A few weeks ago, I was reading Countess of Ranfurly’s To War with Whitaker. I came across a passage, which I e-mailed to Dan, my son: ‘I took a notebook with me and wrote down all the new names and a lot of RAF words which are Greek to me.’ Dan studies biology at the University, but he is interested in philosophy, and he enjoys reading Plato, especially the Phaedrus, which he read in Jowett’s translation several times. He wrote to me that he didn’t want the Greek to be ‘Greek’ to him. Could I do with him a little bit of Plato in the original?
After coming
home in summer, he visited me and looked at the Phaedrus in Burnet’s
Oxford edition of Plato. It opens with Socrates’ ]W fi/le Fai=dre, poi= dh_ kai_ po/qen; He looked at Jowett’s ‘My dear Phaedrus, whence come you,
and whither are you going?’ Obviously, although the meaning is the same, the
sentence is thought in a very different way in the Greek from the way it is
thought in the English. In Plato’s Greek, the first sentence contains seven
words, in Jowett’s translation it contains 11 words. For comparison, we looked
at Hackforth’s translation ‘Where do you come from, Phaedrus my friend, and
where are you going?’ It contains 13 words. And then we looked at C.J. Rowe’s
translation: ‘My dear Phaedrus, where is it you’re going, and where have you
come from?’ It contains 14 words.
I said that the meaning of Socrates’
words is the same in Jowett’s translation, but I was wrong. Socrates asks first
poi=
‘whither are you going?’ and then he asks po/qen ‘whence come you?’. The difference
is not trivial. Socrates’ poi= is followed by this emphatic dh/, and Phaedrus responds to it by explaining why he went out
of the city. He did so at the advice of Acumenus, a famous physician. But a
further reason for Socrates’ dh/ we learn only later, two Stephanus pages further on, at 229a3 (Socrates’
opening sentence is at St. 227a1), when Phaedrus refers to his being barefoot (a)nupo/dhtoj). As we go on, we realise that Socrates
and Phaedrus are sitting by the brook under a tree for hours all alone, no
other human being anywhere in sight. Obviously, it was very unusual for
Phaedrus to come barefoot out of that city gate into the countryside in that
hot summer day; all this was clear to Socrates as he looked at Phaedrus.
As can be
seen, Plato gradually reveals to us the meaning of Socrates’ dh/. But its full meaning we can
appreciate only when we compare Athens at the time when Plato wrote it, the end
stage of the Peloponnesian war, with the time into which he set it
dramatically, the time of peace. In the time of peace there were plenty of meadows
and trees, which remain even nowadays. But during the Peloponnesian war people
from the whole Attica were living inside the walls of Athens, building their
huts wherever they could. After the naval battle of Arginusae, Sparta sent an
embassy to Athens for peace negotiations, but Cleophon, the leading demagogue
of those days, found the terms Sparta offered unacceptable, and prevailed. Like
Aristophanes’ Frogs, the opening scene of the Phaedrus is a
passionate call for peace.
***
Read the Greek text aloud, as it comes in sentences, single words, word collocations, phrases
SW. ]W fi/le Fai=dre, poi= dh_
kai_ po/qen; ‘My dear Phaedrus, whither are you going, and where
have you come from?’
]W an exclamation O! oh! With vocative a mode of
address.
fi/le adjective in vocative case, nominative fi/loj
Fai=dre vocative, Fai=droj
nominative
poi= ‘whither’, ‘where’, interrogative adverb
dh/ with the acute accent; it acquires the grave accent in
a sentence, following a word accented on the penult (paen-ultima ‘almost
last’ syllable) or on the antepenult (the one before the penult).
dh/ emphatic particle; Socrates can see that Phaedrus is
going somewhere; he is asking with emphasis where is he going.
‘kai/' ‘and’, conjunction binding the two
adverbs poi=
kai_ po/qen
po/qen ‘whence’, ‘wherefrom’ ‘from where’ [are
you coming?], interrogative adverb
In the Greek, semicolon ; stands for the question
mark, our ?
