καθίζω, καθέζομαι, καθιζάνω
(Phryn. Ecl. 233, Antiatt. κ 3, Antiatt. κ 4, Antiatt. κ 5, Moer. κ 16, [Hdn.] Philet. 135, [Hdn.] Philet. 136, Orus fr. A 55, Orus fr. A 57.9–21)

D. General commentary

Phrynichus (A.1), the Antiatticist (A.2, A.3, A.4), Moeris (A.5), the Philetaerus (A.6, A.7), and Orus (A.8, A.9) discuss in various ways several forms of a group of corradical verbs meaning ‘to make [one] sit down’, ‘to place/settle’ or ‘to sit down’, i.e. καθίζω, καθέζομαι, and καθιζάνω. Given the basic actions that these verbs indicate, the Atticists were confronted with numerous occurrences and, most importantly, several semantically competing forms. Though aimed primarily at prescribing the forms deemed most appropriate for educated Atticising speech, the Atticists’ entries on these three verbs indirectly involve matters of not only canon but also verbal morphology and diathesis in relation to the expression of transitive/intransitive meanings, thus offering a glimpse into the lexicographers’ approach to different aspects of linguistic evolution. Remarkably, the Lucianic dialogue Solecist (C.17) also deals with these verbs, but offers a less strict interpretation of their usage compared to the Atticist lexica (cf. below). The present commentary will first provide a historical–linguistic overview of καθίζω, καθέζομαι, and καθιζάνω before discussing their distribution in classical authors, and finally offering an analysis of the Atticists’ stances on the various forms, arranged according to tense (present, aorist, and future).

ἵζω ‒ which occurs already in Homer (e.g. Il. 2.53) but mostly preverbated as καθίζω (e.g. Hom. Il. 3.68) ‒ is an unsuffixed reduplicated present that goes back to the IE root *sed- ‘to sit down’ (i.e. *si-sd-e/o-, see also e.g. Latin sīdō ‘to sit down’; cf. LIV 513‒5; on the category of Greek reduplicated presents without suffix, see Willi 2018, 138‒58). Depending on the context, (καθ)ίζω may be causative ‒ i.e. ‘to make [someone] sit down’, ‘to place [something]’ (cf. the earliest documentary attestation in IG 1³,1.21.43 [Athens, 450‒449 BCE] δι]καστήριον καθίζει, ‘he summons the court’) ‒ or intransitive, i.e. ‘to sit down’. Both meanings are attested already in Homer – see, e.g., Od. 2.68–9: λίσσομαι ἠμὲν Ζηνὸς Ὀλυμπίου ἠδὲ Θέμιστος, | ἥ τ᾿ ἀνδρῶν ἀγορὰς ἠμὲν λύει ἠδὲ καθίζει (‘I pray you by Olympian Zeus and by Themis who dissolves and gathers (lit. ‘makes sit’) the assemblies of men’) and Od. 8.422: ἐλθόντες δὲ καθῖζον ἐν ὑψηλοῖσι θρόνοισι (‘they came in and sat down on the high thrones’). When employed intransitively, (καθ)ίζω may be used to describe not only the action of sitting down (cf. above) but occasionally also the state of being seated (cf. Willi 2018, 151), although the stative sense is typically conveyed by a different verb, i.e. (κάθ)ημαικάθημαι (on which, see entry κάθησο, κάθου, κάθησαι, κάθῃ). For further epigraphic attestations, cf. Threatte (1996, 642); the verb occurs in papyri from the 2nd century BCE onwards, cf. P.Cair.Zen. 3.59355.125 (= TM 998) [Alexandria (?), after 244 BCE].

Provided it is not a scribal error for καθίζομαι, a synonym of (καθ)ίζω in the intransitive sense ‘to sit down’, i.e. (καθ)έζομαι, is first attested in Ar. fr. 490: ὥσπερ ἐν Καλλιππίδῃ | ἐπὶ τοῦ κορήματος καθέζομαι χαμαί, ‘as in the Callippides I sit down on the ground in the sweepings’ (the occurrence in Hom. Od. 10.378 τίφθ’ οὕτως, Ὀδυσεῦ, κατ’ ἄρ’ ἕζεαι ἶσος ἀναύδῳ, ‘why, Odysseus, do you sit thus, like a mute?’ is ‘no doubt secondary’, according to Willi 2018, 74). All documentary attestations are post-classical. καθέζομαι likely originated from a reanalysis as an imperfect of the aorist (καθ)έζετο (e.g. Hom. Il. 1.48, Hom. Il. 1.360; cf. Willi 2018, 152). The interpretation of (καθ)έζετο continues to be disputed: one may either consider it to be a reduplicated aorist from *se-sd-e/o- (cf. e.g. Klingenschmitt 1982, 130; Willi 2018, 74) or a thematic aorist (*h₁e-sd-e-to) with analogical aspiration (cf. Cardona 1960, 50, 85–6, Kölligan 2007, 216).

