A new question has raised about syntax in a later passage of Plato’s dialogue Ion, but this time is harder for my mind than the first doubt that I had posted before this one. When Ion has recited Socrates a fragment from the Iliad, the philosopher asks Ion about who would understand it best: either a doctor or a charioteer. Here’s the fragment about which I have already spoken:
The problem is that οἵᾳ, which -as far as I know- is related to ἑκάστῃ, but I cannot understand why that very pronoun keeps on being in dative. On the other hand, by the way, I suposse that γιγνώσκειν depends on ἔργον.
First is dativus proper to which, second is dativus instrumentalis by which. To each science God appoint it’s work by which (the schience) it can είναι be known.
more freq. οἷός τε c. inf., fit or able to do, “λιποίμην οἷός τ᾽ . . ἀέθλια κάλ᾽ ἀνελέσθαι” Od.21.117 (preceded by τοῖον ib.173), Hdt.1.29, 67,91 ; “λέγειν οἷός τε κἀγώ” Ar.Eq.343, cf. Th.3.16, Isoc.8.69, etc. ; inclined to . . , Plb.3.90.5, J.AJ4.6.3 : most freq. in neut. sg. and pl., οἷόν τε [ἐστί] it is possible to . . , Th.1.80, etc. ; “οἷά τε [ἐστί]” Hdt.1.194, etc. ; a dat. is sts. added, “μὴ οἷόν τε εἶναι ἐμοὶ κωλῦσαι” Th.7.14.
I think the syntax is a little loose here – maybe an anacolouthon again – and I’m not sure I’m right about this, but I think it goes something like this:
“To each of the arts being able to understand some matter has been given by the god.”
In other words: “The abiliity to understand a particular matter has been given by the god to each of the arts.”
οἵᾳ τε is dative in agreement with ἑκάστῃ. He has already started with dative ἑκάστῃ, so he has to put οἵᾳ τε in the dative.
τι . . . ἔργον seems to be the subject, but that would leave οἵᾳ τε εἶναι γιγνώσκειν without a syntactic function in the sentence. I think he has shifted mid-sentence, so that the infinitive phrase τι . . . ἔργον οἵᾳ τε εἶναι γιγνώσκειν turns out to be the subject.
To each science God appoint it’s work by which (the schience) it can είναι be known.
I’m not sure that’s correct. The next sentence, I think, shows that he’s not talking about recognizing an art/science by its subject-matter, but rather about understanding the subject-matter by means of the science. “What we know by/through horsemanship, we won’t also know by medicine.”
This is difficult, though the overall sense is clear enough. I think τι …. ἔργον is usually taken as the object of γινώσκειν, “So to each of the technai it’s been assigned by God to be able to know a particular ergon,” i.e. God has assigned to each techne the ability to know its ergon. This makes sense (of a kind), but puts great strain on the word order, and I think it’s better to take it as it comes and to read τι ἔργον as the subject of ἀποδέδοται: “So to each of the technai a particular ergon has been assigned by God so that it’s able to know (its ergon).” Then οἵᾳ τε εἶναι (γιγνώσκειν) is a final-consecutive infinitive, completing the sense. Either way, each techne knows its particular job (and no other’s).
So I read it as: “Has not to each of the arts that is fit to exist a work been given by god for it to know?”
If the οἵᾳ τε εἶναι γιγνώσκειν are taken together, I don’t understand it, even after mwh’s explanation. Is that supposed to be something like “which is able to exist in order to know”?
οἵᾳ τε predicative with εἶναι, οἵᾳ τε εἶναι to be able, οἵᾳ τε εἶναι γιγνώσκειν to be able to know. There’s no problem about any of that, cf. oios t’ eimi legein I am able to speak. οἵᾳ τε dative as agreeing with (or attracted to case of) ἑκάστῃ.
There οἷά τε is neut.pl. used like the singular, and without a subject, “so high that it’s not possible to see its peaks” (ὡς used like ὡστε).
ἑκάστῃ τῶν τεχνῶν ἀποδέδοται οἵᾳ τε εἶναι To each of the technai is it given to be (εἶναι) able (οἵᾳ τε). Infin. as regularly with (-)didwmi, epitrepw and such, e.g. dos moi pinein, or to teknon epitrepw soi trefein. ἔργον is the subject of ἀποδέδοται and/or the object of γιγνώσκειν, as I tried to explain.
Ok I have checked a commented edition concerning this passage which says that the construction is ungrammatical due to a fatal error in the manuscripts, it being impossible to retrieve the original details.
No there’s no reason to suspect the given text. As I’ve tried to show, the construction is not ungrammatical, and even if it were that wouldn’t necessarily be fatal.