DOI: https://d0i.0rg/10.4312/keria.22.2.25-55
Mark Janse
Sex and Agreement: (Mis)matching Natural and Grammatical Gender in Greek1
"Sex is the most important referential feature reflected in gender assignment"
(Luraghi 2013)
1. INTRODUCTION
The Greek word "ysvo; may refer to 'sex' as well as 'gender'. The concept of grammatical gender is obviously connected with the idea of biological sex, as emerges from the use of the adjectives appr|v 'male' and 0r|Xu; 'female' to distinguish masculine and feminine nouns. According to Aristotle, it was Protagoras who introduced the concept of grammatical gender:
(1) npœxayopac; ta ysvr| tô>v ôvo^àxœv ôifipei, âppeva Kai G^Aea Kai OKev^-
Protagoras distinguished the classes of nouns, males and females and things.
(Arist., Rhet. 1407b)
I prefer to translate appsva Kai 0r|Aia here as 'male and female', i.e. male and female beings, rather than 'masculine and feminine' (sc. noun classes), because of their juxtaposition with aKsur| 'things'.2 The choice of terminology
1	Research for this paper was done while the author was an Associate of Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies in 2019. A preliminary version was presented at the Round Table on "Greek Language and Grammatical Gender" at Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana (January 14, 2020). The author wishes to thank the organizers, Jerneja Kavčič and Christina Manouilidou, for their invitation and hospitality.
2	Cf. Corbeil (2008: 80); Wartelle (1982: 66) translates appr|v as 'mâle' in reference to humans, i.e. children (Rhet. 1361a6), but as 'masculin' in reference to noun classes (Rhet. 1407b6-8), 0r|Xi3c; as
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suggests a division between animate beings, subdivided into male and female, on the one hand, and inanimate objects on the other.3 Aristotle himself seems to prefer the term Ta ^sta^u 'the in-between' (Poet. 1458a).4
Dionysius Thrax is the first grammarian we know of to have used the terminology which has become accepted in the Greek and Roman grammatical tradition:
(2)	ysvr| |iev ouv sim xpia- dpaeviKov, 0nA«K6v, ovSeTEpov
There are in fact three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. (GG 1.1.24)
Dionysius adds that others distinguish two additional genders: koivov re kai ehikoivov 'common and epicene' (GG 1.125).5 Both can be used to refer to male as well as female beings, but whereas common nouns distinguish grammatical gender by agreement, epicene nouns do not. Examples of common nouns given by Dionysius include o ~ q inno; 'horse ~ mare' and o ~ q kuwv 'dog ~ bitch'; examples of epicene nouns are restricted to animals and include q XsA.i5wv 'swallow' [m/f] and o astoq 'eagle' [m/f] (GG 1.125).
2. EPICENE NOUNS
Aesop's fables unsurprisingly abound with such epicene nouns. The fable of the eagle and the fox, for instance, seems to be about two female animals and their young, but o astoq being an epicine masculine noun (and one of the examples cited by Dionysius Thrax) as opposed to q aXwnq^, which is an epi-cine feminine noun, both trigger obligatory grammatical agreement patterns on pronouns and participles which have no relation with their biological sex:
(3)	dero^ Kai dXwrtq^ ^lAiav npo; aAAqAouc; noiqaa^evoi nAqoiov eauTurv o'iKsiv Sisyvwaav ... Kai o ^ev dva^ai; eni ti nspi|ir|K£c; SsvSpov evsoTTonoir|aaTo^ q Se eiae\0ouaa si; tov unoKsi|isvov 9a|ivov stsksv.
An eagle [m] and a fox [f] who had befriended [m] each other decided to live close to each other ... and so the former [m] went up [m] a very high tree to hatch, whereas the latter [f] went inside [f] the underlying bush to give birth.
(Aesop. 1 Hausrath-Hunger)
'féminin, de sexe ou de genre féminin' (1982: 193), in reference to the same passages, and aKeûo; as 'mot (nom, adjectif, pronom) neutre' (1982: 388).
3	Cf. Schmidhauser (2010: 501), Novokhatko (2020: 107).
4	Singular tô ^era^û (Arist., Poet. 166b; Soph. el. 173b).
5	Dionysius' wording evioi ôe npoariOéam toutou; âtta ôûo 'but some add to these two others' (GG 1.1.24) indicates that he was not the inventor of the traditional terminology.
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The fable of the tortoise and the eagle has survived in different versions, two of which are worthwhile comparing (Aesop. 259 Hausrath-Hunger):
(4a) xe^vn Qeaoa^evn asxov nsxo|isvov ensGu^n^s Kai avrr^ nexsaGai A tortoise [f] who saw [f] an eagle fly wished to fly herself [f].
(4b) \e\u<; apprfv 0£aaa^£vo<; asxov ensGu^n^s Kai avrroi; nsxaaGrjvai
A male [m] tortoise [f] who saw [m] an eagle wished to fly himself [m].
The sex of the eagle is undetermined in both versions, astoq being an epi-cine masculine noun (and one of the examples cited by Dionysius Thrax) and seemingly irrelevant for the purpose of the fable. The two words for 'tortoise', ^ XeXwvr| and ^	are both epicine feminine nouns and both are used
alternately in the Homeric hymn to Mercurius to refer to the same mountain tortoise: xsXuq opsai (wouaa 'a tortoise [f] who is living [f] in the mountains' (h.Merc. 33), opsaKwoio xsXwvrq 'of the mountain-dwelling [m/f] tortoise [f]' (h.Merc. 44). The sex of the tortoise in the first version of the fable (4a) is therefore undetermined and, again, seemingly irrelevant. The agreement of the participle Gsaaa^svr and the pronoun aut| with xsXwvr is, in other words, obligatory and purely grammatical. In the second version, however, the turtle is overtly marked as male by the agreement of the participle Gsaaa^svoq and the pronoun autoq with x^uq, which would have been ungrammatical, had it not been for the added adjective app|v. One can only guess at the reason(s) why the author of this version thought it necessary to explicitly present the tortoise as a male—because he wants to "fly like an eagle" out of male vanity, male arrogance, male hybris or perhaps all of the above?
3. NATURAL GENDER AND DECLENSION
In a well-known scene from Aristophanes' Clouds, Socrates is presented as having even more original, albeit quite radical solutions to the problem of common nouns in his education of Strepsiades on the topic of gender assignment and gender marking (Nub. 658-93).6 Socrates is playing on the ambiguity on the ambiguity of the adjective app|v, when he asks Strepsiades which four-legged animals are properly male / masculine (twv tstpanoSwv art'
6 As for the source for the scene, Wackernagel (1928: 4), Corbeil (2008: 80) and Willi (2003: 99)
acknowledge Protagoras, Sommerstein (1982: 196) and Henderson (1998: 97s9) Prodicus. Dover mentions Protagoras in connection with "the genders of nouns", but refers to Prodicus in connection with the use of öpOöc; at Nub. 659 (1968: 182). Willi rightly stresses the "composite picture" of the Aristophanic Socrates in Clouds "as a result of much comic freedom" (2003: 116; cf. Langslow's note on Wackernagel's current identification of Socrates with Protagoras [2009: 4027]).
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eattv opGw; appsva, Nub. 659). Strepsiades, of course, immediately starts enumerating what he thinks are "properly male" animals: Kpio; 'ram', Tpdyo; 'billygoat, Taupo; 'bull', kuwv 'dog, aXsKTpuwv 'fowl' (Nub. 661). Whereas the first three are prototypical second-declension nouns which unquestionably refer to male animals, the last two are in fact common nouns which may refer to males and females alike: kuwv is one of the examples cited by Dionysius Thrax (cf. supra), but Socrates instead focuses on aXsKTpuwv:7
(5) opac; a naaxeic;; t^v te G^Aeiav KaXeic; | aXeKTpuova Kara xavxo Kai tov appeva
You see what is wrong with you? You use aXeKTpuurv [m/f] to refer to the female [f] and the male [m] alike. (Ar., Nub. 662-3)
To resolve the referential or, if you like, sexual ambiguity of the word, Socrates offers a radical solution to the problem (of which only he is apparently aware) and on the spot creates the feminine aXsKTpuatva 'hen', which he contrasts with the poetic masculine aXsKTwp 'cock' (Nub. 666) to avoid the epicene aXsKTpuwv. The otherwise unattested neologism aXsKTpuatva is obviously formed on the analogy of other pairs referring to opposite sexes in the animal kingdom such as Xswv 'lion' ~ Xsatva 'lioness', SpaKwv 'snake' ~ SpaKaiva 'she-snake', xuko; 'wolf' ~ XuKaiva 'she-wolf', CTKuXa^ 'dog' ~ CTKuXaKaiva 'bitch'.8 By doing so, the Aristophanic Socrates presents himself as a proponent of the principle that nouns referring to animate beings belonging to different sexes ought to be differentiated by different endings. Aristophanes, to be sure, used aXsKTpuwv as a "properly epicene" noun according to Athenaeus (9.374c), who quotes him to illustrate the fact that in fifth-century Attic this was common usage:9
(6a) wov lisyiCTTov tstoksv, w; aXsKtpuwv
She's laid a huge egg, like a cock. (Ar., fr. 193)
(6b) noWai twv d\EKTpuov«v ^ia unr|vs|iia TiKTouCTiv ¿a noXXaKi;
It happens that many [f] cocks [m/f] by necessity lay wind-eggs. (Ar., fr. 194)
7	Ignoring the fact that fowls are not quadrupeds, as Wackernagel wittingly remarks (1928: 1).
8	On the productivity and extension of the suffix see Chantraine: "le suffixe -aiva a pris en grec un développement nouveau, il a servi à désigner des animaux, surtout des animaux méprisés" (1933: 107). The oldest examples of the formation include Seanoiva 'mistress' ~ SeanoTr|c; 'master' (etymologically of a 'house') and Oeaiva in the formulaic verse kekXute |ioi navre; te 0eo! nâaai te Oeaivai 'hear me, all gods and all goddesses' (Il. 19.101, Od. 8.5) and variations thereupon (II. 8.20, Od. 8.341).
