Working my way through Eleanor Dickey’s “Greek Prose Composition” currently and one of the sentences she has for analysis in chapter 2 is from Plato’s Republic, 330a:
I am trying to figure out what the “δὲ” is doing in “χαλεπῶς δὲ τὸ γῆρας”. I understand that the whole passage means something like “To those not already rich, old age they bear (with) difficulty…” but I cannot for the life of me figure out what purpose that particle serves. It doesn’t seem to be paired with “μέν” anywhere else, it’s right in the middle of the clause so it’s not linking to a previous sentence. Does δὲ have some other function that I’m just not aware of?
I’m not sure you’ve construed this correctly. φέρουσιν is not the finite verb (“they bear”) but the participle, governed by τοῖς, in parallel with μὴ πλουσίοις.
Even so, we might have expected μὴ πλουσίοις and χαλεπῶς τὸ γῆρας φέρουσιν to be linked by καί, not by δέ, so your question is still a good one. The answer will be that some contrast is required between the two conditions (poverty and finding old age hard to bear), since according to the argument they don’t simply go hand in hand, so καί would not be appropriate.
I see what you mean about the participle, that actually is very helpful for parsing the sentence. So to make sure I’m understanding it correctly, the article τοῖς goes with φέρουσιν, which is the dative plural form of the participle. Then it would be something like “to those taking old age hard, who are not already rich”?
This actually makes a lot more sense in context of the passage where the speaker is drawing a contrast between the poor yet reasonable man who finds it difficult to endure poverty and old age together, versus the unreasonable man who cannot attain contentment through earning wealth. So the “δέ”is linking the “not already rich” and the “man who bears old age with difficulty” but in a weaker way that later allows the speaker to sort of split the two apart for a further argument. Am I getting that about right?
Yes that’s it, only (to be picky) it’s not “already” rich, and I wouldn’t say that δέ is “weaker.” But clearly you now understand the syntax and how it fits the argument.
Here is what Mannetter says, with reference to Denniston:
“καὶ … δὴ: The combination of particles signify that the addition made by καί is an important one (D. καὶ … δή, pg. 253). ”
Excerpt from
Book 1 of Plato’s Republic: A Word by Word Guide to Translation (Vol. 1: Chapters 1-12)
Drew A. Mannetter
This material may be protected by copyright.
Yes Denniston (rather than Mannetter!) is still an excellent authority on particles. But the question here was about the subsequent δέ, independently of the opening καὶ τοῖς δὴ which is shared by both the following phrases (so the comma would be better away) and has little bearing on the function of the δέ that links them. It’s the larger context that helps with that.
Let me have another go at this: καὶ τοῖς δὴ μὴ πλουσίοις, χαλεπῶς δὲ τὸ γῆρας φέρουσιν, εὖ ἔχει ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος
Here is the Tom Griffith translation: “The same applies (εὖ ἔχει ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος) to those who are not rich (τοῖς δὴ μὴ πλουσίοις), and who find old age hard to bear (χαλεπῶς δὲ τὸ γῆρας φέρουσιν).” δὲ (and) fits naturally into this.
I don’t like your revised version. The translation above attaches τοῖς to (μὴ) πλουσίοις.
φέρουσιν agrees with τοῖς δὴ μὴ πλουσίοις. The comma after πλουσίοις bears this out.
(Plato, The Republic, Translated by Tom Griffith. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)