Herbert Weir Smyth [
n.d.],
A Greek Grammar for Colleges; Machine readable text [
info] [
word count] [
Smyth].
1085
The superlative expresses either the highest degree of a quality (the relative superlative: ὁ σοφώτατος ἀνήρ the wisest man) or a very high degree of a quality (the absolute superlative, which does not take the article: ἀνὴρ σοφώτατος a very wise man). The relative superlative is followed by the genitive of the person or thing surpassed ( cross1315, cross1434). On the agreement, see cross1050.
a. The class to which an individual, marked by the superlative, belongs, may be designated by a genitive of the divided whole ( cross1315): ὁ σοφώτατος τῶν Ἑλλήνων the wisest of the Greeks. So often by πάντων: πάντων ἀνθρώπων ἀγνωμονέστατοι the most senseless of all men Lyc. 54. On the superlative with ἄλλων, see cross1434.
b. With two the comparative exhausts all the degrees of comparison: hence πρότερος and πρῶτος, ὕστερος and ὕστατος, ἑκάτερος each of two, and ἕκαστος each of several, are carefully to be distinguished.
Herbert Weir Smyth [
n.d.],
A Greek Grammar for Colleges; Machine readable text [
info] [
word count] [
Smyth].
