Pl. Ap. 30b

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pster
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Pl. Ap. 30b

Post by pster »

OK I just don't understand how one is supposed to go about interpreting the end of this line:

οὐδὲν γὰρ ἄλλο πράττων ἐγὼ περιέρχομαι ἢ πείθων ὑμῶν καὶ νεωτέρους καὶ πρεσβυτέρους μήτε σωμάτων ἐπιμελεῖσθαι μήτε χρημάτων πρότερον μηδὲ οὕτω σφόδρα ὡς τῆς ψυχῆς ὅπως ὡς ἀρίστη ἔσται

My trouble begins when we get to:
πρότερον μηδὲ οὕτω σφόδρα ὡς τῆς ψυχῆς ὅπως ὡς ἀρίστη ἔσται

Socrates was setting up a comparison, but there is no "than" here anywhere. Instead we get a "formerly"!?

Here is the Loeb:

"more than for the perfection of your souls, or even so much"

Here is a pure crude oil translation:

"formerly not even as earnestly as of the soul in order that as best (it) will be"

I mean how does one go about massaging this to get something sensible?? There is something about the process of understanding Greek that I'm just not getting. It seems that as soon as οὕτω and ὅπως and ὡς type words show up it becomes alphabet soup and you can make it say anything you want!! Argh.

Thanks all, especially Nate. Good news: I'm back to 90 minutes a day of Greek with no obstacles whatsoever on the horizon. Bad news: I'm torturing the textkit community with my all too pedestrian confusions.

NateD26
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Re: Pl. Ap. 30b

Post by NateD26 »

IreneY has helped me with this sentence a while back. Here it is.
pster wrote:Thanks all, especially Nate. Good news: I'm back to 90 minutes a day of Greek with no obstacles whatsoever on the horizon. Bad news: I'm torturing the textkit community with my all too pedestrian confusions.
Keep asking! That's how we learn; I know I am. Something difficult today would eventually become much easier. :)
Nate.

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pster
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Re: Pl. Ap. 30b

Post by pster »

πρότερον μηδὲ οὕτω σφόδρα

So sneaky of Plato to use μηδὲ to combine two adverbs. Totally uncalled for!

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