ΑΥΤΟΣ ΕΚΕΙΝΟΣ: A neglected idiom

Abstract

The use of αὐτ⋯ το⋯το, ‘this very thing’, is perfectly familiar in classical Greek; but there is no general awareness, as witness the silence of the reference grammars and lexica, of the parallel usage of αὐτός juxtaposed with ⋯κεῖνος, which is in fact not infrequent in the classical period, and mentioned in Apollonius Dyscolus (Synt. 2. 88). The examination of this construction which follows is intended not only to add to our knowledge of Greek syntax, and thereby to defend some passages against erroneous emendations, but also to place in a wider context one of Plato's ways of referring to the Forms.As far as I can establish, the only scholar who has ever paid much attention to αὐτ⋯ς ⋯κεῖνος is J. Vahlen in 1906, and that in an obscure place, to explain an obscure passage; moreover, he simply accumulated parallels from authors of the Imperial period, without discussing how the construction is employed. It will emerge that the usage is no less frequent earlier, when it is used in a greater variety of ways, especially by Plato.