A third (considerably less widespread) verb linked to the same IE root is καθιζάνω, which originates from καθίζω and is formed with a nasal suffix. Given that the verb has no nasal present cognate outside Greek (note that the Armenian hecanim ‘to sit on horseback’ and thus ‘to ride’, also from *sed- + nasal suffix, is a parallel development; cf. Martirosyan 2010, 402–3) and that its meaning is practically identical to that of καθίζω, it is likely that καθιζάνω originated in poetic languagePoetic language as a metrical alternative (it occurs once in Homer, Od. 5.3, and once in Sappho, fr. 43.7), and to have then spread to Attic Greek (cf. Aesch. Eu. 29, Pherecr. fr. 183 = C.8, Isoc. 1.52, Pl. Euthd. 278b.8, and twice in Pl. Phdr. 228e.3‒229b.2 = C.10) and, finally, to the language of documentary texts as another unmarked term for ‘to sit (down)’ (it first appears in inscriptions and papyri in the 2nd century BCE, cf. the prefixed παρεκαθίζανον ‘they sat down beside’ in IG 2².1011.22 [Attica, 106‒105 BCE] and καθιζάνει ‘she sits down’ in UPZ 1.78.20 (= TM 3469) [Memphis, 159 BCE]); cf. Sturm 2021, 218). Its meaning is invariably intransitive but may be either dynamic or stative (cf. e.g. C.8: καθίζανε ‘sit down!’; Arist. HA 593b.9–10: ἡ μὲν φθέγγεται καθιζάνουσα ἐπὶ τῶν δονάκων, ‘one [type of halcyon] sings sitting on the reeds’).

The notion that καθίζω, καθέζομαι, and καθιζάνω were preverbated had already been lost in Classical Greek, as evidenced by the standardised use of external augmentationAugment in the imperfect and aorist (cf. e.g. Ar. V. 824 ἐκαθίζου, Thuc. 1.137.1 ἐκαθέζετο, Χ. An. 3.5.17 ἐκάθισαν; on internal and external augmentation in preverbated roots and their perception in Atticist lexica, see entries ἀνέῳγoν, ἤνοιγoν, δεδιακόνηκα, διηκόνηκα, ἐδιακόνουν, διηκόνουν, and AGP vol. 2, Verbal morphology, forthcoming). The three verbs are also often used with the addition of further preverbs already in the classical period (e.g. Ar. Pl. 727 παρεκαθέζετο ‘he sat beside’, Antiph. fr. 200 ἐπικαθιζάνειν ‘to sit upon’, Pl. Prt. 317e.3 συνεκαθεζόμεθα ‘we sat down together’, IG 2³,1.320.14‒5 [Athens, 337‒336 BCE] συνκαθίζειν ‘to sit together, to convene’, W.Chr. 11B.10 (= TM 376) [Krokodilopolis, after 123 BCE] περιεκάθισαν ‘they sat around’ i.e. ‘they besieged’).

While καθιζάνω has only a handful of attestations in Classical Greek, καθίζω and καθέζομαι are extremely widespread. In that which follows, I shall take some canonical authors as examples of the Attic usage of active καθίζω (both in the transitive meaning ‘to make someone sit down’ and in the intransitive ‘to sit down’) and the middle-passive καθίζομαι and καθέζομαι to elucidate these forms’ distribution (it should be remembered that, in the case of καθίζομαι and καθέζομαι, errors or intentional alterations in the manuscript tradition as well as modern editorial choices may be instrumental in the forms’ relative distribution). The various forms of the future tense are intentionally excluded from the survey and will be dealt with separately (cf. below).