9	tov S ' àXeKTpuova ... 01 àp^aioi Kai 0r|XuKÔc; eipr|Kam 'the ancients used the word aXeKTpuwv also to refer to the hen' (Athen. 9.373e).
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The translation of (6a) and (6b) is Henderson's, who undoubtedly intended to emphasize Socrates' anopia with the common noun aXeKTpuwv, but the agreement of noXXai in (6b) leaves no doubt about the sex of the fowl (as if laying eggs was not enough to convince anyone).10
The principle of correspondence between sex and gender is even more hilariously illustrated with Socrates' second rebuke of Strepsiades' lack of gender awareness. When the latter (correctly) uses the feminine article with a second-declension noun, i.c. t^v KapSonov 'the trough' (Nub. 669), the former retorts that by doing so he is 'turning a feminine into a masculine noun' (appeva KaXsiq 0|Xeiav oiaav, Nub. 671). When Strepsiades asks him how on earth he managed to do that, Socrates replies: wanep "ye Kai KXewvu^ov 'well, obviously, just like Cleonymus' (Nub. 673a), adding: tautov Suvatai aoi KapSono; KXewvu^w 'clearly, KapSono; can be the same to you as KXewvu^o;' (Nub. 674). This provokes an obscene wordplay on the part of Strepsiades (Janse forthcoming a), who asks how he should say the word correctly. Socrates' answer is again mind-boggling:
(7)	x^v Kap5onr|v, wanep KaXeic x^v Zwaxpaxn
Kap5onr| [f], just as you say Zwaxpaxn [f]. (Ar., Nub. 678)
This is a remarkable innovation: instead of replacing the feminine article with its masculine equivalent (tov KapSonov), Socrates moves the noun to the first declension (t^v KapSon^v) to align the grammatical gender of the noun, indicated by the agreement of the article, with its dedicated inflectional class. Strepsiades is again unable to distinguish biological sex from grammatical gender and thus fails to understand why a trough should be 'female' (t^v KapSon^v 0|Xeiav; Nub. 679a). When Socrates reassures him that he has it right now (opGw; "yap Xeyei;; 679b), Strepsiades confidently repeats what he thinks he has just learned:11
(8)	¿Ksivo Suva|iai- KapSonn, KXewvu^n
That I can handle: Kap5onr| [f], KXea>vu|ir| [f]. (Ar., Nub. 680)
The point of Socrates' digression is that nouns belonging to the second declension should be masculine and those belonging to the first declension
10	Strepsiades, to be sure, learned his lesson well when he enlightens Phidippides not to use the epicene noun aXecpuwv to refer to both sexes, but to call the masculine fowl aXeicrap and the feminine aXeKTpuaiva (850-1).
11	Strepsiades later uses his newly acquired knowledge to put off his first creditor: ouk av anoSoir|v ouS' av o^oXov ouSevi | oaTi; KaXeaeie KapSonov T^v KapSon^v 'I wouldn't repay not even an obol to anyone | who calls the trough KapSono;' (Nub. 1250-1).
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feminine—whether naturally (^uast), conventionally (Gsast), or both.12 Socrates clearly treats Zwatpdtr| as a feminine noun referring to a female person,13 but Strepsiades apparently understands Zwatpdtr| as a feminine noun referring to an effeminate male, hence his reassignment of KXswvu^oq to the first declension.14 Apart from male-female doublets in personal names belonging to the second and first declension respectively, there are of course many doublets in nouns, e.g. Kopoq 'boy' ~ Kopr| 'girl', SouXoq 'slave' [m] ~ SouXr| 'slave' [f], Gsoq 'god' ~ Gsa 'goddess', etc.-not to mention the very common first and second-declension adjectives like KaXoq ~ KaX|.
It seems therefore quite reasonable for Socrates to fix, so to speak, the oddity of second-declension nouns triggering grammatical agremeent patterns on articles and adjectives usually reserved for first-declension nouns. As a matter of fact, many grammatically feminine second-declension nouns have been "repaired" in the course of time, either by imposing masculine agreement patterns on them or by moving them to the first declension (Jannaris 1897: 111-2). A well-known example, discussed by Wackernagel (1928: 3) in terms of analogy and more recently by Coker (2009: 40-2) in terms of category formation, is ^ da^oXoq 'soot' [f], which appears as ^ aa^oXn in Semonides (fr. 7.61 West) but as o da^oXoq in Hipponax (fr. 138 West) according to Phryni-chus (Praep. soph. 28.1 Borries),15 both variants condemned by Photius.16
4. LIKE A VIRGIN
A remarkably persistant feminine second-declension noun is ^ napGsvoq, the etymology of which is "enigmatique" in the words of Chantraine (1968-80: 858).17 Its original meaning seems to be 'maiden', the semantic narrowing to 'virgin' being secondary, as unmarried girls were not supposed to have babies (Janse forthcoming c).18 This appears to be the gist of the words of the chorus leader in Aristophanes' Clouds:
12	On theuse of Oeaei instead of vo|iw with regard to words see now Ebbesen (2019).
13	The name is very common (LGPN online lists 52 occurrences from Attica alone) and used three times by Aristophanes in other comedies (Eccl. 41, Thesm. 375, Vesp. 1397); cf. Dover (1968: 183), Sommerstein (1991: 197), Kanavou (2011: 150).
14	The 'transgenders' Ewarparn and KXewvu^n are discussed in more detail in Janse (forthcoming b).
15	Note that both wrote in Ionic - Semonides in the seventh, Hipponax in the late sixth century BC.
16	'AaßoXo; Or|A.UKÖc; ^ aaßoXoc;, oti^i ^ äaßoXr|, oüöe äpaeviKÖc; o aaßoXo; (Phot., Lex. 2946 Theodoridis).
17	Beekes (2010: 1153) accepts the etymology proposed by Klingenschmitt (1974): *pr-steno- 'with protruding breasts'.
18	It is noteworthy that the primary meaning of napOevo; in the documentary evidence of the Hellenistic and Imperial periods is the age class of girls (Chaniotis 2016).
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(9) Kàyû>, napGévoç yap st' ^ kovk è^rçv nw ^oi tekeTv | e^éGr|Ka, naî; ô' sxspa Ti; Xa^oua' âvsiXsxo
and I, being still an unmarried maiden and not allowed to give birth, exposed [the child], and some other girl took it up and adopted it. (Ar., Nub. 530-1)
It is clear that the male (sic) chorus leader "speaks of himself metaphorically as an unmarried girl who had a baby and (in accordance with a common Greek custom) left it to die in the open country", in the words of Dover, who astutely adds that napGsvo; is here "not a biological term, 'virgin', but a social term, 'unmarried'" (1968: 167).19 The original meaning is borne out by the juxtaposition of napGsvo; and naî; ô' ètépa Ti; 'some other girl' (Nub. 531). The fact that the word can be combined with other nouns seems to indicate that it was originally an adjective, e.g. "yuvaîka | napGsvov (Hes., Theog. 513-4), 0u"yaTr|p napGévo; (Xen., Cyr. 4.6.9).20 The meaning 'maiden' also underlies the use of napGsvo; in connection with |iGso; in Homer:21
(10a) napGévo; r(i'Geôc; T ôapiÇsTov âXX^Xoiiv
Maiden and youth both chat with each other. (Hom., Il. 22.128)
(10b) napGeviKai ôs Kai r|iGeoi âTaXa ^povsovTs;
Maidens and youth thinking innocent thoughts. (Hom., Il. 18.567)
The clearly archaic and poetic word |iGso; can be reconstructed as *ÎpiGspo;, which is presumably related to Proto-Indo-European *h1uidheu-'unmarried'. It is thus cognate with Sanskrit feraï vidhâvà, Old Church Slavonic B'bgoBa vudova, Latin uidua, Old Irish fedh, Welsh gweddw, Gothic Yl^nyQ widuwô and Old English widuwe, all meaning 'widow'. Chantraine questions the traditional etymologie: "il est difficile de tirer le nom du jeune homme non marié de celui de la veuve" (1968-80: 408), but Beekes connects the meanings 'widowed' and 'unmarried' (2010: 512) and concludes that it was originally an adjective (1992: 178).22
It may be noted that Latin uidua is not only used to refer to a widow,23 but also to an unmarried woman, notably in Tullia's urge to her husband Tarquin-ius Superbus, Rome's last king: se rectius uiduam et illum caelibem futurum fuisse contendere 'that it would have been juster for her to be unmarried and for
19	Cf. Sommerstein (1982: 187), Henderson (1998: 83), pace Sissa (1990: 86).
20	If Klingenschmitt's (1974) etymology is correct, napGévo; is originally a compound adjective, which would explain the fact that it is a second-declension adjective of two endings.
21	Cf. Hdt. 3.49.15-6.
22	A more detailed explanation is given in Beekes (1992).
23	As in Palinurus' warning to Phaedromus: dum abstineas nupta, uidua, uirgine ... ama quid-lubet 'as long as you stay away from a married woman, a widow, a virgin ... love whatever you like' (Plaut., Curcullio 1.1.37).
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him to be single' (Liv. 1.46.7). The juxtaposition of uidua with caelebs is very instructive, as the latter is also used to refer to a person who is single "through being unmarried, widowed, or divorced" (OLD, s.v.). Perhaps even more instructive is the following line from Propertius' tirade against Isis, where uidua is combined with puella: quidue tibi prodest uiduas dormire puellas? 'or what's in it for you that girls should sleep without men?' (Prop. 2.33.17). Finally, it should be noted that the adjective uiduus is also used to refer to men without women, e.g. iuuit uiduos rapta Sabina uiros 'the rape of the Sabine women aided the wifeless men' (Ov., Ars 1.102).
