Section Five: ‘Socrates corrupts the young’
REVISION EXERCISES FOR SECTION 5A–B B/C – WORD SHAPE AND SYNTAX
1. a. I am sleeping, but these men are still pursuing me.
ἐκάθευδον … ἐδίωκον.
b. Who is responsible? My wife. For she always takes her son and talks to him about horses.
ἦν … ἐλάμβανε … διελέγετο.
c. How bitter is marriage! For my wife always makes our marriage bitter.
ἦν … ἐπoίει.
d. We are young and punish the slaves. For in this way the slaves become good.
ἦμεν … ἐκολάζομεν … ἐγίγνοντο.
e. The slaves do not fear their masters nor do they obey them.
ἐφοβοῦντο … ἐπείθοντο.
2. we were conversing διελεγόμην we were watching ἐθεώμην they were bringing in εἰσέϕερεν you (s.) owed ὠϕείλετε
we were in ἐνῆ
you (pl.) were watching ἐθεῶ you (s.) used to obey ἐπείθεσθε they were afraid ἐϕοβεῖτο
I was calling upon ἐπεκαλούμεθα I was stopping ἐπαύομεν
he/she was ἦσαν
you were afraid ἐϕοβεῖσθε he/she was watching ἐθεῶντο
Section 5C 63
D – ENGLISH INTO GREEK
1. The young man was shouting, but the sailor did not stop chasing.
βαθέως ἐκάθευδον ἀλλ’ ὁ υἱὸς οὐκ ἐπαύετο βοῶν.
2. The farmers always used to honour the gods.
ὁ πατὴρ ἀεὶ ἐκόλαζε τὸν υἱόν.
3. The sons owed much money.
οἱ νεανίαι χρηστοὶ (ἀγαθοὶ) ἦσαν καὶ ἐπείθοντο.
4. We used to pray to the goddess, but we did not make sacrifi ces.
ἡμεῖς μὲν ἐκελεύομεν, οἱ δὲ δοῦλοι (οἰκέται) ἡμᾶς κακὰ ἐποίουν.
5. You (s.) stopped the woman punishing the household slaves.
ἐβοῶμεν καὶ τοὺς δούλους (οἰκέτας) ἐπαύομεν διαλεγομένους.
5C
In this section you will meet the future tense. In almost all verbs the distinguish-ing mark is a ‘-σ-’, although when this is merged with a consonant stem it is not always apparent. See GE pp. 102–103, #112–114.
Page 58
1 Φειδιππίδιον Note the diminutive form – affectionate?
5 αὔριov ‘tomorrow’; this should alert you to what tense is coming next!
ϕιλήσεις The fi rst example of the future – note ending -σ-εις.
6 ϕιλήσω … παύσομαι 1st person singular of active and middle respectively.
Note the -σ- inserted between present stem and person-ending. (With ϕιλήσω, ϕιλήσεις there is an additional point to note: contracted verbs lengthen the vowel at the end of the stem before adding the same endings as uncontracted verbs; see GE pp. 103–104, #115–116
6 τουτονί τὸν ἵππιον Pheidippides swears by Poseidon, god of horses (as well as god of the sea). The point will be further developed later.
9 πείθου This is the middle imperative, ‘obey!’
10 πείσομαι Also future. Note that verb-stems ending in dentals -τ/-δ/-θ/-ζ lose the fi nal consonant of the stem before adding -σ- and regular endings.
12 πείσῃ 2nd s. future middle of πείθω, ‘Will you obey?’
13 Obediently, Pheidippides changes his oath to swear by Dionysus.
17 ἀκούσομαι Some verbs change from present active to future middle with no change in meaning.
20 λέξω Verbs with stems ending in -γ/-κ/-χ combine the fi nal consonant of the stem with the -ς- to form -ξ-. See GE p. 103, #114.
22 σώσει See note above on p. 58 line 10.
Translation for 5C
S T R E P S I A D E S Pheidippides, Pheidippidikins!
P H E I D I P P I D E S What, father?
64 Section 5D
S T R. Tell me, son, do you love me?
P H E I. I [do], and I don’t ever stop [loving you].
S T R. Will you love me tomorrow?
P H E I. By Poseidon here, god of horses, I shall love you tomorrow and I shan’t stop ever.