FAI. Para_ Lusi/ou, w}
Sw/kratej, tou= Kefa/lou, poreu/omai de_ pro_j peri/paton e1cw tei/xoujˑ suxno_n ga_r e0kei= die/triya xro/non kaqh/menoj e0c
e9wqinou=. Tw~i de\ sw~i kai\ e0mw~i e9tai/rwi peiqo/menoj 0Akoumenw~i kata\ ta\j o9dou\j poiou=mai tou\j
peripa/toujˑ fhsi\ ga\r
a0kopwte/rouj ei]nai tw~n e0n toi=j dro/moij. ‘From Lysias, son
of Cephalus, Socrates; and I’m going for a walk outside the wall, because I
spent a long time sitting there, since sun-up. I’m doing what your friend and
mine, Acumenus, advises, and taking my walks along the country roads; he says
that walking here is less fatiguing than in the colonnades.’
para/
‘from’, preposition with genitive.
Lusi/ou
genitive, Lusi/aj nominative
w} Sw/kratej
nominative/accusative for vocative
tou=
gen. sing. of the definite article, o9 nom. sing.
Kefa/lou
gen. tou= Kefa/lou
‘of Cephalus’, i.e. ‘son of Cephalus’
poreu/omai
‘I walk’, verb, middle voice
de/ ‘and’,
connective
pro/j
‘for’, preposition with accusative
peri/paton
‘walk’, accusative sing, peri/patoj nominative
e1cw
‘out of’, ‘outside of’, preposition with genitive
tei/xouj
‘wall’, genitive sing. tei/xoj
nominative
suxno/n ‘long’,
adjective, accusative sing. suxno/j nominative.
It goes with xro/non
‘time’, which stands three words further on; xro/non
accusative sing. xro/noj
nominative
ga/r ‘for’
explanatory and causal particle
e0kei=
‘there’, adverb
die/triya
‘I spent time’, aorist, 1st person sing., diatri/bw ‘I spend time’
die/triya xro/non ‘I
spent time’
kaqh/menoj
‘sitting’, participle of ka/qhmai
‘I sit’
e0c
‘from’, preposition with genitive
e9wqinou=
‘sun-up’, adjective used as a noun, genitive sing., e9wqino/j nominative ‘early in the morning’
e0c e9wqinou=
‘from sun-up’
tw~i de\ sw~i ‘and
to your’, dative, o9 de\ so/j ‘and
your’, nominative
kai/
‘and’, connective
e0mw~i
‘my’, pronoun, dative, e0mo/j ‘my’,
nominative
e9tai/rwi
‘friend’, dative sing., e9tai/roj
nominative
peiqo/menoj
‘trusting’, participle of the verb pei/qomai
‘I trust’
0Akoumenw~i ‘Acumenus’
dative, peiqo/menoj 0Akoumenw~i ‘trusting
Acumenus’
kata/ ‘along’
‘on’ ‘over’ ‘throughout’ a space, preposition with accusative
ta\j o9dou/j
‘the roads’, accusative plural, o9do/j
‘road’, nom. sing.
kata\ ta\j o9dou/j
‘along the roads’
poiu=mai
‘I make’, verb, middle voice; middle voice is reflexive ‘I make for myself’ (poiw~ ‘I make’, active voice)
fhsi/ ‘he
says’, 3rd pers. sing.
fhsi\ ga/r ‘for
he says’
a0kopwte/rouj ‘less
fatiguing’, adjective in comparative, nominative plural, a0kopw&teroj nom. sing; a1kopoj ‘free from fatigue’
ei]nai
‘to be’, infinitive, ei0mi/ ‘I
am’
tw~n definite
article genitive plural, it goes with the unexpressed peripa/twn ‘than the walks’ˑ
e0n ‘in’
preposition with dative
toi=j definite
article, dative plural
dro/moij ‘places
for running’, dative plural, dro/moj
‘place for running’, nom. sing.
