suus vs eius

[Pelayo]

Looking through Dido et Aeneas (see here) the first two sentenced are:

Aenēās, vir probus bonusque, post bellum Trōiānum Italiam petit. Vīta eius ardua est, nam in multīs terrīs errat neque patriam habet.

I bolded the part I'm wondering about. Why eius here instead of sua? I get this is constructed Latin, but my understanding is that suus, -a, -um is preferred for reflexive use cases. And that seems to be the case here.

 

[Pacifica]

Reflexive means referring back to the subject.* Here the subject isn't Aeneas. It's vita. You'd use the reflexive in a sentence such as Aeneas vitam suam narrat, "Aeneas recounts his (own) life."

*There are a few exceptions where suus doesn't refer to the grammatical subject, but they don't apply here.

 

[Pelayo]

Thanks for the info. This makes sense. But in what sense would Vita sua ardua est be different? Would this be "Life itself is difficult"?

 

[Pacifica]

No. It would mean "his own life is difficult", but it would be very unusual for classical Latin, even ungrammatical (maybe it could work in a very special context...)

 

[Pelayo]

Thanks.

To say "Life itself is difficult" might be? Vita ipsa ardua est

 

[Pacifica]

Correct.

 

[Pelayo]

Just so I'm clear on this, use of suus, -a, -um would probably be limited to sentences with multiple clauses or in prepositional phrases. Perhaps something like:

Sextus piratas prope navem suam videt.

But generally across sentences this does apply.

Sextus piratas videt. Prope navem eius sunt.

In this sentence we use eius to refer back to Sextus.

Am I getting that right?

 

[Pacifica]

Just so I'm clear on this, use of suus, -a, -um would probably be limited to sentences with multiple clauses or in prepositional phrases.

No, it appears in all kinds of sentences, no matter their length or number of clauses, as long as there's a reflexive meaning. Nor is a prepositional phrase necessary. Suus, -a, -um can easily describe a direct or indirect object, for instance.

Sextus piratas prope navem suam videt.

But generally across sentences this does apply.

Sextus piratas videt. Prope navem eius sunt.

In this sentence we use eius to refer back to Sextus.

Am I getting that right?

Your sentences are correct.

 

[Pelayo]

Ok. This is very helpful. Thank you. Your mention of indirect objects make some sense. Something like?

Liberi flores matribus suis dant.

But generally only used in the same sentence.

 

[Pacifica]

Yes.