Its Greek equivalent is also occasionally used in combination with feminine nouns referring to female persons, e.g. Kopr| flGso; 'unmarried girl' (Eup., fr. 362 Kassel-Austin = 332 Kock).24 The Etymologicum Magnum has an interesting comment on Eupolis' use of flGso;:
(11) flGeo; ° aneipo; yd|iou veo;. anavia); 5s eni napGevou, a>; nap' EunoXi
flGeo;: a youth inexperienced in sex; rarely in reference to a napGevo;, as in Eupolis. (EM 422.40-3 Gaisford)
This brings us back to napGsvo; 'maiden' as a social term in the sense of 'unmarried girl' (cf. supra). The use of the phrase ouk e^v nu ^oi tsksiv by the chorus leader in (9) indicates that a respectable napGsvo; should not have children, but if she did, she could still be called a napGsvo;. The interpretation of napGsvo; as 'virgin' constitutes therefore a secondary semantic narrowing, based on the premise that "the categories of virgins and unmarried women were ideally identical" (Ogden 1996: 107140). For this reason it was assumed to be part of the ai5U; of a napGsvo; not to engage in sexual relations before marriage. This emerges clearly from the epic formula napGsvo; ai5oir| 'respectable maiden' in reference to Astyoche, who was still an unmarried girl when she was impregnated by Ares in her father's house (Il. 2.514). The same formula is used in reference to newly created Pandora by Hesiod (Theog. 571, Op. 70). In Sophocles' Trachiniae, Deianeira "contrasts her own anxieties as a married woman with the peace and freedom of a young girl before marriage" (Easterling 1982: 93), until she is called 'a wife instead of a maiden' (avri napGevou yuv^, Tr. 148). The latter is nevertheless described as living 'a carefree life in the midst of pleasures' (^5ovai; a^o^Gov piov, Tr. 147). Such "pleasures" could include sex with a married man, because Heracles refers to Iole as 'the unmarried daughter of Eurytus' (r^v Eupumav napGsvov, Tr. 1220), who he has nevertheless slept with him (rot; e^oi; nXsupoi; o^ou KXiGdaav, Tr. 1225-6).25
24	Plato uses r|i0eoc; even in reference to animals in the sense of 'unmated' (Leg. 84od).
25	Hyllus is understandably scandalized by his father's wish that he should marry her (|ir|5' aXXo; av5p6v ... aur^v avti aou Xa^p note, Tr. 1225-6).
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The idea that a maiden should ideally remain a virgin until she becomes a wedded wife ("yuv|) gave rise to the semantic narrowing of napGevo;.26 Compare, for instance, the definition of yuv| and napGevo; by Ptolemy of Ascalon:
(12)	yuv^ napGevou ôia^spei- yuv^ |isv yap KaXsrrai Kupiœ; | ^ôr| àvôpo; nsipav s'iXn^uîa, napGévo; ôs | |ir|nœ |iur|Gsiaà noxs àvôpo;
yuv| is different from napGevo;; yuv| is generally the word for a woman who has had sexual experience with a man, napGevo; for a woman who has not yet been initiated by a man. (Ptol. 61 Palmieri)
Pollux' definition of the verbs ôiaKopsùœ and ôianapGsvsùœ, both meaning 'deflower, implies the idea of virginity as well:
(13)	to ôs t^; napGévou napGsviav à^sXéaGai
To take away a maiden's virginity. (Poll., Onom. 3.42 Bethe)
In the Judeo-Christian context, it is of course the virgin birth of Jesus that gave rise to the generalization of the sense 'virgin'. According to the Gospel of Luke, Mary is described as napGevov e^vnoTsu^svnv àvôpi 'a maiden / virgin engaged to a man' (Lc. 1.27). When the angel Gabriel announces that she will get pregnant, she asks how this could possibly be, since she does not 'know a man, i.e. carnally (avôpa où "yivœaKœ, Lc. 1.34).27 Mary's fiancé Joseph is of course, technically speaking, a man, but in Matthew's version of the story it is made clear that 'he took her as his wife and did not get to know her [carnally] until she had borne a son' (napeXa^sv t^v "yuvaÎKa aÙTOÙ Kai où è"yivœaK£v aÙT|v sœ; où etskev uiov, Mt. 1.25). John Chrysostom is therefore justified to ask the question that must have been on many people's lips:
(14a) nû; tîktsi | napGevo; Kai |isvei napGevo;;
How is it possible that the Virgin gives birth and remains a virgin?
(Hom. in Mt. 4.6 Field)
He could and should perhaps also have asked:28
26	For a very thorough discussion of the Greek concept of "virginity" see Sissa (1990).
27	Compare the description of Isaac's future wife Rebecca: napGevo; |v, àvip oÙK eyvœ aÙT|v (Gen. 24.16), where napGevo; translates the Hebrew n^in? batulah.
28	Clement of Alexandria gave of course the only possible answer: |iia ôe |aovr| yiveTai |ir|Tr|p napGevo; 'only one woman becomes a virgin mother' (Paed. 1.6.42.1). A longer discussion is given by Gregory of Nyssa (Or. dom. = PG 1136.15 Migne).
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(14b) nw; ya^sixai | napGevo; Kai |ievei napGevo;;
How is it possible that the Virgin gets married and remains a virgin?
Even though the mystery surrounding Mary's virginity remained, there was no doubt about her sex nor about her parental or, indeed, her marital status. It is therefore surprising that napGevo; remained a second-declension noun in the vast majority of the early Christian writers. Coker invokes "its religious significance" (2009: 51) to explain the overwhelming frequency of the second-declension noun (2009: 49, tab. 6) as opposed to its meagerly attested first-declension alternative. Coker found nine dated examples of napGeva instead of napGevo; in the TLG, six plural and three singular. The plural examples obviously do not refer to the Virgin Mary, a rather important fact which has escaped Coker's attention, but the (two, not three) singular examples do and this is of course noteworthy. The first example is taken from the Catena on the Epistle to the Hebrews and is very remarkable, as both the second-and the first-declension noun are used in the same text, which is dated to the fifth (!) century:
(15a) ysyovsv uio; Aaui5, au>|ia Xa^wv ek dyiai; nap0£vou
He was born a son of David, receiving his body from the Holy Virgin.
(138.9-10 Kramer)
(15b) xov ... Sid dyiai; nap0Eva<; ysysvvn^evov
He who is born through the Holy Virgin. (138.16 Kramer)
The second example is found in the Late Byzantine Etymologicum Gudi-anum, where the legal status of children is discussed and napGevio; is one of the terms to refer to illegitimate children:
(16) napGsvio; 5s o ¿k t^; napGsva; sxi vo^iZo^sv^; ysvvw^svo;
napGevio; refers to the son born from a woman who is considered to be a virgin (?) (EG 410.34 Sturz)
In Modern Greek, napGevo; has become a masculine second-declension noun used to refer to male virgins,29 as opposed to the feminine noun napGeva used to refer to a female virgin, including the Virgin Mary, e.g. in the invocation nava^ia ^ou napGeva or more colloquially, with a hypocristic term of endearment, nava^iTaa ^ou napGeva—but the old epicine form continues to
29 The masculine napGevo; was already used in the New Testament book of Revelation to refer to men 'who were not defiled [si'c] by women' (o'l |i£Ta yuvaiKftv ouk ¿|io\uvGr|aav, Apoc. 14.4).
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be used as well, though not in combination with a hypocoristic: ^nava^itaa / navoyia |^ou napGsvs.
5. BOYS AND GIRLS
Probably the most remarkable clashes between biological sex and grammatical gender occur in the category of diminutives referring to animate, particularly human beings. (Pseudo) Hippocrates famously distinguished the following age classes in the life cycle of men:30
(17)	naiSiov |isv eaxiv axpi; snxa exswv 656vxo>v ¿KßoAfjc;- nal^ 5' a^pi yovf; e^uaio;, e; xa 5i; snxa^ ^EipaKiov 5' axpi yeveiou Xa^vwaio;, e; xa xpi; snxa^ VEaviaKO^ 5' axpi; au^aio; öXou xoü aw|iaxo;, e; xa xexpctKi; snxa^ dv^p 5' axpi; svö; 5sovxo; exswv nevxr|Kovxa, e; xa snxaKi; snx& npEaßuTni 5' axpi nevxr|Kovxa s^, e; xa snxaKi; 6kxw^ xo 5' evxeuGev yepwv
He is nai5iov until he is seven years, i.e. until the shedding of teeth; nai; until puberty, i.e. two times seven; ^sipaKiov until his beard begins to grow, i.e. three times seven; veaviaKo; until the completion of the body's growth, i.e. four times seven; av|p until his fourty-ninth year, i.e. seven times seven; npeaßuxn; until fifty-six, i.e. eight times seven; and after that he is yspwv.
(Sept. 5 Roscher)
There are, of course, more words to refer to male persons of different age classes. Probably the longest and most detailed list is given by Ptolemy of Ascalon:
(18)	ßpe^oi; |isv yap eaxiv xo yevvr|9ev eüGsw;, naiSiov 5s xo xpe^ö|ievov ünö xf; xi9r|voü, naiSdpiov 5s xo ^5r| nepinaxoüv Kai xf; Ai^ew; avxexö|ievov, naiSiaKO^ 5s o ev xfj sxo^sv^ f|XiKig, nal^ 5s o 5ia xä>v syKUKXiwv |ia9r||iaxa>v sp^ö^evo;, xov 5s e^^evov ol |isv näW^Ka, oi 5s ßovnaiSa, ol 5s dvTinaiSa, ol 5s ^EWe^nßov- o 5s |iexa xaüxa e^nßo^, o 5s |iexa xaüxa ^EipdKiov, eixa ^Eipa^, eixa VEaviaKO^, eixa VEavia^, eixa dv^p |isao;, eixa npoßEß^KW^, ov Kai w^oyepovxa KaXoüaiv, eixa yepwv, eixa npEaßuxni, eixa eaxaToynpw^
30 The passage is quoted by several other authors: Ptolemy of Ascalon (Diff. voc. 61 Palmieri), Philo of Alexandria (Op. 105 Cohn), Pseudo-Iamblichus (Theol. ar. 55.14-56.7 de Falco), John of Damascus (Sac. par. = PG 95.1109.1-13 Migne). There were, of course, other divisions of the life cycle in Antiquity for which see, e.g. Overstreet (2009), Laes & Strubbe (2014: 23-9), Kosior (2016) and for the stages of childhood in particular Beaumont (2012: 17-24), Golden (2015: 10-9).