In Aristophanes, καθίζω occurs 10x, καθίζομαι 6x, and καθέζομαι 4x. Of the 10 instances of active καθίζω, only two are transitive: i.e. Ar. V. 305 (in the expression τὸ δικαστήριον καθίζειν, lit. ‘to make the court sit down’, thus ‘to summon the court’, cf. IG 1³,1.21.43 [Athens, 450‒449 BCE], quoted above) and Ar. Ra. 911 (where Euripides uses the verb to describe Aeschylus putting a character on scene). Meanwhile, in the remaining 8 cases, the verb is used intransitively (6x in the 2nd-person imperative κάθιζε, ‘sit down!’, while only one instance of middle-passive imperative καθίζου occurs in Eq. 785). In the other comic playwrights, καθίζω occurs 5x, 4 of which are in the intransitive sense ‘to sit down’ or ‘to sit’ (i.e. Eup. fr. 194, Pherecr. fr. 133, Alex. fr. 42, Macho fr. 8.55, while in Men. fr. 631.5 the sense is the same but the object is a reflexive pronoun, ἐκάθισαν αὑτούς ‘they sat themselves down’). The middle-passive, by contrast, is found twice as καθίζομαι (in Cratinus, C.1, and Archippus, C.13) and twice as καθέζομαι (in Alex. fr. 191 καθεζόμενος and in Men. Mis. fr. 1.8 κα̣θ̣έ̣ζετ̣α̣[ι). In sum, to convey the intransitive meaning ‘to sit (down)’, Aristophanes appears to use καθίζω more often than καθίζομαι and καθέζομαι (8x vs. 6x and 4x, respectively). Similarly, the cumulative data from the other comic playwrights show that καθίζω ‘to sit (down)’ is used 4x while καθίζομαι and καθέζομαι occur only 2x each.

A different picture emerges from Plato, who mostly uses καθέζομαι (16x), while καθίζομαι and καθίζω have 7 and 8 occurrences, respectively: in 5 of the 8 attestations of καθίζω, the verb has the transitive meaning ‘to make [someone] sit down’ ‒ cf. C.11, Pol. 298e.13 (where the meaning is, in fact, ‘to summon the court’ as in Ar. V. 305), Charm. 153c.6, Ion 535e.5, and Lg. 874a.1 ‒ while the intransitive meaning ‘to sit down’ is found only in three cases (i.e. Pl. Phdr. 254c.2, Cri. 120b.7, and Lg. 659b.3). Likewise, in Thucydides, καθέζομαι is the most attested (18x), while καθίζομαι is unattested, and the active καθίζω is used 5 times intransitively (mostly in relation to people seeking refuge in temples, cf. Thuc. 1.126.10, 3.28.2, 3.75.4, and 3.75.5 = C.2) and 6 times transitively, invariably within the expression τὸν στρατὸν (or similar) καθίζειν, indicating the action of having the army stop and set up camp at a given location (cf. Thuc. 2.71.1, 4.90.5, 4.93.1, 5.7.4, 6.66.1, and 7.82.3). In Xenophon, the situation is as follows: καθέζομαι 16x, καθίζομαι 3x, and καθίζω 18x, of which 11 occurrences are transitive (see, in particular, the expression κλαίοντας καθίζειν, lit. ‘to make them sit down crying’ and thus ‘to make them cry’, in X. Mem. 2.1.12, Smp. 3.11.4, and An. 2.2.14‒5, also in Pl. Ion 535e.5, cf. above, and Eup. fr. 99.110, cf. below) and 7 intransitive. Overall, it seems reasonable to say that, in prose, the intransitive meaning ‘to sit down’ is preferably conveyed by καθίζομαι/καθέζομαι and considerably less often by active καθίζω, whereas in Aristophanes and the other comic playwrights, active καθίζω is the slightly more usual option for expressing ‘to sit down’. In this light, we may tentatively assume that the intransitive use of καθίζω was a feature of spokenColloquial language Greek and was perceived as less appropriate than καθίζομαι/καθέζομαι by prose writers (verbs such as (ἀνα)παύω ‘to (make) stop, to rest’ and ἀναψύχω ‘to refresh, to recover’ may exhibit a similar –    albeit chronologically later – low-register development from the active voice having a purely transitive/causative meaning to its eventual assumption of the intransitive meaning as well: see entry ἀνεψύχην, ἀνέψυξα)

The Atticists’ stance with respect to the use of καθίζω, καθέζομαι, and καθιζάνω, while not preserved as a cohesive doctrine, may be tentatively reconstructed by piecing together traces scattered across more than one lexicographic entry. The general impression is that the lexicographers dealt with these verbs’ different tenses as discrete problems.

