Please excuse all of the text. The question I have only appertains to the last two lines but the rest may be needed for context. When mentioning himself and Apollodoros, is the word ἀδελφὸς in apposition to the name or a predicate to the name, i.e. “Whose brother Plato/Apollodoros is here,” or “Whose brother is Plato/Apollodoros here”? And how can you tell whether the name is an appositive or predicate noun?
Without the article,though, how can you tell which noun is the predicate noun and which is the subject?
I have been referencing Jowett and Rouse when translating the Apology, and the reason I was confused on this topic is that they both translate the reference to Apollodorus and Plato differently. The take Plato as an appositive to brother but translate Apollodorus as a predicate to brother. Thanks for the info. Just another reason never to put much stock into translations.
The problem may just be that English is not too fond of ‘Plato here’ as a noun phrase. The subject vs predicate question is not easy to answer. I don’t think Greek and English work quite the same way. For instance, I think I buy the argument that in mathematical definitions, English takes the thing defined as subject, but Greek the definition part (proceeding from the known to the unknown). That then explains the lack of a def article with the thing defined - it’s the predicate
So,using mathematical definitions, if one were to say “five is an integer,” in Greek “integer” would be the subject because it is the definition, but in English “five” would be the subject because it is the thing defined?
Hmm, by definition I mean something more like ‘a triangle is..’ then 'five belongs to the class of integers. Boy, that sounds like Socrates, objecting to definitions from his interlocutors. You are describing a number, as opposed to ‘number’
