Earlier, as I was reading a bit of Catullus 76, I over-complicated a line. I saw in line 17/18 both "umquam" and "extremam" next to each other and immediately associated them with each other. I thought "Of course 'umquam' being an adverb of time, 'extremam' must be an accusative of extent of time!" That, however, didn't make sense. I did a quick check in a grammar, and ran across, "DIRECT OBJECT", and it hit me: I still didn't read the verb, or if there was a direct object that extremam could have modified! (This was ten minutes later.) Thus, listen attentively, gentle reader: first look for the simplest reason a word would be in a sentence, even if it is Catullus. He might have "opem" as a direct object, and open to a modifier that's also accusative feminine...he just might.
-Steven C.
No comments:
Post a Comment