meno 82 d

[Constantinus Philo]

πειρῶ μοι εἰπεῖν πηλίκη τις ἔσται, how to translate this τις?

[Constantinus Philo]

can it mean something as approximately?

[Barry Hofstetter]

A little more context never hurts:

φέρε δή, πειρῶ μοι εἰπεῖν πηλίκη τις ἔσται [82e] ἐκείνου ἡ γραμμὴ ἑκάστη. ἡ μὲν γὰρ τοῦδε δυοῖν ποδοῖν· τί δὲ ἡ ἐκείνου τοῦ διπλασίου;

I think it's simply the indefinite adjective, "Come now, try to tell me how large any side of this will be..." But we don't use "any" that way in English when modifying "side", so we have to render something like "either" or "each," and that's what this translation does:

Come now, try and tell me how long will each side [82e] of that figure be...

Plato. (1967). Plato in Twelve Volumes translated by W.R.M. Lamb. (Vol. 3). Medford, MA: Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd.

[mwh]

No, that’s quite wrong. τις goes with πηλίκη (as its position indicates), not with ἡ γραμμὴ ἑκάστη. It needn’t be translated (and Lamb leaves it untranslated), though we could say “about how long”.

Xerxes after the battle of Thermopylae asked how many more Lacedaemonians there were (Hdt. 7.234): νῦν δέ μοι εἰπέ, κόσοι τινὲς εἰσὶ οἱ λοιποὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι. That’s a good parallel.

[Barry Hofstetter]

No, that’s quite wrong. τις goes with πηλίκη (as its position indicates), not with ἡ γραμμὴ ἑκάστη. It needn’t be translated (and Lamb leaves it untranslated), though we could say “about how long”.

Xerxes after the battle of Thermopylae asked how many more Lacedaemonians there were (Hdt. 7.234): νῦν δέ μοι εἰπέ, κόσοι τινὲς εἰσὶ οἱ λοιποὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι. That’s a good parallel.

<face palm> I simply did not see ἑκάστη there (trying to do things in too much of a hurry). Of course you are right, and thanks for the correction.

[mwh]

Then I suggest you try to do things in less of a hurry.

No response needed.

[Constantinus Philo]

i think I have made some good progress in Greek, thanx. Ἐυπόρηκά τι πρώην ἐν τῷ ἑλληνίζειν.