DCML Digest, Vol 37, Issue 12

[Donald D. Markstein]

I stand corrected on "Athens" -- etymologically, at least. But the fact 
that there is no single "Athen" construction in English indicates that 
etymology is ALL it is. And since English is what we're discussing here, 
Athens, while it may have once been plural in the language it came from, 
is strictly a singular noun in this one. (And it's not the first 
singular English noun that was once plural in another language. "Agenda" 
hasn't been plural in English in a very long time, and "data" is almost 
never heard that way. And I believe I've already acknowledged that 
"media" is heading in that direction, tho it still has a long way to go.)

Anyway, you still can't form the possessive case in English by simply 
adding an apostrophe to a noun that already ends in S, unless it's a 
plural one.

Quack, Don