SW. Kalw~j ga/r, w! e9tai=re,
le/gei. a0ta\r Lusi/aj h]n, w(j e1oiken, e0n a1stei. ‘He
[Acumenus] is right in saying so, my friend. So, Lysias has been, as it seems, in
the city.’
kalw~j adverb
‘beautifully’, ‘finely’, <<<<<
kalw~j ga/r ‘for beautifully’
e9tai=re ‘friend’,
vocative sing. w! e9tai=re ‘oh
friend’
le/gei
‘(he) says’, verb, 3rd pers. sing., le/gw
‘I
say’, 1st. pers. sing.
a0ta/r ‘so’, it marks a rapid transition to another
thought; Socrates abruptly turns his thoughts from Acumenus to Lysias.
h]n ‘has been’, imperfect of ei0mi/, ‘I am’, 1st pers. sing., ei]nai ‘to be’ infinitive
w(j ‘as’, relative, adverb of manner
e1oiken ‘it seems’, verb, impersonal, 3rd
pers. sing.
w(j e1oiken ‘as it seems’
e0n ‘in’, preposition with dative
a1stei ‘town’, noun, dative sing., a1stu ‘town’, nom.
sing.
FAI.
Nai/, par’
0Epikra/tei, e0n th=ide th=i plhsi/on tou=
0Olumpi/ou oi0ki/ai th=i Moruxi/ai. ‘Yes, with Epikrates, near the temple of the
Olympian Zeus, in the Morychian house.’
nai/ ‘yes’ ‘verily’ adverb used to express strong
affirmation
par’ para/
‘with’, shortened to avoid hiatus, preposition with dative, answering the
question where? ‘with one’, ‘at one’s house or place’
0Epikra/tei
dative par’ 0Epikra/tei ‘with Epicrates’
e0n ‘in’, preposition with dative
th=ide feminine definite article in dative sing.,
emphasised by de/, it goes with oi0ki/ai ‘house’
th=i feminine definite article in dative sing., it
goes with oi0ki/ai
‘house’
plhsi/on ‘near’, adverb with genitive
tou= masculine definite article in genitive
0Olumpi/ou
‘temple of Olympian Zeus’, genitive
plhsi/on
tou= 0Olumpi/ou
‘near the temple of the Olympian Zeus’
oi0ki/ai ‘house’, feminine noun, dative sing.
e0n th=i
oi0ki/ai ‘in the house’
Moruxi/ai
‘Morychian’, feminine adjective,
dative
e0n th=i
oi0ki/ai th=i Moruxi/ai ‘in the Morychian
house’ ‘in the house where Morychus used to live’.
***
C.J. Rowe notes: ‘Morychus is
mentioned several times by Aristophanes for his luxurious way of life. But on
this occasion it was a feast of words that the guests were enjoying.’ Rowe
appositely refers to 236e; Socrates is weary of telling a rival speech to
Lysias’ Eroticus – with which his breast is full (235c5) – so Phaedrus
threatens him ‘I swear that if you don’t make your speech I shan’t display or
report to you anyone’s speech ever again.’ Socrates gives in: ‘For how could I keep
myself away from such feasts’ pw~j ga\r a2n oi[o/j t’
ei1hn
toiau/thj qoi/nhj a0pe/xesqai;
pw~j ‘how’, adverb of manner
ga/r ‘for’, causative and explanatory particle
a1n particle that goes with optative
oi[oj ‘able’, ‘such as’, adverb
t’
shortened te enclitic (e0gkli/nw [e0n-kli/nw] ‘lean upon’) particle; it leans upon
the preceding oi[oj, which thus receives its acute accent on the
ultima: oi[o/j t’
ei1hn optative of ei0mi/ ‘I am’; on its
own it is too indefinite for it to be translated
pw~j a2n
oi[o/j t’ ei1hn ‘how could I’, ‘how would I be able to’
toiau/thj ‘such’, feminine demonstrative pronoun in
genitive sing., nom. toiau/th
qoi/nhj ‘feast’, feminine noun, genitive sing., qoi/nh
nominative
a0pe/xesqai
‘keep oneself away from’, middle voice,
infinitive, a0pe/xomai
‘I keep myself away from’
***
SW. Ti/j
ou]n dh\ h]n h9 diatribh/; h2 dh=lon o3ti tw~n lo/gwn u9ma=j Lusi/aj ei9sti/a; ‘What, then, was your entertainment?’ Or, it
is clear that Lysias feasted you with his logoi?
