Doubts on Zuntz's Lesson 8

Greek Learning Greek
1

Χαίρετε πάντες!

Here are my doubts on Zuntz’s lesson 8:

C2: Ὁ πόλεμός ἐστι περὶ ὄνου σκιᾶς.

I know ὁ πόλεμος means war, ὁ ὄνος means donkey, and ἡ σκιά means shadow, but I can’t make sense of this sentence. “The war is near the donkey’s shadow”?

G1: Ἀριστοτέλους· Τρεῖς ἐισι πολιτεῖαι· ἀριστοκρατία καὶ ὀλιγαρχία καὶ δημοκρατία, καὶ ἀριστοκρατίας μὲν ὅρος ἀρετή, ὀλιγαρχίας δὲ πλοῦτος, δήμου δ’ἐλευθερία.

What does he mean by ὅρος here? The gloss says it means “limit”; is he saying that in an aristocracy the limit of one’s power is his class, in an oligarchy, his wealth, and in a democracy, his freedom?

G2: Τῶν πολιτειῶν ἀρίστη ἡ ἐκ τῶν αρίστων

What I understood is that “the best form of government is one from the best (as he’s still quoting Aristotle, I suppose he means democracy, oligarchy, and aristocracy)”. Is this correct?

F: Πλάτων λέγει ὡς ἡ ἄγαν ἐλευθερία εἰς ἄγαν δουλείαν μεταβάλλει.

I3:
— Σὺ δέ, ὦ φίλε, πῶς ἔχεις;
— Χαλεπῶς ἔχω διὰ τοῦ χθὲς πότου.
— Καὶ δικαίως.

I broke the order because my doubt is the same in both passages: χθές and ἄγαν seem to refer to nouns (ἐλευθερία, δουλείαν, πότου), although they are adverbs; did I understand correctly? I can only remember of one such case in Portuguese (demais: “Há coisa demais ali” e “Bebi demais”, that is, “There are too many things there” and “I’ve drunk too much”), and none in Latin (in which we would say “Nimia libertas”, “magnam servitutem”, “ob hesternam potationem”, unless I’m mistaken), nor in English.

I think that’s all.
Ἔρρωσθε!
Ἰωάννης Στέφανος

2

περί with genitive means about

Can you make better sense of it now?

3

That’s probably the most ancient meaning, but ὅρος by Aristotle’s times meant also standard, measure.

4

ἡ ἄγαν ἐλευθερία and τοῦ χθὲς πότου. Yes, an important point: Greek, unlike Latin, can sandwich an adverb (and all sorts of other things) between the definite article and its noun. So here, “excessive freedom.” One advantage of a language with a definite article!

5

Interesting question! Smyth 1094 says that:

Ordinary adverbs qualify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and (rarely) substantives:

6

I confess I can’t. “The war is about the donkey’s shadow”?

7

There is no definite article in περὶ ὄνου σκιᾶς.

ὄνος

περὶ ὄνου σκιᾶς for an assʼs shadow, i.e. for a trifle, Ar. V. 191 (v. Sch.), Pl. Phdr. 260c; ταῦτα πάντʼ ὄνου σκιά S. Fr. 331.

8

the proverbial expression «περὶ ὄνου σκιᾶς» is coming from a speech of Demosthenes (or an anecdote about one of his speeches). He had been orating for some time and noticed that the public didn’t really pay attention, so he told a small story about an ass and its shadow within his speech. Like a wonder everybody paid attention… He then reprimanded the public that they care more for unimportant matters than the serious object of his oration.
So, here it’s a reference, meaning that this war takes place because of minutiae, trivialities.

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9

Aristotle’s 2nd passage means that the best city is the one consisting/made of the best citizens (or if you like laws and similar, I don’t remember how he goes on in the text).
In the 1st passage, ὅρος means definition, signpost (both literal meanings). Ὁρίζω the verb means define.
Plato’s passage: ἄγαν means excessive, above measure. He could use an adjective but it would be too definitive, which by using an adverb it’s presented as a rule of general validity.
The χθὲς = yester could also have been χθεσινός/οῦ but here again by the adverb it’s becoming generalized, otherwise the emphasis would rest too much on the temporal element of drinking yesterday (and not e.g. on another party…). So, both cases have a tendency to speak in a grand manner and giving a sense of aiming at supporting timelessness.

10

And thus all my doubts have been answered! Much thanks, Bedwere, Ioannis and Michael!

11

I was wrong when I said all my doubts have been aswered; the right understanding would then be “Aristocracy’s measure (of one’s power) is his class, oligarchy’s his wealth, and democracy’s his freedom”?

12

Better would be: “the measure of aristocracy is arete (‘excellence’); of oligarchy, wealth; of democracy, freedom.” It’s condensed and distorted—not to be taken as Aristotelian. But I think the given passages have been adequately covered now.

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