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Ppe^o; is the newborn, naiSiov the child fed by the nurse, naiSapiov the child which is already walking and learning to talk, naiSiaKo; the one in the next age class, nai; the one who is following general education, the next age class is called by some naAAr|^, by others Pounai;, avxinai; or psAAe^nPoc;, the one after that s^nPoc;, the one after that psipaKiov, then psipa^, then vsaviaKo;, then vsavia;, then av^p peao;, then npo^sP^Kw;, who is also called wpoyeporv, then yspwv, then npsapUxn;, then eaxaxoynpw;
(Ptol. 403.26-404.6 Palmieri)
It is possible that Ptolemy really believed that these words could and would be properly distinguished by some, but it seems more likely that the author of a treatise entitled nspl Sia^opa; Xs^swv was a bit obsessed with finding distinctions too subtle to be detected, let alone applied, by ordinary mortals. Homer, for instance, combines vsr|vir|; with avr|p (Od. 10.278, 14.523), Herodotus with nai; (1.61, 7.99, 9.111). The latter uses both vsr|vir|; and vsr|viaKo; to refer to Periander's son Lycophron (3.53), who is said to be seventeen years old (3.50). A young man who accidentally killed a boy (nai;) with a javelin in the gymnasium is referred to as psipaKiov throughout Antiphon's second tetralogy, but in the defendant's second speech as vsaviaKo; (3.4.6) as well as psipaKiov (3.4.4, 3.4.5, 3.4.8). In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates' children are referred to as Ta naiSia, with an additional specification: Suo "yap autw usi; apiKpol |aav, si; Ss ps^ya; 'for he had two younger sons and one older one' (Phaed. 116b). In the Apology, Socrates mentions his sons (usi; "ys) again: si; psv psipaKiov ^Sr|, Suo Ss naiSia 'one already a young man, two still boys' (Ap. 34d). In Xenophon's Memorabilia, on the other hand, Socrates' eldest son is referred to as vsaviaKo; (Mem. 2.2.1).
Some of the words listed by Ptolemy have feminine doublets which are derived from the same stem: naiSiaKo; ~ naiSiaK^, vsaviaKo; ~ vsaviaK^, psipaKiaKo; ~ psipaKiaK^,31 vsavia; ~ vsavi;, npsaptitr|; ~ npsaPuti;.32 The word s^nPo;, originally a second-declension adjective of two endings referring to the age class of ^Pn 'adolescence',33 hence theoretically applicable to adolescent boys and girls alike,34 came to be used in fourth-century Athens as a legal term for boys who entered a two-year period of military training in their eigteenth year (Arist., Ath. 42).35 In reference to adolescent girls the now common noun s^nPo; is found from the sixth century onwards, and again in
31	On the positive and negative connotations of diminutive nouns in -iaKo; / -iaKr| referring to persons see Chantraine (1933: 408-9).
32	The details of the relationship between the obvious cognates yepwv and ypau; / ypaia are disputed, cf. Chantraine (1968-80: 235), Beekes (2010: 285).
33	Compare the phrase ¿9' ^Pn; (Ar., Eq. 524).
34	Compare the expression	«paiav yapwv 'she came to the marriagable age' (Eur., Hel. 12).
35	For a recent assessment of the Athenian ephebeia in the fourth century see Friend (2019).
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a legal context. In his paraphrase of the Justinian Code, Theophilus Antecessor, for instance, mentions oi appsvsq exi Ss Kai ai G^Xsiai e^nPoi 'the male and also the female adolescents' who are under the guardianship of a curator (Koupatwpsuovtai) until they are old enough (at the age of twenty-five) to manage their property (Par. inst. 1.23.7-10). In the ninth-century successor to the Justinian Code, the so-called Basilika, e^nPoq is used in combination with napGsvoq (Bas. 2.2.12), Guyaxnp (39.1.41) and Kopai (Scholia in Bas. I-XI 60.37.78.3). In Modern Greek, s^nPoq is still being used as a common noun in high-register scientific jargon, but colloquially o s^nPoq now has a feminine counterpart: n ¿9nPn.
The common noun naiq is much more interesting for our purpose. Homer uses naiq to refer to children of either sex and of any age. The wives and children left behind at home are referred to as naiSwv ^S' aXo^wv 'children and wives' by Nestor (Il. 15.662), ^sxspai t' aXo^oi Kai v|ma xsKva 'our wives and infant children' by Agamemnon (Il. 2.136),36 and Odysseus compares the Greeks 'wailing to each other to return home' (aXX^Xoiaiv oSupovxai oIkovSe vssaGai, Il. 2.290) to naiSsq vsapoi xnpai xs yuvaiKsq 'little children and widowed women' (Il. 2.289). The sex of the children is not specified in these cases: both v|ma xsKva (grammatically neuter) and naiSsq vsapoi (grammatically masculine) refer to infants in general, whether male or female. Astyanax, on the other hand, is referred to as v|niov uiov 'infant son' (Il. 6.366, 6.400), nalSa xs vnnia^ov 'infant son' (Il. 6.400), xovSs ... naiS' e^ov 'this here son of mine' (Il. 6.476-7) and xov p "Ektwp KaXssaKs ZKa^avSpiov 'him Hector used to call Scamandrius' (Il. 6.402), where the masculine agreement patterns are triggered by the sex of the boy. When nalq is used to refer to daughters, it triggers feminine agreement patterns, e.g. naiSa ^iXov (Il. 16.459), naiS' e^ov (Il. 6.479) versus naiSa ^iXnv (Il. 1.446), nalSa t' e^v (Od. 4.262).
In many cases, however, nalq is lexically opposed to its female counterpart, as in Eumaeus' account of the fate of Odysseus' parents (Od. 15.351-79). Laertes 'is grieving for his absent son' (naiSoq oSupsxai oixo^svoio, 15.355), but Anticlea 'has died of grief for her glorious son' (a^sT oi naiSoq ans^Gixo KuSaXi^oio, 15.358), after having brought up Eumaeus together with his sister Ctimene, of whom he says:
(19) 0uyaTEp' i^Gi|ir|, x^v onXoxaxr|v xsks naiSwv
Her stately daughter [f], whom she bore as the youngest of her children [m/f].
(Hom., Od. 15.364)
36 For recent discussion of this particular line see Janse (2021).
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It is clear that naiSwv is here used generically in reference to both Odysseus and Ctimene,37 the latter being identified as GuyaTspi 'daughter' (15.364) as opposed to Odysseus, who is twice referred to as nai5oq 'son' (355, 358).
Example (19) leads me to a minor digression on the use of i^Gi^oq, an adjective with uncertain meaning and unknown etymology.38 In the example just quoted i^Gi^ agrees with GuyaTspi (cf. Od. 10.106, 15.364), is it does elsewhere: i^Gi^n aXo^oq 'stately wife' (Il. 5.415, cf. Il. 19.116, Od. 12.452), tyGl^n napaKomq 'stately wife' (Od. 23.92), i^Gi^n PaaiXsia 'stately queen' (Od. 16.332), tyGl^v nnpw 'stately Pero' (Od. 11.287). These are all feminine nouns referring to female humans, but in two cases i^Gi^oq does not agree with feminine nouns referring to inanimate aKsun, to borrow Protagoras' term quoted in (1). The first example occurs in the beginning of the Iliad:
(20a) noXXaq 5' i^Gi|iouq tyu^aq "'5i npo'i'atysv | r|pwa>v
Many [f] valiant [m/f] souls [f] he sent down to Hades, of heroes.
(Hom., Il. 1.3-4)
It might be argued that tyuxn is here used metonymically to refer to the soul as a person, as in ^ia Taq noXXaq, Taq navu noXXaq | tyu^aq oXsaaa' uno Tpoia 'who alone destroyed many, very many souls under Troy' (Aesch., Ag. 1456-7, cf. 1465-6), tyu^aq 5s noXXaq K&yaG&q anwXsaaq 'who destroyed many and excellent souls' (Eur., Andr. 611), tyu^al 5s noXXal 5i' s^' snl ZKa^av5ptoiq | poaiaiv sGavov 'many souls died on my account by the streams of Scamander' (Eur., Hel. 52-3, quoted in Ar., Thesm. 864-5). Homer, however, uses tyuxn to refer to the souls of the dead:39
(21) SvGa 5s noXXal | tyu^al sXsuaovxai vskuwv KaxaTsGvnwxwv There many souls of the dead who have died will come forth.
(Hom., Od. 10.529-30)
The second example from Homer's Iliad is a variant of the first:
37	It may be noted that the superlative 6n\oTirrr|v instead of the metrically equivalent 'binary' comparative 6n\oTepr|v suggests that Laertes and Anticlea had more than two children.
