πολλὴ γὰρ ἡ περὶ τούτου ζήτησις... (Porph., Introd.)

Greek Learning Greek
1

Porph., Introd., 30 in CCAG 5.4, p. 208, lines 1–2:

πολλὴ γὰρ ἡ περὶ τούτου ζήτησις καὶ σχεδὸν ἁπάντων δυσκολωτέρα.

(no apparatus criticus for these lines)

I’d like this passage’s literal meaning, and I’m not satisfied with the existing translations:

Greenbaum: ‘For the search for this is long and perhaps more difficult than all others.’
Holden: ‘For there is much dispute about this, and almost all of it is very difficult [to understand]’

How would you translate it literarily? I feel “inconvenience, annoyance” would reflect the tone more, but I don’t know.
And I’m not sure whether it tries to say that the procedure each time is long and therefore annoying, versus maybe something like: the whole thing is so problematic and debated for the long time that it just makes everyone frustrated about the whole thing. I’d say both meanings are possible, depending whether you take the immediate context of the described procedure, or the beginning of the chapter, so I would like to know your thoughts sort of without the context. I’m not good with Greek, I hope the grammar and syntax can speak here alone.

2

I read it like Greenbaum, but a ζήτησις could mean a philosophical dispute like Holden says. I don’t see how Holden gets his second half though.

σχεδὸν ἁπάντων δυσκολωτέρα - more δύσκολος a ζήτησις than almost everything
πολλὴ ζήτησις - immense, great, or long ζήτησις

3

I have seen Holden making two stupid mistakes elsewhere, and it seems he often translates more loosely. I generally trust Greenbaum more, but the last part of the sentence looked like a more looser translation to me, as I can’t make sense of how the Greek words there work, so I had some doubts.

4

Literally it’s “Much (is) the enquiry about this and more difficult than practically all (things).”

  • Not “long” for πολλή.
  • I doubt there’s much sense of inconvenience or annoyance. I guess “frustrating” or “troublesome” might suit, but just “difficult” may be best—emotively colorless.
  • σχεδόν surely qualifies απαντων, as Joel. I’d say “than just about anything."