ti/j ‘what’, ‘who’, interrogative pronoun
referring to a feminine or a masculine noun; ti/
referring to neutral noun, i.e. neither masculine nor feminine
ou]n ‘then’ to continue a narrative
dh/ particle of emphasis, it refers to the whole
clause; clearly, they were entertaining themselves, Socrates asks in what way
they entertained themselves the whole morning (e0c
e9wqinou= ‘from sun-up’)
h]n ‘was’, imperfect of ei0mi/
(‘I am’), 3rd pers. sing.
h9 feminine definite article, nominative
diatribh/
‘entertainment’, ‘spending of time’,
feminine noun, nominative
h2 ‘or’, disjunctive conjunction
dh=lon ‘it is clear’, neutral adjective (Latin neuter,
ne ‘not ‘+ uter ‘either of the two’, neither masculine nor
feminine)
o3ti ‘that’, conjunction
tw~n definite article, genitive plural
lo/gwn ‘logoi’, plural genitive
tw~n
lo/gwn ‘with some of his logoi’, partitive
genitive; in this case, the definite article has the force of the personal
pronoun ‘his’
u9ma=j ‘you’, accusative plural, nominative plural u9mei=j
Lusi/aj ‘Lysias’ nominative
ei9sti/a ‘feasted’, imperfect 3rd pers.
sing., ei9stia/w ‘I receive at my hearth’ ‘I entertain’ (e9sti/a
‘hearth of a house’)
tw~n
lo/gwn u9ma=j Lusi/aj ei9sti/a ‘Lysias
feasted you with some of his logoi’
FAI.
Peu/shi, ei1 soi sxolh\ proi+o/nti a0kou/ein. ‘You’ll
find out about that, if you have free time to walk along and listen.’
peu/shi ‘you’ll find out about that’, aorist
subjunctive 2nd pers. sing., punqa/nomai ‘I learn’ by
hearsay or inquiry
ei0 ‘if’ particle used in indirect questions
soi/ ‘you’, dative singular (‘to you’ ‘for you’)
ei1 soi ‘if you’ soi/ is enclitic,
throwing its accent on the preceding ei0, on which it leans
(e0gkli/nw,
e0n-kli/nw, ‘lean upon’)
sxolh/ ‘free time’, feminine noun, nominative, sing.
proi+o/nti
participle of pro/eimi
‘I walk along’, ‘I am walking along’, I go forward’, ‘I am going forward’,
dative sing.
a0kou/ein
‘to listen’,
‘to hear’, infinitive; a0kou/w ‘I listen’, ‘I hear’
SW. Ti/
de; ou0k a2n oi1ei me kata\ Pi/ndaron “kai\ a0sxoli/aj u9pe/rteron” pra=gma poih/sasqai to\ teh/n te
kai\Lusi/ou diatribh\n a)kou=sai; ‘What? Don’t you realise
that I, according to Pindar, would make it a thing ‘above all business’ to hear
how you and Lysias passed your time?’
ti/ ‘what’ (interrogative pronoun ti/j
‘who’, ti/ ‘what’
ti/ de; ‘and what?’ in the Greek the semicolon ;
stands for the question mark ?
ou0k ‘not’; ou0 ‘not’, becomes ou0k
before a smooth vowel, and ou0x before a rough vowel; as ou0 qe/lw ‘I don’t want’ ‘I don’t wish’, ou0k au0to/j ‘not he himself’, ou0x ou3toj ‘not he’.
ou0 is the negative of fact and statement,
mh/ of will and thought; ou0
denies, mh/ rejects; ou0 is objective, mh/
subjective; ou0 is absolute, mh/
relative.
a1n untranslatable adverb, the nearest is our
‘perhaps’
oi1ei ‘you think’, verb 2nd pers. sing., oi1omai or oi1mai ‘I
think’, ‘I believe’, ‘I suppose’
me/ ‘me’ accusative of e0gw& ‘I’, me/ is enclitic,
i.e. it looses accent lying on (e0n-kli/nw
‘I lie on’; n before k is assimilated, it becomes g:
e0gkli/nw) the preceding word.