38	Cf. Chantraine (1968-80: 473), Beekes (2010: 606).
39	Latacz et al. believe that "die yu^ai sind als Teile von Lebenden vorgestellt; yux| hat im fgrE nur hier ein adj. Attribut: 'starke' eigtl. zu 'Heroen' (Enallage). yu^ai verschmiltzt mit ipwwv zu einem Gesammtbegriff (etwa 'Heroenleben', 'Heroen-Existenzen')" (2000: 17). Apart from the fact that this explanation ignores the fact that ipwwv is added in enjambement, which precludes any "Verschmelzung" with yu^ai, the authors take pains to explain the difference between yu^ac; at Il. 1.3 (20a) and Ke^aXac; at Il. 11.55 (20b): "Ke^aXi [bewährt] bei Homer durchgängig seinen Körperteilcharakter ... und [könnte] daher niemals, wie yux|, in Gegensatz zu aüro; treten ..., das das ganze des Körpers (mit Kopf) bezeichnet" (ibid.).
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(20b) £|ieXXe | noXXa; S' l^Gi^ou; ce^aXa; A'l'Si Hpo'ia^ery
He was about to send many [f] valiant [m/f] heads [f] down to Hades.
(Hom., Il. 11.54-5)
Liddell and Scott's remark that "Hom. uses i^Gi^n of women; but i^Gi^oi tyu^ai, ce^aXai, speaking of men" (LSJ, s.v. i^Gi^o;) is echoed by Montanari: "Hom. -n referring to women; -o; with fem. nouns speaking of men" (2015: 995). It is tempting to accept this explanation for an apparent mismatch in natural and grammatical gender agreement, but one is left wondering why noXXa; [f] should be left out of the game, when noXXou; [f] would have been a viable and metrically equivalent alternative. Alternatively, it has been argued that i^Gi^oc is a second-declension adjective of two endings, except "bei Frauen" (Schwyzer 1950: 32).
Returning to the use of nai; in reference to sons, it is clear that the plural may be used to refer to male and not to female children, as when Hector is met with "the womenfolk at large" (Kirk 1990: 155) at the Scaean gates:
(22)	apa |iiv Tpa>a>v aXo^oi Gsov r|Ss 0uyaTpE<; | eipo^evai naiSai; Te Kaaiyvr|TOuc Te £Ta; Te | Kai noaia;
Around him the wives and daughters of the Trojans came running asking about their sons and brothers and relatives and husbands. (Hom., Il. 6.238-40)
Here, as in the case of (19), the daughters are referred to by Guyatpac, the sons by naiSa;, but the identification of the latter can only be deduced from the context: the men return from the battlefield and the women are anxious to know if they are still alive. Shortly thereafter the sleeping quarters of Priam's children in his palace are described:
(23)	svGa Ss naiSEi; | coi|iu>vTo npia^oio napa ^v^aT^i; a\oxoiai
There the sons of Priam slept besides their wedded wives. (Hom., Il. 6.245-6)
Again the identification of naiSe; as 'sons' is made possible by their conjunction with their wives and the mention of Priam's daughters in the following line (coupawv Se, Il. 6.247). Herodotus relates how the Hyperborean maidens (referred to as copa; at 4.33 and napGevoiai at 4.34) who had come to Delos to bring offering but had died there, were honoured by the Delians: ceipovTai Kai ai copai cai oi naiSe; oi AnXiwv 'both the girls and the boys cut their hair', sc. in honour of the maidens (4.34).
In other cases, the sex of the children is revealed by the addition of the adjectives apanv / appnv and GnXu;, e.g. naiSe; appeve; cai G|Xeiai 'male
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and female children' (Plat., Leg. 788a), naTSaq GrXsiaq ts Kai appsvaq 'children, female as well as male' (Leg. 930b), naTSaq GrXsiaq 'female children' (Leg. 924e), aTuXoi "yap oIkwv naTSsq siaiv apasvsq 'for the pillars of a house are the male children' (Eur., I.T. 57). Even in cases where naTq is used in conjunction with GuyaTnp, as in (22), apa|v is sometimes added for the sake of clarity, e.g. AXsw apasvsq ^sv naTSsq ... GuyaTrp Ss ¿"ysvsTo 'Aleus had male children ... and a daughter' (Hecataeus 1a.1F.29a Jacoby). Oedipus distinguishes among his children 'the males' from his 'little girls':
(24) rtaiSwv Se twv ^ev apaEvwv |i| |ioi, Kpswv | npoaGfj |ispi|ivav- avSpEi; siaiv, waTs anaviv hots axsTv, svG' av wai, tou ^iou- | ralv S' a0\iaiv oiKTpaiv te napGEvoiv E^aiv ... TaTv |ioi |isXsaGai
As to my children [m/f], about the males do not worry, Creon; they are men, so they will never lack, wherever they are, a means of living; but as for my two poor and pitiable little girls ... for them you must care!
(Soph., O.T. 1459-66)
Aristophanes uses an unusual combination to refer to a young girl. After stating that women have a fair share in the burdens of war, TsKouaai | KaKne^tyaaai naTSaq onXhraq 'giving birth to sons and sending them off as hoplites' (Lys. 588-9), Lysistrata says she is worried nspi twv Ss Kopwv ev ToTq GaXa^oiq yrpaaKouawv 'about the girls growing old in their rooms' (Lys. 593), contrasting naTSaq 'boys' with Kopwv 'girls'. She complains that even a grey old man 'marries a child girl in no time': Taxu naTSa Kopnv "ysyamKev (Lys. 595).
Finally, there is of course the possibility of signalling the sex of the child by making articles or pronouns agree with the noun, as in Menander's Epitrepon-tes, where one of the girls (Kopaiq, Epit. 477) Habrotonon was invited to play for at the Tauropolia is later referred to as T^v naTSa (Epit. 480), eX£uGspa[q | naiSoq 'of a freeborn mother' (Epit. 495-6). Smicrines' daughter is called naTS' entya^ov 'marriagable girl' (Epit. 1115) and referred back to by the demonstrative pronoun TauT|v (Epit. 1119).40
6. BOYS WILL BE BOYS
Before turning to the diminutives of naTq, I would like to present a remarkable difference in marking agreement with the neuter nouns tskvov and TSKoq, both meaning 'child', in Homer. The latter always triggers neuter agreement
40 Another example is ai naTSeq auTai 'those girls' (Strattis fr. 27 apud Athen. 589a). They are said to have come from Megara, but are in fact Corinthian, so it is unlikely that naTSeq is here used to refer to "slave girls".
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with ^iXo; in the vocative ^iXov tsko; 'dear child', whether it is used in reference to men (Achilles, Il. 9.437, 9.444; Hector, Il. 22.38, 24.373) or to women (Helen, Il. 3.162, 3.192; Aphrodite, Il. 5.373, 22.183; Athena, Il. 8.30; Leto, Il. 21.509). The former, however, seems to trigger masculine agreement in the vocative ^iXs tskvov in reference to men (Telemachus, Od. 2.363, 3.184, 15.125, 15.509). Hecabe addresses Hector first as tskvov e^ov (Il. 22.82), with the expected neuter agreement, and then as ^iXs tskvov (22.84). Eurycleia, on the other hand, addresses Penelope once as ^iXov tsko; (Od. 23.5) and once as tskvov ^iXov (Od. 23.26), both with the expected neuter agreement.
The diminutives of nai; are either male (nat5iaKo;) or female (nai5iaKq), but the most frequently used are neuter: to nai5iov / to nai5apiov. Looking at the respective positions of the neuter diminutives nai5iov and nai5apiov and the masculine nouns nai5iaKo; and nai; in Ptolemy of Ascalon's division of age classes (18), one might be inclined to look for a correlation between grammatical and natural gender, but a nai; is generally not deemed old enough to be able to engage in sex—as opposed to a ^sipaKiov, who is considered to be young enough to still go to school according to Aristophanes (Nub. 916-7) and old enough to have sexual relationships (Pl. 97591). Although the sex of a nai5iov does not seem to matter a lot, it is sometimes explicitly identified, e.g. 0qXu nai5iov (Plut., Pomp. 53.4) versus appqv nai5iov (Ar., Lys. 748b).41
There are many cases in which nai; and nai5iov are used interchangeably to refer to the same child, e.g. tw av o'iKq rwv av5pwv to nai5iov, toutou nai; vo^iZsTai 'to whom of the men the nai5iov resembles, the nai; is adjudged to be his' (Hdt. 4.180).42 Aesop's fable about the boy who went hunting for grasshoppers begins with nai5iov and ends with o nai; (9b Hausrath-Hunger). Socrates discusses Protagoras' principle to navrwv ^sTpwv 'the measure of all things' in reference to a nai5iov who is immediately thereafter referred to as tou nai5o; (Plat., Theaet. 168d).
There is, however, a very interesting and remarkable case of a mismatch between the grammatical and the natural gender of a baby in Menander's Epitrepontes. The usual words to refer to the baby are nai5apiov (Epit. 245, 464, 473, 646, 986) and nai5iov (Epit. 266, 268, 269, 295, 302, 311, 354, 355, 403, 448, 533, 539, 569, 864, 896, 956, 1131).43 Once the baby is addressed as & ^iXTaTov tskvov (Epit. 856). On three occasions, however, it is referred to as nai; and identified as a boy. When Syrus reveals to Smicrines that the
41	In reference to the latter, Sommerstein suspects that "there may be a play on skleros 'hard' which, in later Greek at any rate, could also mean 'tough, virile'" (1982: 196).
42	The Ausoneans are said have eniKoivov 'promiscuous sex', oure auvoiKeovre; KTr|vr|56v re ^iayo^evoi 'without living together and mating like cattle' (Hdt. 4.180). Here we have another example of an adjective which can be used in both a biological and grammatical sense, though I would hesitate to translate eniKoivov yevo; as 'promiscuous gender'.
43	nai5iov at Epit. 1076 refers to a male slave (cf. na!5s;, Epit. 1076-7).
