Lexicographic entries

βοῦ, βοός
(Antiatt. β 10)

A. Main sources

(1) Antiatt. β 10: βοῦ· ἀντὶ τοῦ βοός. Σοφοκλῆς Ἰνάχῳ.

βοῦ: Instead of βοός (‘cow’, gen. sing.). Sophocles (fr. 280 = C.2) [uses it] in the Inachus.

B. Other erudite sources

(1) Choerob. in Theodos. GG 4,1.234.36–235.1 (= Hdn. Περὶ κλίσεως ὀνομάτων GG 3,2.704.39–40): ἰστέον δὲ ὅτι εὑρέθη τοῦ βοῦς ἡ γενικὴ οὐ μόνον βοός, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ βοῦ παρὰ Σοφοκλεῖ ἐν Ἰνάχῳ καὶ παρὰ τῷ Αἰσχύλῳ.

Sicking (1883, 54) deleted the second τοῦ, hypothetically interpreting βοῦ as a vocative.

One should know that as the genitive of βοῦς not only βοός is found as the genitive of βοῦς, but also βοῦ in Sophocles’ Inachus (fr. 280 = C.2) and in Aeschylus (fr. 421 = C.1).

C. Loci classici, other relevant texts

(1) Aesch. fr. 421 = Choerob. in Theodos. GG 4,1.235.1 re. βοῦ (B.1).

(2) Soph. fr. 280 = Antiatt. β 10, Choerob. in Theodos. GG 4,1.234.37 re. βοῦ (A.1, B.1).

(3) SB 14.12183.5–7 (= TM 27528) [unknown provenance, 2nd century CE]: καὶ περὶ τῆς βοῦ ἐσοῦ χρησιμεύει ἡμῖν.

See Youthie (1978).

And about your cow, it is useful to us.

D. General commentary

An entry of the Antiatticist (A.1) and a passage by Choeroboscus (B.1) deal with the genitive singular βοῦ as an alternative form of βοός (nominative βοῦς). The form βοῦ is analogicalAnalogy to the contract nouns of the thematic declension. The Antiatticist is probably interested in this form because he found it in a canonical Attic author (see the Sophocles fragment, C.2); Choeroboscus also attests to an occurrence in Aeschylus (C.1). The abridged form of the Antiatticist’s entry does not allow us to ascertain his attitude towards this analogical and very rare genitive form, whether he proscribed or cautiously accepted it (on the treatment of metaplasm in Atticist sources, see AGP vol. 2, Morphology, forthcoming, and entries ἄσβολος, ἀσβόλη, αἴθαλος, αἰθάλη, ψύλλα, ψύλλος). The form is later attested in a letter written on papyrus in the 2nd century CE (C.3).

E. Byzantine and Modern Greek commentary

N/A

F. Commentary on individual texts and occurrences

N/A

Bibliography

Sicking, L. J. (1883). Annotationes ad Antiatticistam. Amsterdam.

Youtie, H. C. (1978). ‘P. Cornell. Inv. I 66: βοῦς, βοῦ’. ZPE 30, 193–4.

CITE THIS

Elisa Nuria Merisio, 'βοῦ, βοός (Antiatt. β 10)', in Olga Tribulato (ed.), Digital Encyclopedia of Atticism. With the assistance of E. N. Merisio.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30687/DEA/2974-8240/2024/03/033