Regarding the present, the only form that Phrynichus mentions (A.1) is καθέζομαι, arguably in the intransitive sense ‘I sit down’. Meanwhile, for the same intransitive meaning, the Philetaerus (A.6) prescribes the middle-passive καθίζομαι. The entry includes the quotation of a passage from Thucydides (C.2), though this is misquoted. Indeed, A.6 expressly recommends the reading καθιζόμενοι. However, Thucydides’ manuscript tradition unanimously transmits καθίζουσιν: the discrepancy may be attributable to a mnemonic error. Other entries prescribe the middle-passive present imperativeImperative καθίζου (A.9) or καθέζου (A.7) in the sense ‘sit down!’ against the active aorist imperative κάθισον (the latter, however, is accepted by the Philetaerus, A.6, see below). More generally, active καθίζω is effectively absent from Atticist sources (the reference to καθίζειν in A.8 lacks discussion of any kind, and it is thus impossible to draw any conclusion as to how Orus intended the verb to be used). This ‒ along with the seemingly more colloquial nature of intransitive καθίζω, which seems to emerge from the distribution in classical authors (see above) ‒ points towards the Atticists’ preference to avoid active καθίζω (in the present tense, at least, cf. below) in the intransitive sense ‘I sit down’ and favouring the middle-passive instead (be that in the form of καθέζομαι or καθίζομαι); cf. B.8. That the use of καθίζω and καθίζομαι/καθέζομαι was a topic of debate among imperial grammarians is further confirmed by the Lucianic Solecist (C.17), in which the main speaker highlights the different uses of καθίζω and καθέζομαι, stating that the former may be used both transitively and intransitively (in contrast to the picture that appears to emerge from the Atticist lexica, cf. above) while the latter is used only intransitively. The mostly post-classical form καθιζάνω (cf. above) is absent from the Atticist lexica of the imperial period and is openly rejected by Orus (A.8), who, however, seems to at least allow for the imperative καθίζανε (A.9) on the basis of its presence in Pherecrates (C.8). The same form is included in the Antiatticist (A.2), and one may easily assume that the entry relied on the same attestation in Pherecrates, although, in its present state, it does not include any literary reference.

The treatment of the aorist tense of καθίζω and καθέζομαι in Atticist sources merits its own investigation. The passive aorist from καθέζομαι, i.e. ἐκαθέσθην, is unanimously proscribed by Phrynichus (A.1), the Philetaerus (A.7), Orus (A.8), and Thomas Magister (B.10). This is unsurprising given that the form has no classical attestations (it appears e.g. 3x in the Aesopic fables, 2x in the Septuagint, 7x in Josephus). Both Phrynichus (A.1) and Orus (A.8) define the forms of the passive aorist of καθέζομαι as ἔκφυλαἔκφυλος, i.e. ‘foreign, outlandish’ and thus to be avoided. This, along with the general similarity of the content, further suggests that Orus’ entry depends on Phrynichus’. Therefore, the richness of quotations in Orus is likely to constitute a testimony of how much material has been lost in the Eclogue’s transmission as a result of epitomisationEpitome (on Orus’ dependence on Phrynichus’ Praeparatio sophistica and Eclogue, cf. Alpers 1981, 104‒7 and entry Orus, Ἀττικῶν λέξεων συναγωγή). Τhe association of the same adjective ἔκφυλος with the imperative aorist passive καθέσθητι in the Solecist (C.17) may suggest the existence of a common source shared by the Lucianic dialogue, Phrynichus, and Orus, cf. Alpers (1981, 4‒5); incidentally, C.17 and the Philetaerus, A.7, represent the earliest attestations of καθέσθητι, which is otherwise found only in late-antique religious texts and Byzantine authors (cf. E.). According to the Philetaerus (A.7) and Orus (A.8), the preferred form for ‘I sat down’ is the active sigmatic aorist of καθίζω, i.e. ἐκάθισα, although the evidence for the intransitive ἐκάθισα is not particularly abundant in Attic authors (cf. Pherecr. fr. 133: ἐπὶ τηγάνοις καθίσανθ’ ὑφάπτειν τοῦ φλέω, ‘sitting near the pots, to set the reed on fire from underneath’; Lys. 13.24: ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐκάθισαν, ‘after sitting down’). Interestingly, the Atticists are not unanimous with respect to the aorist imperative κάθισον (once in Hippocrates, then only in post-classical texts, most notably the Septuagint, 8x). On the one hand, the Philetaerus (A.7) accepts the form (alongside καθέζου) in the intransitive meaning, as does the Solecist (C.17, although, here, the focus is not on the form itself but on the different meanings of κάθισον and κάθησο, the former being dynamic, ‘sit down!’, the latter stative, ‘be/stay seated!’, cf. B.11; a different stance is evident in [Ammonius], B.1, who appears to conceive of κάθισον as exclusively transitive in opposition to κάθησο; on these entries, see κάθησο, κάθου, κάθησαι, κάθῃ). On the other hand, Orus (A.9) openly rejects κάθισον and prescribes only the middle-passive present καθίζου, in support of which he quotes a comic line of unknown attribution (note that καθίζου also occurs at Ar. Eq. 785). The aorist of καθιζάνω is exclusively post-classical (first attested in Cassius Dio, 4x) and is not discussed by Atticist sources.

