| 35. Linguistic Exegesis The sentence opens with the circumstantial participial clause katesteilas {κατεστείλας | katesteílas} ‘having quieted’, which precedes the main verb phesin {φησίν | phēsín} ‘he says’ and describes prior action that sets the scene for the speech. The subject is ho grammateus {ὁ γραμματεύς | ho grammateús}, the civic official in Ephesus, and the direct object of the participle is ton ochlon {τὸν ὄχλον | tón óchlon} ‘the crowd’. The participial construction is rendered as a temporal clause in English (“after…had quieted” / “when…had calmed”) to reflect its background, sequential function. Direct discourse follows, marked in Greek simply by phesin and then the vocative andres Ephesioi {Ἄνδρες Ἐφέσιοι | Ándres Ephésioi} ‘Men of Ephesus’, which we reproduce with an address that maintains the communal focus. The core of the speech is a rhetorical question: tis gar estin anthropos hos ou ginoskei {τίς γάρ ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος ὃς οὐ γινώσκει | tís gár estín ánthrōpos hos ou ginṓskei}. The interrogative tis functions with anthrōpos to mean ‘what person’, and the relative clause hos ou ginoskei ‘who does not know’ creates an expectation that the answer is “no one,” emphasizing the notoriety of the fact described. The object of ‘know’ is the entire phrase tēn Ephesiōn polin neokoron ousan {τὴν Ἐφεσίων πόλιν νεωκόρον οὖσαν | tēn Ephesíōn pólīn neōkóron oûsan}. Here tēn Ephesiōn polin is the direct object ‘the city of the Ephesians’, and neokoron ousan is a participial predicate complement, literally ‘being temple-keeper’, attached to ‘city’. English idiom prefers a finite construction (“is the temple-keeper”) rather than a participial one, so the participle is converted to a predicate adjective. The genitives tēs megalēs Artemidos {τῆς μεγάλης Ἀρτέμιδος | tēs megálēs Artémidos} and tou diopetous {τοῦ διοπετοῦς | toû diopetoûs} both depend on neokoron, specifying what the city serves as temple-keeper of: the great goddess Artemis and the sky-fallen object. The adjective diopetous is substantivized and refers to a cult image thought to have fallen from Zeus, which we render as “the thing that fell from Zeus” in formal style and “the object that fell down from heaven” in dynamic style to convey the mythic, celestial origin without over-specifying its form. Throughout, the Greek word order foregrounds the city’s honored status before detailing the objects of its guardianship, a pattern preserved by keeping “the city of the Ephesians” as the central subject in both translations. |