A Lexical Study of the Septuagint Version of the Pentateuch

specified direction). It also had the sense of 'have the power
of sight"; and a further use is found in the set phrase βλέπειν
ψάος (with ψάος sometimes omitted), equivalent to "be alive".
It does occur a number of times as a synonym of όράω in the
sense of 'perceive visually", but investigation shows this use
to be confined mainly to poetry. There are some twenty examples
in Sophocles, e.g. Tr. 594 τόνοε γαρ βλέπω θυραίον ήδη, Ph.
357, and a smaller number in Euripides, e.g. ion 925 οίκτου
σον βλέπων έμπίπλαμαι πρόσωπον, Hec. 681. It occurs once in
Aristophanes, Pax 208 ϊνα μή βλέποιεν μαχόμενους υμάς ετι, but
not at all in Demosthenes, Herodotus, Xenophon, Andocides,
Lycurgus, or Aristotle. In Plato there are three examples: ^
Ti. 51c ταύτα απερ και βλέπομεν όσα τε άλλα δια τού σώματος
α'ισθανόμεθα, Lg. 875d τάξιν τε και νόμον, α. δή τό μεν ώς έπί τό
πολύ ορά και βλέπει, τό δ' έπί πάν αδυνατεί, 921a ουδέν τω νω
βλέπων.
In all these authors όράω is the normal word for the idea.
Even in those in which βλέπω 'see' is found, όράω is by far the
commoner word.
We may conclude, therefore, that in the Classical period
βλέπω in the sense of 'see' was a poetic variant of όράω, some­
what like Eng. 'behold' compared with 'see', but was not usual
in prose, either Attic or Ionic, and, as its absence especially
from Xenophon and Aritotle suggests, had spread little or not at
all into everyday language. That it had, however, begun to
appear occasionally in ordinary speech by about the end of the
fourth century is a probable conclusion to be drawn from what we
12
can learn of Menander s usage. In what survives of his plays
I find three examples: Epit. 612 τί σ'αδ βλέπω 'γώ; Fr. 641
μέγιστόν έστιν αρα τοίς έπταικόσιν τό παρόντας εγγύς τους
συναλγούντας βλέπειν, 683.12 ό γαρ θεός βλέπει σε πλησίον παρών.
\
9. A good illustration of the difference is seen in Ar. Eg. 162-3
δευρί βλέπε, τάς στίχας οράς τάς τώνδε τών λαών; cf. e.g. D. 19.87.
10.Information about the usage of Class, authors is derived from
the standard indexes and lexicons to individual authors (see
Bibliography).
11. I.e. among the occurrences of the word noted by Ast, Lexicon
Platonicum; but Ast does not claim completeness.
12. Index in Koerte (2 ed.) and OCT of Dijsc .