greater length giving greater dignity to the style, the suitability of their inflected forms as a verse-close in many meters, especially the iambic trimeter, the variety of meanings in which they could be used, and the readiness and ease with which they could be formed from any verb. Furthermore, it is true in many cases that these derivatives in -μα express in the form of a noun a thought which might be expressed very naturally by some form of the verb,[1] and nouns both give greater elevation to style and admit of more precise modification than verbs.[2] Aeschylus employs 218 substantives in -μα,[3] Sophocles 188, and Euripides 302. Euripides' use of them is in some respects the most remarkable. Schirlitz,[4] who counted only 250 of these words in Euripides, believed that more than 80 of this number originated with him, one half being found in Euripides only, the other half in Euripides and later writers. As regards their meaning, derivatives in -μα as a rule signify the result of an action, and those derived from transitive verbs usually have a passive force, but Euripides, and to a less degree Aeschylus, took great liberties with them and used them with a variety of meanings. Compare, for example, κάθαρμα (= κάθαρσις) Eur. I. T. 1316, σπάραγμα (= σπαραγμός) Bacch. 739, cf. 735, λόχευμα (= λοχεία) El. 1124, θάκημα (= θᾶκος) Ion 492, δούλευμα (= δουλεία) Or. 221, (= δοῦλαι) Ion 748, ὀρφάνευμα (= ὀρφανία) H. F. 546, λύσσημα (= λύσσα) Or. 270, cf. 254, (συγκοίμημα (= συγκοιμήτρια) Andr. 1273, κήδευμα (= κηδεστής) Or. 477, ὕβρισμα (= ὑβρισταί) H. F. 181, cf. Soph. Tr. 1096.
In comedy, when these nouns in -μα are used of persons by metonymy, abstracts taking the place of the related concretes, it is natural that they should have a reproachful or contemptu-
- ↑ τὰ ἀγγέλματα Eur. Heracl. 660, 789 = τὰ ἠγγελμένα Thuc. 8, 97. τέχνημα Soph. Ph. 36 = τετεχνημένον (passive). αἴσθημά τοι κἀν νηπίοις γε τῶν κακῶν ἐγγίγνεται Eur. I. A. 1243–4 = αἰσθέσθαι τοι κἀν νηπίοις γε τῶν κακῶν ἐγγίγνεται. ἰδὼν ἄθροισμα (τοῦ ὄχλου) Or. 874 = ἰδὼν τὸν ὄχλον ἀθροιζόμενον (or ἠθροισμένον). μηχανὴν πτερώματος Aesch. fr. 139 = μηχανὴν ἐπτερωμένην, the πτέρωμα being an ἐπτερωμένος ἄτρακτος.
- ↑ Cf. Gildersleeve, Essays and Studies, p. 155; A. J. P. XXI 473.
- ↑ A word is counted but once in an author, no matter how many times it occurs there.
- ↑ De sermonis tragici per Euripidem incrementis, Halis Saxonum 1865, p. 14 f.