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shepherd found the baby (to naiSiov, Epit. 295) with some jewelry, he presents him as if he is a young man:
(25)	avrroi; napsCTtiv ouroai. [to] na[i5ijov So; |ioi, yuvai- xa Sepaia Kai yvwpiCT|iaxa outoi; ct' anaixsi, Aa' eaurw ^r|CTi yap taut' emxsGfvai koct|iov, ou ctoi Siaxpo^r|v
He [m] is here himself [m]. Give me the naiSiov [v], wife. The bracelet and the necklace, he [m] is here to claim them back, Daos. He says they were put there as ornament for himself [m], not as support for you! (Men., Epit. 302-5)
The baby is anaphorically referred to by the demonstrative pronouns ouxoai and oixo;.44 The use of the masculine oixo; instead of the neuter touto presents the infant as a young man who has the authority to claim the jewelry for himself. In other words, Syrus lets the baby speak on his own behalf, even though he identifies himself as its legal guardian (Kupio;, Epit. 306). He then asks whether the gold trinkets should be kept tw naiSiw ... sw; av ¿Ktpa^fl 'for the child ... until he is grown up' (Epit. 311), confirming its status as an infant. The demonstrative pronoun now used to refer back to the baby is not the masculine oixoc, but the neuter touto (Epit. 314). Then, however, Syrus says the following:
(26)	law; £CT0' o[uTo]ai | o na]i<; unsp f||iac; Kai rpa^Eit; ev epyaxai; | un]spoYsxai taut', s'i; Ss x^v auxou ^uctiv |	¿XsuGspov Ti ToX|ir|CT£i novsiv, | G^pav Xsovxa;, onXa PaCTtaZsiv, xps^siv | ev a]ywCTi
Maybe this boy [m] here is above our class and having been brought up [m] by working people, he may despise that, and when he is fully grown [m], he will want to try to engage in something fit for a freeman—hunting lions, bearing arms, running in competitions. (Men., Epit. 320-25)
By using the masculine o[uto]ctI o najt;, Syrus is again presenting the baby as a young adult freeman who has the right to self-determination. Finally, nai; is used in the phrase xpriax' ... op^avou | nai]So; 'the possessions ... of an orphan boy' (Epit. 397-8), where the masculine noun is also used to emphasize the legal rights of the boy once he is an adult.45
I would like to conclude with a brief discussion of the use of |sipaKiov. In (Pseudo) Hippocrates' division of age classes (17), |sipaKiov is used to refer to an adolescent boy between fourteen and twenty-one years, i.e. between nai; and vsaviCTKo;, the latter being a full-grown, but still young, man. Ptolemy of
44	On the anaphoric use of ouxo; see van Emde Boas et al., who suggests that "the use of ouxo; indicates that the speaker suggests some 'distance'" (2019: 353), in the case of Syrus between himself and the child.
45	naic; also figures in a reconstructed line: Xa[piaiw naT; yeyovev eK xf|c; ya\]xp ia;; 'The [harp-girl has borne] Cha[risius a son]?' (Epit. 621 Sandbach).
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Ascalon, however, distinguishes ^eip&Kiov from |Mpa^ in his division (18), which is remarkable as the same Ptolemy elsewhere distinguishes the two in the following way:
(27)	|ieipaKiov Kal |ietpa^ Sia^spei- ^EipaKiov |isv Xsyexai o apa^v, ^Eipa^ 5s ^
There is a difference between ^eipaKiov and |ietpa^: the male is called ^eipaKiov, the female |ietpa^. (Ptol. 94 Palmieri)
Moeris gives the following specification:
(28)	^EipaKia toui; appEva^ AxxiKoi- ^EipaKat; xaq 0nA.Eia<;"EXXr|vec;
Attic writers call the males ^eipaKiov, Hellenistic writers call the females |ieipa^. (Moer. 15 Hansen)
Given the obvious relationship between the two words, it seems surprising that the diminutive should be used to refer to male youths, whereas the base form from which it is derived is used to refer to female youths. Etymologically, ^stpa£ is related to Sanskrit irf marya- 'young man, lover' and ipfc maryaka-'small man'.46 The latter is a formation independent of ^etpa^, but the former suggest that ^stpa£ itself was derived from an unattested *^etpo;, which would go back to Proto-Indo-European *mer-io- 'young (girl or man)' (Beekes 2010: 921). Chantraine (1933: 379) suggests that nouns in -a^ may have been originally adjectives, e.g. ^uXoq 'mill' — ^uXa^ 'millstone', Xi0o; 'stone' — Xi0a^ 'stony' as in Xi0aKi notl nstpr| 'against the stony rock' (Hom., Od. 5.415). Herodian says that |Mpa^, -aKo; is feminine by analogy with other words in -a^ with a short suffix vowel such as ^ KXt^a^, -aKo; 'ladder', ^ m5a^, -aKo; 'spring' as opposed to masculine nouns with a long suffix vowel such as o Oaia^, -aKoq 'Phaeacean, o 0wpa^, -aKo; 'breast' (Hdn. GG 3.2.631). However, animate nouns in -a£ are often common nouns, e.g. aKuXa^ 'puppy, SsX^a^ 'swine, anaXa^ 'mole rat', so it is not inconceivable that ^etpa^ was originally a common noun as well. This would imply that the masculine use of ^etpa^ in "later writers" (LSJ) is not necessarily an innovation or an extension.47
The use of ^etpa^ to refer to a male youth is found in the story of the seven Maccabean martyrs who were one by one tortured and killed by Antiochus
46	Other cognates have been suggested, but rejected by Chantraine (1968-80: 678) and Beekes (2010: 921-2).
47	In the Aethiopica of the Atticist novelist Heliodorus, for instance, ^ |Mpa£ (4.19.4) is used alongside Tov ^eipaKa (10.23.4) and oi auv aurw |aeipaK£c; (4.19.4). The use of the masculine o |Mpa£ ou^o; 9iXo; 'the laddie, my dear friend' (Sol. 5.15) is ridiculed in Lucian's Soloecista by his "teacher" Socrates of Mopsus: XoiSopet; ^iXov ovra; 'so you insult your own friend?' (Sol. 5.16), i.e. by calling him a |Mpa£ instead of a ^eipaKiov.
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IV Epiphanes.48 In the first version of the story, the third oldest is referred to as veaviaKo; (2 Macc. 7.12), the seventh and youngest as veavia; (7.25, 7.30) and ^eip&Kiov (7.25). In the second version, they are collectively called ^stpaKiaKoi (4 Macc. 8.1), ^eipaKia (8.14, 14.4), veaviai (8.5, 8.27, 14.9), vsaviaKot (14.12) and even avSpsq (14.11), but also ^sipaKsq (14.8) and oi iepol ^sipaKsq (14.6).49
It is worthy of note that the Greek of 2 and 4 Maccabees is considered "literary and Atticistic" by Thackeray (1909: 13).50 As a matter of fact, the distinction between ^eip&Kiov / ^sipaKiaKoq on the one hand and veaviaKo; / veavia; on the other is as spurious as in other cases quoted earlier in reference to Ptolemy's life cycle (18). Leaving aside ^sipaKiaKoq and veavia;, it is interesting to observe that both ^eip&Kiov and veaviaKo; can be used to refer to "the junior partner in homosexual eros" (Dover 1989: 85). In Plato's Char-mides, Socrates says of the eponymous youth:
(29)	ou yap Ti ^auAoi; ou5s tots ^v sti naii; wv, vuv 5' oi|iai nou eu |ia\a av ^5r| ^EipaKiov ei'n
He wasn't plain [m] even then when he was [m] still a naic; [m], but I suppose that he must be quite a ^eipaKiov [n] by now. (Plat., Charm. 154b)
Chaerephon replies:
(30)	auTiKa ... e'iaei Kal ^AIkoi; [m] Kal oioi; [m] ysyove
Immediately ... you will see how how big and what kind of a person he has become. (Plat., Charm. 154b)
When Charmides enters the room, followed by a host of other lovers (noWol 5s 5^ aWoi epaaTai, 154c), Socrates consistently refers to him with masculine pronouns (eKsivo;, 154b; auTov, 154d), wherupon Chaerephon asks him:
(31)	Ti aoi ^aiveTai o veaviaKoq;
What do you think of the veaviaKo; [m] ? (Plat., Charm. 154d)
It appears that a sexually active ^eip&Kiov can not only trigger male attention but masculine agreement patterns as well, despite the neuter gender of the noun. NeaviaKo; thus fits the natural gender better than ^eip&Kiov.
48	Antiochus IV was the first of the Seleucids to persecute Jews, which resulted in the Maccabean revolt (167-160 BC).
49	The 'holy youths' (iepol ^eipaKe;) are later called oi enTa MaKKa^aioi 'the seven Maccabees' by the Cappadocian Fathers, cf. Basil of Caesarea (Const. = PG 31.1385.45 Migne), Gregory of Nazianzus (Or. 43.74.2 Boulenger), Gregory of Nyssa (Mart. 2 = PG 46.785.39 Migne).
50	For a more detailed discussion see, e.g., deSilva (2006: xii).
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Equally intriguing are the word choice and agreement patterns in reference to Cleinias in Plato's Euthydemus. At the very beginning of the dialogue, Crito introduces him as follwos: 51
(32)	ev |isaw 5' u|iu>v to A^io^ou ^EipaKiov ^v- Kai |ia\a noAu, w ZwKpaxsq, emSeSwKsvcu |ioi s5o^sv Kai xou f||isxepou ou noAu ti x^v f|\iKiav 5ia^epsiv KpixoPouAou aAA' ¿Ksivoq |isv aKXr^poq, outoi; 5s npo^Ep^i; Kai Ka\o<; Kai dya06<; x^v otyiv
Between you was the |isipaKiov [n] of Axiochus; and he seemed to me to have grown up quite a bit and not to differ a lot in age from our Critobulus [m]; but whereas the latter [m] is puny [m], the former [m] is precocious [m] and handsome [m] and noble [m] in appearance. (Plat., Euthyd. 271b)
The masculine gender of the demonstrative pronoun oixoq may have been triggered by that of ¿Ksivoq, which refers back to Kpixo^ouXou, which is of course a masculine proper name, but it may equally well have been trig-gerd by the fact that Cleinias is portrayed as being ahead of his age. He is nevertheless still refered to as to ^sip&Kiov by Socrates in his description of the same seating plan in which Cleinias was first identified by Crito (273b). Socrates agrees with Crito that Cleinias is well developed for his age (ov au noXu £m5s5wK£vai, 273a) and goes on to say that he was followed by a host of lovers (epaaxal navu noWoi, 273a), just as Charmides was described in his eponymous dialogue. In other words, the context is again erotically charged.
