Heraclitus Fragment 35

Greek Learning Greek
1

Can somebody help me with Heraclitus Fragment 35? It consists of basic words, but I can’t work out the εὖ and the μάλα.

My understanding is that this is a χρή + accusative + infinitive construction, so we can translate it as “It is necessary for philosophical men to be judges of many [things/subjects].”

So how does one incorporate the εὖ and the μάλα grammatically and syntactically?

2

χρὴ εὖ μάλα πολλῶν ἵστορας φιλοσόφους ἄνδρας εἶναι…

I would take them as adverbs (obviously), εὖ modifying the verbal idea in the noun ἵστορας, and take μάλα with εὖ, something like (literal translation alert) “it is necessary for men who love wisdom to be knowers of many things well indeed,”

3

χρὴ εὖ μάλα πολλῶν ἵστορας φιλοσόφους ἄνδρας εἶναι

εὖ

coupled with other Adverbs, esp. when qualifying nouns, adjectives, and adverbs, εὖ μάλα Od. 4.96, etc.; ἡ ἀορτὴ εὖ μάλα κοίλη Arist. HA 514b22; εὖ μάλα πᾶσαι h.Ap. 171; εὖ μάλα πολλά Heraclit. 35; εὖ μάλα πρεσβύτης Pl. Euthphr. 4a; μάλα εὖ καὶ κομψῶς Id. Sph. 236d; εὖ καὶ μάλα Id. Smp. 194a (sed cf. CQ 15.4); κάρτα εὖ Hdt. 3.150; εὖ . . πάνυ or πάνυ εὖ, Ar. Pl. 198, Pl. Men. 80b; εὖ σφόδρα Nicostr. 8, Philem. 75.4; εὖ κἀνδρικῶς, εὖ κἀνδρείως, Ar. Eq. 379 (lyr.), Th. 656; καλῶστεκαὶ εὖ (v.supr.1.1); εὖ τε καὶ καλῶς Pl. R. 503d.

μάλα

b with Advs., πάγχυ μ., μ. πάγχυ, quite utterly, Il. 12.165, 14.143; πάνυ μ. Pl. Phd. 80c; εὖ μ. right well, Od. 22.190, Pl. Phd. 92d, etc.; μάλα . . εὖ Od. 23.175, cf. Pl. Tht. 156a;

Basically, they reinforce each other.

4

Small corrections to Barry’s and bedwere’s posts: εὖ is not “modifying the verbal idea in the noun ἵστορας” but goes with μάλα, see the examples cited in the first LSJ excerpt of bedwere’s post.
And μάλα is here used not with an adverb (as per bedwere’s second excerpt) but with an adjective, πολλῶν, “very many.”

Incidentally,
“It is necessary” is never a good translation of χρή.
And ἵστορας is not so much “judges” as “enquirers,” “investigators.” Cf. Herodotus’ opening sentence.

5

Here are the translations of the fragment that I could find online:

  1. Men that love wisdom must be inquirers into very many things indeed.
  2. Men who love wisdom must be good inquirers into many things indeed.
  3. Men who love wisdom must have knowledge of very many things.

The last one (the Loeb translation) seems to ignore the the εὖ and the μάλα (or is it reflected in the “very many things”?). The second translation seems to relate the εὖ with the ἴστορες (for where else would you get “good” inquirers?), which may be a little curious because εὖ is not an adjective but an adverb.

Also, from which word is everybody getting the “indeed”?

6

μάλα or εὖ μάλα together renders “indeed.” The second translation seems to want to render at least the adverb εὖ as modifying the verbal idea in ἵστορας (my original suggestion). And yes, the Loeb goes a bit more dynamic equivalent and renders εὖ μάλα as “very.”

I think mwh’s reading is quite likely the better, considering how εὖ may be used in conjunction with other adverbs.