Learn about the moron being wise to us. Listen: The moron had a fever, and having been put to bed, he called out in a loud voice. A doctor was sent for that he might be saved. The doctor came, and feeling him said, “Oh my, you fever badly.” But the moron was enraged to hear this and said “Don’t speak ill, O man! You weren’t sent for to berate me. If you are better at having a fever, look there’s the couch! Have a fever and be put to bed.” After all this, one of those present said, “What need is there for doctors? They appear haughty, talk a lot, and request money. It’s much better at the temple of Asklepieus in Epidauros.” About Asklepieus I will speak later.
τὸν παρ’ ἡμῖν = roughly “the one amongst us”
κατακλιθείς = here obviously with middle voice meaning, “he lay down and…”
ἐβόα = although the imperfect could in theory be understood to refer to a single event, like “called out” seems to me to suggest, perhaps this sentence should be interpreted as meaning that he “kept moaning in a loud voice”?
μετεπέμψατο, μετεπεμψάμην = “he (the moron) sent for”, “I sent for you”
κατακλιθεὶς πύρεττε = you need to turn the sequence of events around, i.e. “lay down and have a fever”
ἄμεινον πλεῖν = from πλέω to sail, “it’s better to sail to Epidaurus”
in the last sentence note it’s again not Ἀσκληπιός but Ἀσκληπιεῖον, i.e. the temple not the god
Technically and for Classical Attic, yes. However, one of the changes affecting the Greek language during the passage from Attic to Koine and eventually Modern Greek is the elimination of the middle voice as a morphological category distinct from the passive. In other words, in Modern Greek there is no difference in form between a “middle” and a “passive” aorist. The forms are those of the aorist passive in -θ-. In ancient works of literature there is a progressive increase of this phenomenon as one reads newer and less learned texts. In this case the middle rather than passive interpretation is obvious both from the context, since there is no indication that someone else is putting these people to bed (especially the doctor - since he’s well, why should he need help in order to lay down?) and the fact that the verb κατακλίνω has passive aor. 1 in -εκλίθην even in Attic Greek. I’m not even sure how much the middle form in -εκλινάμην is used at all, although it has to exist. One source I found says the aorist κατεκλινάμην is in fact a later formation instead of an obsolete old form. In any case κατεκλίθην is the normal Greek for “I lay down (myself)”. I could just have pointed that out but I thought you might benefit from knowing the wider picture since there’s a good chance that at some point during your reading you’re going to run into other verbs that do have regularly used Attic forms in -άμην but where Koine sometimes prefers -θην even when the meaning is that of middle voice.
Yes, in general μεταπέμπομαι means “to send for someone” and it’s clear from the context the subject of the verb is the moron, not some other unnamed person. Otherwise the subject would have to be overtly expressed.
Yes, exactly. If πλεῖν here were equal to πλέον, there would not be a verb in this dependent clause, since “it is better πλέον ἐπὶ τὸ Ἀσκληπίειον τὸ ἐν Ἐπιδαύρῳ” makes no sense by itself. Like you noticed, the interpretation “it is better at the temple” cannot be valid because ἐπί + accusative denotes motion towards, not motionless existence at a place. Your translation would in Greek be “ἄμεινον (ἐστιν) ἐν τῶι Ἀσκληπιείωι τῶι ἐν Ἐπιδαύρωι”.