26.5 English combines the personal pronoun and the word –self to form REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS: e.g. You love yourself. We see ourselves.
Greek forms REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS in much the same way, combining the personal pronoun with the corresponding (oblique) case, number, and gender form of αὐτός αὐτή αὐτό. Recall that this pronoun is emphatic – and translated as –self– if it is used on its own in the NOMINATIVE, or as an ADJECTIVE in the PREDICATE POSITION.
Note that Greek tends to combine the SINGULAR forms into one word (accent on the ultima), but inflects both pronouns in the PLURAL (S 329, G 203).
26.6 Reflexive First Person Pronouns (myself, ourselves)
26.7 Reflexive Second Person Pronouns (yourself, yourselves):
For some authors, the –ε– in the antepenult of the singular forms is elided, resulting in σαυτοῦ/ῆς, σαυτῷ/ῇ, σαυτόν/ήν.
26.8 Reflexive Third Person Pronouns (himself, herself, itself, themselves):
Attic Greek uses the archaic third person pronoun ἑ to represent he, she, it in its THIRD PERSON REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS. While ἑ is found in Homer, in later Attic Greek the third person pronoun is more commonly expressed by ἐκεῖνος, oblique forms of αὐτός, and οὗτος (introduced in the next chapter).
The older third person pronoun ἑ does, however, survive in Attic Greek’s THIRD PERSON REFLEXIVE PRONOUN. Note that for this pronoun, Attic Greek combines the personal and reflexive pronouns into one form for both the singular and plural. Note also that the resulting form is accented as though it were a regular first or second declension noun with a persistent ultima accent (S 329, G 203).
26.9 Some Attic Greek authors contract this pronoun. The result is that only the ROUGH BREATHING distinguishes it from the pronoun αὐτός αὐτή αὐτό!
