I am having a bit of trouble translating the last part of the following sentence.
The context speaks about farmers who are farming on poor soil.
? δὲ γεω?γὸς ἠ?γάζετο ὅμως, καθ’ ὅσον οἷός τ’ ἦν.
But nevertheless the farmers were working, according to as much as…(?) and alone he was .
I don’t understand the part after καθ’. There seems to be no counterpart to ὅσον. Greater than what?
Any ideas?
Thank you in advance.
I think you’re getting stuck on a couple of things. First, it’s οἷος (with rough breathing) not οἶος. Second, οἷός τ’ εἰμί is an idiom which you may not have seen before. Literally it means something like “to be of such a sort as to…” but it’s generally used in the sense of “to be able”. I suspect that will clear up most of your confusion.
(I completely understand your confusion; my reaction was almost identical the first time I encountered this usage. Oh, and it has the idiomatic sense only when it’s used with τε; leave τε out and οἷος has its normal meaning.)
Ah. Thank you.
But nevertheless the farmer was working as hard as he was able, or maybe to do justice to κατά, But nevertheless the farmer was working according to his ability.
Idioms like that are often mentioned in a lexicon but I did not find this one because as you noticed, I was looking under οἶος.