Proceeding to the future tense, the form for ‘I will sit down’ attested in Classical Greek (and thus recommended by the Atticists, cf. A.1, A.5, A.7, A.8, B.9, and B.10) is almost invariably καθεδοῦμαι (cf. e.g. Aristophanes 9x ‒ among which see C.3, C.4, C.5, C.6 ‒, Plato 1x, Teleclides 1x = C.7, Demosthenes 5x). καθεδοῦμαι is a contract future that is clearly aimed at preserving morphological transparency: indeed, a regular future from the root *sed- (i.e. *sed-se/o-) would be *(καθ)έσομαι (cf. Willi 2018, 452). Actually, in Eup. fr. 99.110 one reads ναὶ μὰ Δία κλάοντα καθέσω σ(ε) (‘By Zeus, I’ll make you cry’, with the same phrasing with κλαίω observed in Xenophon and Plato, cf. above): the form is only explainable (if not as a scribal error for καθίσω, which would itself be problematic from a chronological standpoint, cf. below) as an active sigmatic future from *κατ-hεδ-σε/ο-. Another Attic futureFuture, Attic, i.e. καθιῶ/καθιοῦμαι, is found only three times in classical authors (Xenophon 1x, Demosthenes 2x; while it is more widespread in post-classical texts, e.g. Septuagint 13x) and is mentioned as acceptable by both Orus (A.8), Choeroboscus (B.6), and Thomas Magister (B.9). However, the post-classical tendency towards paradigmatic regularisation spurred the development of new analogical sigmatic futures from the presents καθίζω, καθέζομαι, and καθιζάνω, i.e. καθίσω, καθεσθήσομαι, and καθιζήσομαι, respectively, and it is with these forms that the Atticist lexica are primarily concerned.

