May 5th, 2011, 5:52 pm
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Re: Cyril of Jerusalem, Προκατήχησις, §3: λευχειμονοῦν

Post by cwconrad »

Mike Baber wrote:Present active participle acc. sg. neuter of λευχειμονεῖν, "wear white clothing", a denominative verb based on the adjective λευχείμων, "wearing white" (from λευκός/ή/όν "white" and -ϝεσ- "clothe", cf. ἕννυμι.
1. For the conjugation "Present active participle acc. sg. neuter," I was expecting to see something like λευχειμονον rather than λευχειμονοῦν. Isn't -ον the typical ending for that particular conjugation? Would you be able to tell me why it ends in -οῦν instead of -ον?

2. Should I assume that Cyril uses τὸ λευχειμονοῦν collectively, i.e. in reference to a group of individuals clad in white?[/quote]

1. The verb is an epsilon-contract verb; the form λευχειμενοῦν is contracted from λευχειμενέον.
2. Well, I suppose it's "the whitecladness of (them) all"; it does strike me as a somewhat strange use of the substantive participle as a sort of abstraction. I would suppose that the articular infinitive τὸ λευχειμονεῖν would mean pretty much the same thing. Certainly the sense must be, "When he saw that all of them were wearing white, he felt obliged to adopt that sort of clothing himself."
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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