thou sightest? What does it mean?

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But now, on the third day after what had been done, Mundus met Paulina, and said, "Nay, Paulina, thou hast saved me two hundred thousand drachmae, which sum thou sightest have added to thy own family; yet hast thou not failed to be at my service in the manner I invited thee. As for the reproaches thou hast laid upon Mundus, I value not the business of names; but I rejoice in the pleasure I reaped by what I did, while I took to myself the name of Anubis." When he had said this, he went his way. But now she began to come to the sense of the grossness of what she had done, and rent her garments, and told her husband of the horrid nature of this wicked contrivance, and prayed him not to neglect to assist her in this case. So he discovered the fact to the emperor; whereupon Tiberius inquired into the matter thoroughly by examining the priests about it, and ordered them to be crucified, as well as Ide, who was the occasion of their perdition, and who had contrived the whole matter, which was so injurious to the woman. He also demolished the temple of Isis, and gave order that her statue should be thrown into the river Tiber;

More:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews/Book_XVIII#Chapter_3

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Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 2,609 • Replies: 22

[+3] - contrex - 06/29/2013I suspect the scarcity of replies was due to the fact that 'sightest' is meaningless in that place. Here is a scan of a printed version of William Whiston's 1737 translation of "Jewish...

View best answer, chosen by oristarA

@oristarA,

Is it very hard?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

Is it very hard?

yes, when the question contains an error.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

oristarA wrote:

Is it very hard?

yes, when the question contains an error.

Let's give this up? Who cares what the dirty slave of passion said.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

I suspect the scarcity of replies was due to the fact that 'sightest' is meaningless in that place.

Here is a scan of a printed version of William Whiston's 1737 translation of "Jewish Antiquities" by Flavius Josephus which reveals the error (not 'sightest' but 'mightest'):

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p29/badoit/mightest_zps2b2316e7.jpg

This is a translation into what was, even in the 18th century, old-fashioned English. "Mightest" was the participle of 'might' (meaning 'to be able to') and nowadays we would say "You have saved me two hundred thousand drachmae (or drachmas) which you might (or could) have added to the your own family (i.e. kept for yourself).

The error is present in a number of online versions of the Whiston translation, including one at the University Of Texas web site.

Google Books (scanned) version:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=U06oqM41ZLgC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

2 Replies

Thank you, Contrex, for your helpful post.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

"Mightest" was the participle of 'might'

Er, past tense.

0 Replies

@contrex,

It was a great answer. I think Ori gave up before you posted it.

Joe(I appreciate you.)Nation

1 Reply

@Joe Nation,

Me too. It hath pleased me mightily, and great was the rejoicing thereover. Verily I say unto you, that the man who doth google and seek after truth for another, even he shall be exalted among men.

1 Reply

The desuetude of the second person singular passeth understanding. Thy speech is robbed of elegance and entertainment. Thou hast lost those joys, and thou getest nought in return. I pity thee.

1 Reply

@McTag,

McTag wrote:

Me too. It hath pleased me mightily, and great was the rejoicing thereover. Verily I say unto you, that the man who doth google and seek after truth for another, even he shall be exalted among men.

Applause for the man of honor now standing before us.

0 Replies

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

I suspect the scarcity of replies was due to the fact that 'sightest' is meaningless in that place.

Here is a scan of a printed version of William Whiston's 1737 translation of "Jewish Antiquities" by Flavius Josephus which reveals the error (not 'sightest' but 'mightest'):

This is a translation into what was, even in the 18th century, old-fashioned English. "Mightest" was the participle of 'might' (meaning 'to be able to') and nowadays we would say "You have saved me two hundred thousand drachmae (or drachmas) which you might (or could) have added to the your own family (i.e. kept for yourself).

The error is present in a number of online versions of the Whiston translation, including one at the University Of Texas web site.

Google Books (scanned) version:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=U06oqM41ZLgC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

Who would like to tell me how much US dollars is it worth for one drachmae?

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Quote:

The desuetude of the second person singular passeth understanding. Thy speech is robbed of elegance and entertainment. Thou hast lost those joys, and thou getest nought in return. I pity thee.

Gimme a break, Set. It was nearly midnight when I scribbled that.

(gloomy face here)

1 Reply

Quote:

Who would like to tell me how much US dollars is it worth for one drachmae?

variable.

"It is difficult to estimate comparative exchange rates with modern currency because the range of products produced by economies of centuries gone by were different from today, which makes purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations very difficult; however, some historians and economists have estimated that in the 5th century BC a drachma had a rough value of 25 U.S. dollars (in the year 1990 - equivalent to 41 USD in 2009[7]), whereas classical historians regularly say that in the heyday of ancient Greece (the fifth and fourth centuries) the daily wage for a skilled worker or a hoplite[8] was one drachma, and for a heliast (juror) half a drachma since 425 BC.[9]

Modern commentators derived from Xenophon[10] that half a drachma per day (360 days per year) would provide "a comfortable subsistence" for "the poor citizens" (for the head of a household in 355 BC). Earlier in 422 BC, we also see in Aristophanes (Wasps, line 300-302) that the daily half-drachma of a juror is just enough for the daily subsistence of a family of three.

A modern person might think of one drachma as the rough equivalent of a skilled worker's daily pay in the place where they live, which could be as low as $1 USD, or as high as $100 USD, depending on the country.

Fractions and multiples of the drachma were minted by many states, most notably in Ptolemaic Egypt, which minted large coins in gold, silver and bronze.

Notable Ptolemaic coins included the gold pentadrachm and octadrachm, and silver tetradrachm, decadrachm and pentakaidecadrachm. This was especially noteworthy as it would not be until the introduction of the Guldengroschen in 1486 that coins of substantial size (particularly in silver) would be minted in significant quantities.

For the Roman successors of the drachma, see Roman provincial coins."

from Wiki

0 Replies

@McTag,

I haven't the slightest idea what you're on about.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

Who would like to tell me how much US dollars is it worth for one drachmae?

drachma (singular) drachmae or (drachmas plural)

0 Replies

@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

I haven't the slightest idea what you're on about.

He is comparing the worth of an ancient Greek drachma to modern values. He is slightly (!) out chronologically since the Mundus/Paulina thing happened around 19 AD. The first century AD Roman drachma was 0.12 ounces of silver. The last spot price I found (28 June) was $19.59 per ounce so that amount of silver would be worth around $2.35 today. Of course such a comparison ignores many things.

1 Reply

I also have no idea what you are on about.

McTag wrote:

Quote:
The desuetude of the second person singular passeth understanding. Thy speech is robbed of elegance and entertainment. Thou hast lost those joys, and thou getest nought in return. I pity thee.

Gimme a break, Set. It was nearly midnight when I scribbled that.

(gloomy face here)

I was responding to that post. If, when you read someone's post, there is a blue link to the person wo whom they are responding, you can click on it to see which post is being responded to.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

If, when you read someone's post, there is a blue link to the person wo whom they are responding, you can click on it to see which post is being responded to.

I didn't know that; I thought it was just displaying their name.

0 Replies

No big deal. I was just having some fun with the second person singular. I was a amazed at the response i got.

0 Replies

thou sightest? What does it mean?

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