According to the Antiatticist (A.3, provided one accepts Valckenaer’s emendation Ἀπολλόδωρος for the transmitted ἀπολέγων, cf. the apparatus), καθίσω occurred already in an author named Apollodorus (C.14). Two New Comedy playwrights named Apollodorus are known: Apollodorus of Gela, a contemporary of Menander (cf. Kassel, Austin PCG vol. 2, 502‒5), and the younger Apollodorus of Carystus (cf. Kassel, Austin PCG vol. 2, 485‒501): when, as in this instance, they are quoted without the ethnic, the attribution remains uncertain (cf. Kassel, Austin PCG vol. 2, 506‒16). Irrespective of the identification of the reconstructed name Ἀπολλόδωρος, we cannot rule out the possibility that the Antiatticist, possibly working with a citation that was already deprived of its context, misunderstood a 1st-person aorist subjunctive for a sigmatic future (the same observation applies to Antiatt. κ 38Antiatt. κ 38 re. κρεμάσω in the comic playwright Alcaeus, cf. entry κρεμῶ, κρεμάσω, ὀμοῦμαι, ὀμόσω). Aside from this uncertain attestation, the future καθίσω is found in the Septuagint (cf. LXX Si. 11.1 ἐν μέσῳ μεγιστάνων καθίσει αὐτόν, ‘he will settle him among the powerful’; LXX Da. 7.26 ἡ κρίσις καθίσεται, ‘the judgement will be settled’), in the New Testament (Ev.Matt. 25.31 καθίσει ἐπὶ θρόνου, ‘he will sit on the throne’), and in other religious and hagiographical texts but also in non strictly Atticising authors, such as Plutarch (2x). Therefore, Moeris’ rejection of the form (A.5, cf. also B.9) is unsurprising, while Choeroboscus (B.6) accepts the form precisely because it is that found in the Scriptures. The passive future καθεσθήσομαι (almost exclusively in religious texts, cf. e.g. LXX Le. 12.5) is unanimously condemned by Phrynichus (A.1), the Philetaerus (A.7), Orus (A.8), and Thomas Magister (B.10), whereas καθιζήσομαι is accepted both by the Antiatticist (A.4) and Orus (A.9), in light of its presence in Aeschines (C.12) and Plato (C.10, but see also Pl. Euthd. 278b.8). C.10 ‒ with its four subsequent occurrences of καθιζόμενοι, καθιζησόμεθα (2x), and καθίζεσθαι ‒ was of particular interest to lexicographers dealing with καθίζω, καθέζομαι, and καθιζάνω. Indeed, it is quoted not only by the Antiatticist (A.4), but also several times by Orus (A.8, A.9). In particular, in A.8, Orus misquotes the passage, replacing one of the two occurrences of καθιζησόμεθα with καθεδούμεθα. Unlike in A.6, where the compiler of the Philetaerus appears to acknowledge the difference between the Thucydidean text, as he read it, and the variant reading adopted in the entry (καθιζόμενοι, cf. above), the replacement of καθιζησόμεθα with καθεδούμεθα in A.8 may perhaps be more readily explained as a mnemonic error.

E. Byzantine and Modern Greek commentary

Regarding the present tense, Byzantine authors continue to use both καθίζω and καθέζομαι, the former not only in the transitive sense of ‘to make [someone] sit down’, ‘to place [something]’ but also in its intransitive meaning ‘to sit down’. Between the 8th and the 10th centuries CE, καθέζομαι is by far the most frequently attested form, and it remains prevalent throughout the Byzantine period. However, from the 11th century CE onwards, καθέζομαι appears to gradually recede as the sense ‘to sit down’ is increasingly conveyed by active καθίζω.

Despite the Atticists’ proscription of the passive aorist ἐκαθέσθην (cf. A.1, A.7, A.8, B.10), the form remains in widespread use (alongside ἐκάθισα) throughout the Byzantine period, arguably as a result of the Scriptures’ influence. It is particularly frequent in 8th‒10th-century CE texts, with its frequency diminishing in late Byzantine authors.

The debated aorist imperative κάθισον (approved by the Philetaerus, A.7, but rejected by Orus, A.9) is the preferred form in all Byzantine texts, with the competing middle-passive present imperatives καθέζου and καθίζου occurring decidedly less frequently.

Among the several future forms meaning ‘I will sit’, καθίσω occurs most frequently between the 8th and the 10th century CE and after the 14th century CE, whereas the texts dating between the 11th and the 13th century CE reveal an increased occurrence of καθεδοῦμαι.

In Medieval Greek, καθίζω developed a syncopated perfective stem κατσ- (< καθισ-) that initially gave rise to the paroxytone aorist indicative ἐκάτσα, later reanalysed as proparoxytone ἔκατσα (cf. CGMEMG vol. 3, 1384‒5). Although καθίζω is in use in Modern Greek, mostly in the transitive sense ‘to make [someone] sit down’ (cf. LKN s.v.), the more common intransitive verb meaning ‘to sit (down)’ is κάθομαι (< κάθημαι, aor. κάθισα and έκατσα, cf. entry κάθησο, κάθου, κάθησαι, κάθῃ). Meanwhile, καθιζάνω is used only as a technical term in specialised (namely geological and chemical) contexts, in which it may describe soil that is undergoing subsidence or a substance dissolved in a liquid that settles as a precipitate (cf. LKN s.v.).

F. Commentary on individual texts and occurrences

N/A