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Salvete congerrones eruditissimi,

modo legi in lexico Latino-Germanico a Henrico Georges confecto (opus Germanicum illi a Lewis & Short conscripto simile atque satis compar) sub lemmate «vagina» verba haec:

condere vaginae (Lokativ) gladium

⋯ quae Aurelio Prudentio Clementi, clarissimo auctori Christiano, ascribuntur. Lokativ, ut certe, sodales acutissimi, iam conieceratis, casum locativum significat. Hoc si verum esset, verbum vagina illi tabulae addere possemus, in qua verba communia continentur, quae cum locativo saltem interdum inveniuntur. Quod mirum mihi videretur. Habetne res se ita?

Nonne vero propius videtur vaginae in hoc loco dativum esse, quippe cum Georges ipse, sub lemmate «condo», affirmet id verbum cum dativo inveniri, quaestioni respondens: «quem in locum?» (numquam quidem apud Ciceronem). Sed verum est verbum condo locativo casui nonnumquam coniunctum esse, e.g. «aliquid domi suae conditum iam putare». Verbo domus quidem in illa tabula locum esse nemo dubitat.

Quid sentitis?

Sebastian Koppehel
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    Interrogata tua legere semper valde fruor, mi congerro acutissime! – Ben Kovitz Mar 23 '21 at 01:34
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    Mihi quoque dubia videtur haec sententia Georgii: si enim ita esset, possemus certe dicere e.g. Gladium vaginae est, quod haud Latinum puto. (Si de casibus disseritur, ut pediculum eligam, nonne scribendum erat in lexico Latino-Germanico ... opere Germanico, etc.?) – TKR Mar 23 '21 at 02:08
  • Si condo cum dativo casu quaestioni respondens: «quem in locum?» . Quid igitur inter dativum et locativum casūs sit, nisi quam nomina eorum? – d_e Mar 23 '21 at 08:06
  • @TKR adde «quod est opus etc.» ;-) – Sebastian Koppehel Mar 23 '21 at 11:48
  • Neue and Wagener 1902, Band 2, p. 642 C. Lokativ. 8. I. 1. Substantivische Lokative https://archive.org/details/formenlehrederla02neueuoft/page/642/mode/2up – Alex B. Mar 24 '21 at 19:02
  • cf. Magnus Frisch (Frisch 2020: 228) “uaginae ist hier Dativ der Richtung bws. des Ziels nach Verben der Bewegung (vgl. Lease 1895: 23-24 §59, Lavarenne 1933: 88 §172 u. Burton 2004: 13)” https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110630831-011/html – Alex B. Mar 24 '21 at 19:37
  • Lavarenne 1933 “poétique et postclassique”, datif de direction; Hofmann and Szantyr 1965/2016 Lateinische Grammatik Bd. 2: Lateinische Syntax und Stilistik §70 (Dativ des Zieles bzw. der Richtung), pp. 100-101; Stotz 1998 Handbuch zur lateinischen Sprache des Mittelalters Bd. 4: Formenlehre, Syntax und Stilistik, pp. 257-258 (§16 Dativ des Ziels, der Richtung) – Alex B. Mar 24 '21 at 20:14
  • @AlexB. Quam mirum tot auctores eum ipsum locum iam intuiti esse. Recentiores Latinitatis periti in ea sententia esse videntur, ut vaginae casus dativus sit in hoc loco. Quod libenter audio, cum mihi assentiantur, et invitus audio, cum illa tabula augeri non iam posse videatur. – Sebastian Koppehel Mar 25 '21 at 22:42

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I agree with TKR's comment above that vaginae {is not/cannot be} marked with locative case. I share your view that, to the extent that this expression (condere vaginae gladium) is attested, vaginae is probably a dative.

In fact, it is worth noting that some eminent philologists have claimed that in examples like the following one from Horace proprio horreo is a dative, instead of a non-prepositional ablative phrase, which is often found in poetry. For example, your compatriot Heinrich Düntzer interpreted proprio horreo, which also coappears with the verb condere, as a directional dative (Germ. "Dat des Zieles"): see his comment on horreo here. My hunch is that (again, to the extent that the expression condere vaginae gladium is attested), it could be the case that Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, an egregius Christian poet, also interpreted (some of) these non-prepositional ablative phrases typically found in poetry (e.g., in Horace, Virgil, Ovid, et al.) as datives.

si proprio condidit horreo / quicquid de Libycis verritur areis. (Hor. Od. 1, 1, 9-10)

Mitomino
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