In the first eristic scene (272d-277c), Cleinias is first referred to as xouxovl xov vsaviaKov and immediately thereafter as xw ^sipaKiw xouxw (275a). The context is no longer erotically charged, as Socrates' purpose is to have Euthydemus and Dionysiodorus persuade Cleinias 'to ensue wisdom and practise virtue' (wq xp^ ^iXoao^siv Kai apsx^q em^sXsiaGai, 275b). He is twice characterized by Socrates as a vsoq who is by his very nature susceptible to corruption (olov siKoq nspl vsw, 275b). He urges the two sophists to make trial xou ^apaKiou (275b) and they agree provided o vsaviaKoq (275c) is willing to answer their questions. Socrates continues his account as follows:
(33)	Kai to ^EipaKiov ... |pu9piaae xs Kai dnop^aa^ s^Xsnsv siq ¿|is- Kai ¿yd yvouq avTov T£0opuPn^£vov ... ^v 5' eyw
And the |ieipaKiov [n] ... blushed and looked at me in bewilderment [m]; and I, perceiving that he [m] was totally at loss [m] ... I said.
(Plat., Euthyd. 275d)
51 I translate KaXoq as 'beautiful', following Dover (1989: 16).
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Though a neuter noun, ^etp&Ktov triggers masculine agreement patterns on the participle anopqaa; and the pronoun auTov, which in its turns triggers masculine agreement on the particple TsGopuPn^evov. It seems as if the youth is considered to be a (young) man of reason who is able to refute the sophists despite his anopia, as is clear from Socrates' reassurement:
(34)	Gappst ... Kai anoKpivai avSpeiw^, onoTspa aoi ^aivsxat
Do not worry . and answer like a man, whatever you think it is.
(Plat., Euthyd. 275d-e)
It is tempting to explain to masculine agreement pattern in (33) by the subsequent use of av5peiw; in (34), which Socrates apparently uses to convince Cleinias that he is a (young) man of independent thought. Dionysiodor-us, however, is convinced that to ^etp&Ktov (275e) will be confuted, no matter what his answer will be, and Socrates knows he is unable to advise tw ^etpaKiw (276a), who continues to be referred to as to ^etp&Ktov in the ensuing interrogation (276b-d ter; 277b).
At the beginning of the first protreptic scene (227d-282e), as Euthydemus is about to press tov veaviaKov (277d) for the third fall (naXata^a, as in a wrestling game), Socrates continues his account as follows:
(35)	Kai eyd> yvou; Panriio^Evov to ^EipaKiov, PouXo^svo; avanauaat avro ... napa|iuGou|ievo; sinov
And I, perceiving that the |ieipaKiov [n] was going under and wanting to give it [n] some breathing space ... encouraged him with these words.
(Plat., Euthyd. 277d)
All of a sudden, Cleinias is presented as a helpless little boy who is "getting into deep water" (LSJ) and this time to ^etp&Ktov triggers neuter agreement patterns on the participle PanTtZo^evov, here of course indistinguishable from its masculine equivalent, and the anaphoric pronoun auTo, as opposed to auTov at 275d (33).52 The idea that Cleinias is too young to be able to tackle questions of such magnitude is later explicitly stated by Socrates, when he explains to the bewildered Cleinias that good fortune is not the greatest of all good things (to ^eytaTov twv ayaGwv, 279c):
(36)	| ao^ia 5rpou ... suTu^ia eaTi- touto 5s Kav nal^ yvoir| Wisdom surely ... is good fortune; even a child would see that.
(Plat., Euth. 279d)
52 Unsurprisingly, this minute detail of grammar has escaped the attention of serious commentators of the Euthydemus such as Gifford (1905).
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The particle 5|nou combines "the certainty of 5|" with "the doubtfulness of nou", but "often the doubt is only assumed ^et' dpwvia;" (Dover 1954: 267).53 That this is certainly the case here appears from Socrates' subsequent comment:
(37)	Kai o; eGau|iaaev- outwi; eri veoi; te Kai	¿axi
And he wondered at this; he is still so young and ignorant. (Plat., Euth. 279d)
At the end of the first protreptic scene, Socrates urges Euthydemus and Dionysiodorus again to show Cleinias how "to ensue wisdom and practise virtue":
(38)	¿m5eii;axov tw ^EipaKi«, noxepov naaav ¿maxr||ir|v 5ei avTov KxaaGai, ^ saxi xi; |iia ^v 5ei Xa^ovTa eu5ai|ioveiv xe Kai aya0ov avSpa eivai, Kai xi; auxrp w; yap sXeyov ap^o^evo;, nepi noXXou r||iiv xuyx&vei ov tovSe tov VEaviaKov ao^ov te Kai aya0ov yevsaGai
Show the ^eipaKiov [n] whether he [m] ought to acquire every kind of knowledge, or whether there is a single sort of it which he [m] must obtain if he [m] is to be both happy and a good man [m]. For as I was saying at the outset, it is really a matter of great importance to us that this veaviaKo; [m] here should become wise [m] and good [m]. (Plat., Euth. 282e)
In (38), to ^eip&Kiov triggers masculine agreement patterns on the anaphoric pronoun auxov, as opposed to auxo at 277d (35), and on the participle Xa^ovxa, which suggests that Socrates is now treating Cleinias again as being compos mentis in that he assumes him to be capable of acquiring ¿niaxrmn to become a 'good man' (ayaGov av5pa). It seems as if the use of tov5s tov veaviaKov in the second part of Socrates' statement is intended to suggest that he is actually a boy on the brink of manhood.
At the beginning of the second eristic scene (283a-288b), which immediately follows after (38) and basically reiterates what Socrates had said, Cleinias continues to be referred to as veaviaKo; (283a ter). He is turned back into a ^eip&Kiov again, when Socrates allows the two sophists to apply their xsxvn (285b) 'to make good and sensible people out of bad and senseless' (¿k novnpwv ts Kai a^povwv xpnarou; ts Kai e^pova; noidv, 285a):
(39)	anoXeaavxwv r||iiv to ^EipaKiov Kai ^povi^ov noir|aavxa>v Let them destroy the ^eipaKiov for us and make him sensible.
(Plat., Euth. 285b)
53 Cf. van Emde Boas et al. (2019: 688).
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In other words, they should destroy the a^pov psipaKiov in Cleinias and turn him into a ^povipo; avGpwno;, perhaps a ^povipo; vsaviaKo;.54
This is an important turning point in the intellectual evolution of Cleinias in the Euthydemus. As Sermamoglou-Soulmaidi points out (2014: 55), Socrates responds to Cleinias' growing eloquence by addressing him in an increasingly laudatory way: & KXsivia (288d), & KaXs nai (289b) and, finally, & KaXXiats Kal ao^wtats KXsivia 'most handsome and ingenious Cleinias' (290c), after Cleinias' brilliant explanation of the art of generalship (290b-d). Crito is equally impressed upon hearing Socrates' account of this:
(40)	xi Xsysi; au, & ZwKpaxs;, ekeTvo to ^EipaKiov xoiaux' e^Gsy^axo; ... oipai yap avTov syu>, sl xaux' sinsv, out' Eu9uS|pou ouxs aXXou ouSsvo; st' dv9pu>nou SsiaGai sl; naiSsiav
What are you saying, Socrates? Did that [n] psipaKiov speak like that? I am sure that if he [m] spoke like this, he does not need education from Euthydemus or anyone else for that matter. (Plat., Euth. 290e)
Clearly, Crito could not believe that a psipaKiov would be able to speak in such a clear and sensible way. The masculine agreement on the anaphoric pronoun auTov again indicates that Crito considers Cleinias to have grown out of the age class of psipaKiov and to be no longer in need of education.
An even more remarkable shift in grammatical gender agreement appears in Plato's Protagoras, when Agathon is introduced as follows:
(41)	napsKa9r|vTo Ss auTw ¿nl Tat; nXr|aiov KXivai; nauaavia; ts o ¿k Kspapswv Kal psTa nauaaviou veov ti eti ^EipaKiov, a>; psv sywpai Ka\ov te KayaGov
T^v ^uaiv, T^v S' ouv ISsav navu Ka\o<^ sSo^a dKouaai ovopa auTw sivai AyaGwva Kal ouk av GaupaZoipi s'l naiSiKa nauaaviou Tuy^avsi wv and near him on the adjacent beds lay Pausanias from Cerames and with Pausanias a psipaKiov still quite young [n], noble [n] of descent, I should say, and certainly handsome [m] of appearence. I thought I heard his name was Agathon and I should not be surprised if he is [m] Pausanias' naiSiKa [n.pl].
(Plat., Prot. 315e)
In this passage, Agathon is presented as a relatively young psipaKiov.55 The noun triggers neuter agreement on the adjectives KaXov ts Kd"ya06v, which refer to his "birth and breeding" (Lamb 1924: 115), but masculine agreement on the next adjective KaXo;, which refers to his current appearence. It is again tempting to see in this grammatical gender mismatch an attempt at
54	The word avOpwrto; is used in this very passage (285b).
55	For speculations about Agathon's age see Denyer (2008: 84).
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connecting the ^sipaKiov both with its past (x^v ^uaiv) and with its present (x^v iSsav).
