ἔτι σμίκρ᾽ ἄττα διατρίψαντες καὶ ταῦτα διαθεασάμενοι
I do not quite understand it, and the Russian and the English translations are so different, Is it: still having made some little delays and having examined these matters;
or, as the Russian translation has it: after some delay and having looked around;
or, as Denhyer’s commentary suggests, σμίκρ᾽ ἄττα refers to some philosophical issues, so it is the direct object of διατρίψαντες
The two aorist participles refer to the same temporal period (rather than consecutive periods) in relation to the finite verb, but not the same object, I think.
So before going in, they “yet spent a bit of time and looked over ‘this’”. He mentions having just indistinctly heard Prodikos speak in the previous paragraph, and I assume he means that they were comparing notes and getting his arguments straight.
Does Denhyer give examples of διατρίβω taking something equivalent to “philosophical issues” as a direct object? Absent that it seems like a weird suggestion.
yes he does in Symp 199b and Phlb20c
Symposium 199b is: σμίκρ’ ἄττα ἐρέσθαι
Phlb20c: Μίκρ’ ἄττα τοίνυν ἔμπροσθεν ἔτι διομολογησώμεθα
Those seem to justify σμίκρ᾽ ἄττα as “small matters”, but it still can’t be the object of διατρίψαντες.
Maybe if you took διατρίψαντες as intransitive:
<ὅτι> ἔτι σμίκρ᾽ ἄττα, διατρίψαντες καὶ ταῦτα διαθεασάμενοι