From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Mar 25 1998 - 13:34:00 EST
At 11:22 AM -0600 3/25/98, Jim West wrote:
>Carl,
>
>Yes, pardon the typo. Read "muw" for "meuw". I realize that Paul uses a
>string of infinitives after the verb- but this raises the further question-
>if you take "muw" in a figurative sense, then why do you not take the
>following infinitives in the same sense? That is, why must Paul say, "I
>have been initiated" in a figurative way, but then he lists a bunch of
>things that some take as literals? Can we have it both ways? I realize,
>too, that we do this in modern English- but does that mean that Paul did too?
I'm not sure I'd say those infinitives are all concrete and specific. For
instance, CORTAZESQAI is used of feasting, but it literally refers to a
forage animal getting stuffed on fodder, which makes it have some of the
quality of our colloquial "pig out." So my impression is that in this
rhetorical rehearsal, Paul is saying something like: "Whatever human beings
can experience of comfort or discomfort, believe, I've been there, I've
done that."
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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