Statistics: Posted by mwh — Tue Jul 16, 2024 8:11 pm
Koine and Biblical and Medieval Greek • Re: The function of αὐτὸν in this sentence puzzles me.
Well let’s not go overboard over this. We’re talking of the accusative as the subject of an infinitive, and there’s nothing weird about that, it’s perfectly regular, and extremely common. Even in English we can say “I believe him to be an idiot” (Lat. credo eum esse stultum, Gk. νομίζω αὐτὸν εἶναι μῶρον). The acc.&inf. is one of the commonest constructions in Greek and even more so in Latin.