In his current state, Agathon is obviously sexually active, as is made clear by Socrates' suspicion that he is Pausanias' naiSiKa. About the latter word Dover says: "The Greeks often used the word paidika in the sense of 'eromenos'. It is the neuter plural of an adjective paidikos, 'having to do with paides', but constantly treated as if it were a masculine singular" (1989: 16). In the passage just quoted (41), naiSiKa is used as the predicative complement of wv, which shows masculine agreement, even though it refers back to ^sipaKiov.
There are many more cases of this kind of (mis)match between grammatical and natural gender. I conclude with some examples in which a neuter diminutive is used to refer to a female referent. The first one comes from Aristophanes' Wasps:
(42)	Kai to yuvaiov |i' vrto0«rt£vaav ^uax^v |iaZav npoasveyKr | Kansixa KaGeio^evn nap' e^oi npoaavayKaZrp ^ays xouxi
And my little woman [n], suspecting [n] something, offers me a puff pastry and then, sitting [f] next to me, urges me: "Eat this!" (Ar., Vesp. 610-11)
In (42), to yuvaiov triggers neuter agreement on the first participle unoGwnsuaav, but the second participle KaGs(o^£vn is feminine, which agrees with the natural, not the grammatical gender of to yuvaiov. A very similar example comes from the Septuagint:
(43)	Kai auxoi supiaKouaiv Ta Kopaaia e^£\nA«06Ta uSpsuaaaGai uSwp Kai Xeyouaiv airraid si eaxiv evxauGa o pXsnarv; Kai drt£Kpi0n Ta Kopaaia ...
And they found the girls [n], who had come out [n] to draw water, and they said to them [f]: 'Is the seer here?' And the girls [n.pl] answered [sg] ...
(1 Ki. 9.11-12)
In (43), Ta Kopaaia triggers neuter agreement on the participle e^sXnXuGoxa, but the anaphoric pronoun auxalq is feminine, the gender of which is again determined naturally, not grammatically. The following clause is therefore all the more remarkable, as the verb ansKpiGn is singular, because the subject xa Kopaaia is neuter. This is of course the normal agreement pattern for neuter plural subjects (van Emde Boas et al. 2019: 322), but in this particular case it indicates that the grammatical and not the natural gender prevails again.
The final example is taken from the story of Jesus' healing of the daughter of Jairus, one of the rulers of a Galilean synagogue. It is transmitted in three versions in the synoptic gospels. Mark's version begins as follows:
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(44)	to Guydrpiov |iou ¿anatme; sxei, iva eXGwv eraG^; ta; xetpa; avrrfl i'va ao>Gr| Kai Zr|ar|
My little daughter [n] is dying; please come and lay your hand on her [f], so she may be healed and live. (Mc. 5.23)
Here again the feminine pronoun aütq does not agree with the neuter diminutive to Guyatpiov.56 Matthew (9.18) and Luke (8.42) read Guyatrip instead of Guyatpiov, which explains the feminine agreement in en' atitqv in the version of the former (ibid.). Jesus' intervention is interrupted by a hemorrhaged woman and in the meantime Jairus' daughter has died. Jesus immediately goes to his house and says the following to the grieving crowd according to Mark:
(45)	to naiSiov oük ansGavev aXXa KaGeuSei ... Kai Kpat^aa; t^; xeipO; toü naiSiou Xeyei avrr^ taXiGa Kou|i, o eativ |ieGep|ir|veuo|ievov^ to Kopdaiov, aoi Xeyw, syeipe^ Kai eüGü; ävsatr| to Kopdaiov Kai neprnatei^ ^v yap etwv SwSeKa ... Kai einev SoGrjvai avrrfl ^ayetv
The naiSiov [n] is not dead but sleeping ... and he took the hand of the naiSiov [v] and said to her [f]: talitha koum, which translates as: 'girl [v], I say to you, stand up', and immediately the girl [v] stood up and walked around, for she was twelve years old ... and he said that she [f] should be given to eat.
(Mc. 5.39-43)
Again feminine pronouns are used to refer to neuter diminutives: the second atitq (5.43) refers back to to Kopaaiov (5.43), but even more remarkable is the first atitq (5.41), which refers back to to naiöiov (5.39) and tou naiöiou (5.41). In Matthew's version, Jesus uses the neuter diminutive to Kopaaiov (9.24), which is again referred back to by a feminine pronoun in the phrase ¿Kpat^asv tq; X£ip°; atitq; (9.25). Luke uses the feminine noun q Guyatrip with female agreement patterns throughout his version of the story, with one exception: he uses the common noun q nat; [f] instead of the neuter diminutive to Kopaaiov to translate taXiGa (Aramaic NrrVü).
Judging from (43), (44) and (45) it seems safe to conclude that Greek girls behave exactly like German girls. The use of feminine pronouns to refer to the German neuter diminutive Mädchen has become a textbook example of a clash between semantics and grammar. Braun and Haig conclude that the choice depends both on the "semantics of age" (2010: 70) and on the "semantics of femaleness" (2010: 82), which is perfectly applicable to the examples just discussed, except that the definition of "femaleness" in terms of "age" differ in the case of Greek girls. The same holds, mutatis mutandis, for the use of
56 It may be noted that a few witnesses (P45vid A pc) read aürö instead of aürp.
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masculine pronouns to refer to the neuter diminutives nai5iov and ^sipaKiov, which is equally dependent on the semantics of age and maleness.
7. CONCLUSION
In this paper I have discussed selected mismatches between natural and grammatical gender and the ways in which grammatical agreement is sometimes used to repair such mismatches. Epicene nouns (§2) are sometimes overtly marked to reveal the natural gender of their referents, such as the male tortoise in (4b). The natural gender of common nouns (§3) can be overtly marked by agreement on articles, pronouns, adjectives and participles, as in the case of the cock in (6). Masculine second declension nouns such as Geo; are prototyp-ically associated with male referents, as opposed to feminine first declension nouns such as Gsa which are prototypically associated with female referents. Apparent mismatches of natural and grammatical gender often result in the reassignment of a noun to the other declension, such as the feminine second-declension noun napGsvo;, which eventually became a first declension noun, i.c. napGsva (§4).
Nouns referring to human beings of the same sex sometimes differ in grammatical gender (§5). In the division of the life cycle of male human beings according to (Pseudo) Hippocrates (17) and Ptolemy of Ascalon (18), the neuter to nai5iov is younger than the masculine o nai;, who in turn is younger than the neuter to ^sipaKiov, who in turn is younger than the masculine o veaviaKo;. There seems no logical or, indeed, natural reason to shift gender twice in the coming of age of boys. The case of the common noun nai; reveals that if the natural gender is not explicitly marked by agreement or, indeed, by the addition of the gendered adjectives apa^v / app^v and Gr|Xu;, it is either ambiguous, especially in the plural (naiSs; = 'children', whether male or female) or, quite often, exclusively male (nai5£; = 'sons'). In the latter case, the opposition between male and female children is often expressed by antonyms, e.g. nai5£; ~ GuYaxpe; (22).
Diminutive nouns offer the most exciting insights in the way natural and grammatical gender interact and, indeed, clash. Neuter diminutives normally trigger neuter agreement patterns, but sometimes the semantics of age and "maleness" / "femaleness" have an impact on the choices speakers and writers make. Grammatically neuter nouns such as nai5iov, ^apaKiov, "yuvaiov, Kopaaiov and Guyaxpiov are sometimes referred to by masculine and feminine pronouns, and in some cases even trigger 'gendered' agreement on adjectives or participles, as in the case of ^sipaKiov in (33) and (41). Braun and Haig conclude their study of the use of feminine pronouns to refer to German Mädchen that "people perceive biological gender as more relevant for adults
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than for children" and that "a natural boundary, that of puberty, appears to be relavant in the statistical distribution of feminine and neuter forms" (2010: 82). A more detailed study is needed to determine to what extent this also applies to Greek, but the data presented in this paper indicate that this is a worthwhile topic for future research.
Mark Janse
Ghent University & Harvard University Mark.Janse@UGent.be
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ABSTRACT
This paper is about the relation between natural and grammatical gender in Greek and the ways in which the twain are matched or mismatched. A variety of topics is discussed, including the relation between grammatical gender and declension, the resolution of gender clashes in epicene nouns and the marking of natural gender in common nouns. Particular attention is given to the gendering of neuter diminutives with male or female referents. Age and particular aspects of "maleness" or "femaleness" are shown to be major determinants in triggering male or female instead of neuter agreement patterns, especially on anaphoric pronouns, but occasionally also on other word classes such as predicative adjectives and participles.
Keywords: Ancient Greek, natural gender, grammatical gender, gender agreement, pronominal reference
Sex and Agreement: (Mis)matching Natural and Grammatical Gender in Greek
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POVZETEK
Spol in ujemanje: (ne)skladja med naravnim in slovničnim spolom v grščini
Članek obravnava razmerje med slovničnim in naravnim spolom v grščini ter primere, v katerih prihaja znotraj navedene dvojice do ujemanja oziroma neujemanja. Naslovljena je vrsta vprašanj, denimo vprašanje razmerja med slovničnim in naravnim spolom, razreševanja protislovja med naravnim in slovničnim spolom pri epicenih ter zaznamovanja naravnega spola pri večspolnih samostalnikih. Posebna pozornost je namenjena problemu spola pomanjševalnic s slovničnim srednjim spolom ter z nanosniki moškega ali ženskega biološkega spola. Članek pokaže, da sta odločilna dejavnika, ki vplivata na privzetje moških ali ženskih vzorcev ujemanje namesto vzorcev, značilnih za srednji spol, starost ter določeni vidiki »moškosti« ali »ženskosti«. To še posebej pride do izraza pri anaforičnih zaimkih, občasno pa tudi pri pridevnikih, kadar so rabljeni kot povedkovo določilo, in pri deležnikih.
Ključne besede: stara grščina, naravni spol, slovnični spol, ujemanje slovničnega in naravnega spola, nanašanje zaimka