,ων τας μεν δυο ουκ αξιον ειπειν ει μη δια βραχεων.
M renders that in English as "two of which it is not worthwhile to speak of except in brief terms.
A word for word translation (here’s that sacrilegious word again…) would have been … except through brief (whatever).
I have no problem with using “in” instead of “through”, but where did the word “terms” come from? I guess that it’s inferred from the context, or is there some other mysterious mechanism at work here? Come to think of it, what else could it be except “terms” or “sentences” or “words”.
So then, I’m not sure why I submitted this post, maybe just to get confirmation that I am on the right track.
I will appreciate all comments.
Thanks to all.
If you were to translate it literally you would have “it is not worthwhile to speak of except in brief”.
LSJ has
" 3 of Number, few, ἐν βραχεῖ in few words, Pi. P. 1.82, S. El. 673; ἐν βραχίστοις Pi. I. 6(5).59; ἐν βραχυτέροις Pl. Grg. 449c; so διὰ βραχέων in few words, Id. Prt. 336a; "
in a few words, briefly, brief terms all work as translations.
Thank you for your reply.
BTW, what do the following refer to? Pi. P. 1.82, S. El. 673, Pl. Grg. 449c
They are references to texts. At the beginning of the lexicon there is a long list of authors and works with their abbreviations. This is a standard list which is used to refer to Greek works in a uniform way.
So
Pi. P. 1.82 = Pindar Pythian 1.82 (line 82 first poem in the book).
…
ἐν βραχεῖ, μείων ἕπεται μῶμος ἀνθρώπων. ἀπὸ
…
S. El. 673 = Sophocles Electra line 673
τέθνηκ᾽ Ὀρέστης: ἐν βραχεῖ ξυνθεὶς λέγω.
Pl. Grg. 449c = Plato Gorgias line 449c
πειράσομαί γε ὡς διὰ βραχυτάτων. καὶ γὰρ αὖ
καὶ τοῦτο ἕν ἐστιν ὧν φημι, μηδένα ἂν ἐν βραχυτέροις
ἐμοῦ τὰ αὐτὰ εἰπεῖν.
Hi again,
What lexicon are you talking about, and is it available online?
I was talking about LSJ. You can find it here. https://logeion.uchicago.edu/lexidium
Just type or paste a greek word in. If its an inflected word (as opposed to a dictionary entry definition like first person present for a verb) you need to press Consult Μορφώ on the right hand side first.
Yes, I use that site often, but I see no way to get to the beginning of it to see the list. I can get to LSJ, but when i click on “Abbreviations” I get an “Internal Server Error” message. Same when I click on “Front Matter”
So, how do I get to the beginning of Logeon to see the list, or how do I get the list in any way?
Thanks and I appreciate your patience.
Sorry I missed your post. That link doesn’t seem to work.
You can see the full list of abbreviations here http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Afrontmatter%3D1&force=y but its not very user friendly. If you are looking for something specific you could try the browser find function to locate what you are after rather than scrolling endlessly down..
Hope this answers your question.
Hi,
I found this site handy:
https://www.stoa.org/abbreviations.html
It’s a list strictly organised by author name with the abbreviation of the author’s name as well as the abbreviations for each his works. This is extremely useful when reading commentaries and as far as I can tell the abbreviations seem to be fairly standardised, e.g. A=Aeschylus, S=Sophocles, E=Euripides. Bear in mind that quite often the titles of even Greek works are given in Latin, so when you see A… Pr=Prometheus Vinctus, the work being referred to is Prometheus Bound. (Προμηθεύς Δεσμώτης)