ou0k a2n
oi1ei me ‘don’t you think that I’, ‘don’t you realise that
I’
kata/ ‘according to’, preposition with accusative
Pi/ndaron
accusative, Pi/ndaroj Pindar (518-438 B.C.), a very famous and very
difficult poet
kai/ ‘even’, here kai/
is intensifying, not a conjunction ‘and’
a0sxoli/aj ‘business, ‘having no free time’, feminine
noun, genitive sing.;
sxo/lh is ‘free time’, Socrates had always sxo/lh
for philosophy; the initial a0
is a0 privativum, it
deprives the word of its positive meaning
u9pe/rteron
‘higher’, ‘more important’, adjective
in comparative, u9pe/rteroj
pra=gma ‘thing’, ‘matter’, neutral noun, nominative
sing.
poih/sasqai ‘to make’, aorist infinitive, middle voice;
active voice infinitive poiei=n; poie/w, poiw~ ‘I make’
to\ teh/n
te kai\Lusi/ou diatribh\n a)kou=sai
to/ ‘the’ definite article (neutral, i.e. neither
masculine, nor feminine; Latin ne-uter, ‘neither the one nor the other’;
uter ‘either of the two’; it defines the rest of the sentence teh/n te kai\Lusi/ou diatribh\n
a)kou=sai, thus making it into one concept: ‘to-hear-how-you-and-
Lysias-passed-your-time’, ‘to-hear-how-you-and-Lysias-entertained-yourself’
teh/n ‘your’, accusative of the feminine pronoun teh/,
‘your’
te/ is enclitic, it loses accent ‘lying on’ (e0gkli/nw) teh/n, the preceding
word, making teh/n te into one word ‘and-your’
kai/ ‘and’, here kai/
is the connective ‘and’
Lusi/ou genitive, Lusi/aj, nominative
diatribh/n ‘entertainment’, ‘spending your time’;
feminine noun, accusative, diatribh/ nominative
a)kou=sai ‘to hear’ aorist infinitive, which means
‘hearing all of it’; compare to Phaedrus’ preceding a0kou/ein, present infinitive, which means simply ‘to
hear’, ‘to listen to’
FAI.
Pro/age dh/. ‘Lead on, then’
pro/age ‘lead on’, imperative, proa/gw
‘I lead’
SW.
Le/goij a1n ‘Speak then’, ‘Please, speak’
le/goij optative 2nd pers. sing., le/gw ‘I
say’, ‘I am saying’, ‘I tell’, ‘I am telling’
a1n goes with the optative
le/goij
a1n ‘speak then’, ‘please, speak’, potential
optative, 2nd person, sing., it expresses a mild command or
exhortation, corresponding to ‘may’, ‘can’, might’, ‘could’, ‘would’ etc.
After going through the text step by
step, read the whole text aloud.
SW. ]W fi/le Fai=dre, poi= dh_
kai_ po/qen;
FAI. Para_ Lusi/ou, w}
Sw/kratej, tou= Kefa/lou, poreu/omai de_ pro_j peri/paton e1cw tei/xoujˑ suxno_n ga_r e0kei= die/triya xro/non kaqh/menoj e0c
e9wqinou=. Tw~i de\ sw~i kai\ e0mw~i e9tai/rwi peiqo/menoj 0Akoumenw~i kata\ ta\j o9dou\j poiou=mai tou\j
peripa/toujˑ fhsi\ ga\r
a0kopwte/rouj ei]nai tw~n e0n toi=j dro/moij.
SW. Kalw~j ga/r, w! e9tai=re,
le/gei. a0ta\r Lusi/aj h]n, w(j e1oiken, e0n a1stei.
FAI.
Nai/, par’
0Epikra/tei, e0n th=ide th=i plhsi/on tou=
0Olumpi/ou oi0ki/ai th=i Moruxi/ai.
SW. Ti/j
ou]n dh\ h]n h9 diatribh/; h2 dh=lon o3ti tw~n lo/gwn u9ma=j Lusi/aj ei9sti/a;
FAI.
Peu/shi, ei1 soi sxolh\ proi+o/nti a0kou/ein.
SW. Ti/
de; ou0k a2n oi1ei me kata\ Pi/ndaron “kai\ a0sxoli/aj u9pe/rteron” pra=gma poih/sasqai to\ teh/n te
kai\Lusi/ou diatribh\n a)kou=sai;
FAI.
Pro/age dh/.
SW.
Le/goij a1n
Stephanus pages 227a1-c2
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