Ἀϕεὶς τὰ ϕανερὰ μὴ δίωκε τὰ ἀϕανῆ

Greek Learning Greek
1

v ἀϕεὶς τὰ ϕανερὰ μὴ δίωκε τὰ ἀϕανῆ.

I’m having a hard time with this proverb. According to a note, μὴ is supposed to negate both halves of the sentence, so:
Do not go chasing after the invisible without having let go of the visible.
Which doesn’t mean diddlysquat to me, except maybe: When you are trying to figure something out, don’t start speculating before you have eliminated the possible obvious causes.

Betts, Gavin; Henry, Alan. Complete Ancient Greek: A Comprehensive Guide to Reading and Understanding Ancient Greek, with Original Texts (Complete Language Courses) (p. 339). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition.

2

It’s a trimeter, maybe pronounced τἀφανῆ, with that first syllable long. It’s from the Menander lists, as one might expect.

Maybe something like: “Do not, having let go of appearances, go after the occult.”

3

“

Do not, having let go of appearances, go after the occult.”

That’s a good idea. But don’t you agree with this note?:
10.2b, Note 2). (v) μή negates the whole sentence, i.e. ἀϕείς (aor. pple. of ἀϕημι) and δίωκε.

Then it could mean something like “Don’t pursue the occult without having first left behind the world of appearances.” (in a mystery cult or something)

Just to confuse matters, I found this legal jargon in Middle Liddle:

ἀφανὴς οὐσία personal property, as money, which can be made away with, opp. to φανερά (real), as land, Oratt.

4

No, it doesn’t mean that. A more opinionated way to state the relation of ἀϕείς to the imperative would be: “Do not let go of appearances and chase after the occult.” But I think that the Greek would work in a context where ἀϕείς has already happened or one where it has not, hence my wishy-washy translation.

I chose “occult” for etymology: “hidden”. The English term is probably a bit over-loaded for what Menander meant.

5

The contrast is between what’s plain to see (what’s right in front of your face, as it were) and what’s not, what’s obscure (except to blind prophets like Teiresias—Sophocles makes great play with the irony of that). And yes τὰ ἀφανῆ should clearly (φανερῶς) be written and pronounced τἀφανῆ, with routine crasis.

It’s one of those tedious moral maxims collected in their thousands in late antiquity that went under Menander’s name though unlikely to be by him. Our “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” is a comparable but not quite the same idea.