S T R. Don’t ever mention that horsey one, son – for that one has the responsibility for my troubles – but listen and obey.
P H E I. Look, I am listening and obeying and I shall always obey. So speak then! What are you ordering?
S T R. I shall order a small thing, my son, a very small thing. For I have a plan and I am planning something. Will you obey?
P H E I. I will obey, by Dionysus. Don’t worry, father.
S T R. Were you listening? Or weren’t you listening? Or am I speaking in vain? I’ll stop you sleeping.
P H E I. Yes. I was listening and I am listening and I shall listen. What were you telling me?
S T R. I was telling you that I have an idea.
P H E I. What is your idea? What have you in mind and what are you planning? Were you saying?
S T R. No, but I will [tell you]. For perhaps this idea will stop us somehow from our debts. I’m planning something big.
P H E I. Tell [me]. What is your plan, father? What will you order? How will your idea save us? How shall we stop from our debts?
S T R. You will do it?
P H E I. I will do it, by Dionysus.
5D Page 60
1 οἰκίδιον The diminutive form of οἶκος/οἰκία.
3 ϕροντιστήριον An Aristophanic coinage, constructed from ϕροντίζω ‘I think’,
‘I consider’ with the suffi x -ηριον, which corresponds to English ‘-ery’ suffi x in e.g. ‘bakery’, ‘brewery’ – the place where something is done. Hence
ϕροντιστήριον means ‘thinkery’.
5 πνιγεύς Ilustrated on next page – these are bowl-shaped, earthenware ovens.
ἄνθρακες English ‘anthracite’ may help towards meaning: ‘coals’.
6–7 Notice the implication that Socrates and his associates are well paid for their teaching – something which Socrates always vigorously denied.
9 μαθήσονται The future of μανθάνω (μαθ-). Some irregular verbs use the stem given in brackets to form the future. See GE p. 105, #120 for a list of
‘important futures’.
13 λόγον Always a diffi cult word to translate. Here perhaps ‘argument’ fi ts the meaning most closely. Socrates is depicted as having two ‘arguments’ in his
Section 5D 65
‘thinkery’ (in the original play these ‘arguments’ actually appear as characters):
the ‘right’ argument, which argues correctly, and the ‘wrong’ argument, which, by verbal trickery etc., can make the weaker argument appear the stronger.
Hence Strepsiades’ interest in the latter argument.
16 σοϕισταί Originally a neutral term for philosophers, but later acquiring pejorative overtones – hence the disgusted reaction from Pheidippides.
18 ὠχρούς … ἀνυποδήτους Ochres are pale yellowish shades, which gives the meaning of ὠχρούς. To be pale was a sign of spending too much time indoors, and was hence a derogatory description for a man. ἀν-(negative) ὑπο- (‘under’) -δητους (‘bound’): ‘unbound-under’ meant ‘shoeless’; here it is also
derogatory, as a sign of poverty. In addition, Socates went unshod.
23 οἱ ἔνδον ‘those inside’.
24 σὺ δὲ διὰ τί οὐκ εἰσέρχῃ μαθητής; ‘But you, why don’t you go in (as) a student?’
27 διαϕθερεῖ One of only two examples in this section of a grammatical point that is easily overlooked (see GE p. 104, #117). Verbs with a present stem ending in -λ-, -μ-, -ν- or -ρ- do not insert -σ- to form future, but have a contracted future in -έω.
28 λήψονται The future of λαμβάνω (λαβ-), is again based on the bracketed stem but with the vowel lengthened.
29 ἄριστε ἀνθρώπων Strepsiades reverts to his wheedling.
32 εἴσειμι The irregular future of εἰσέρχομαι. This is doubly confusing because εἶμι (‘I shall go’) is identical in spelling with εἰμί (‘I am’). However, the accent distinguishes the two when not prefixed.
34 οὔκoυν πείσῃ; ‘Won’t you obey?’
35 γενήσομαι The future of γίγνομαι (γεν-), again based on the bracketed stem.
See GE p.104, #117.
36–38 εἴσει, εἴσεισι, εἴσιμεν The future of εἰσέρχομαι again (cf. note on line 32).
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41 ἐκβαλῶ βάλλω has shortened the present stem to βαλ- and added -έω to form future (see GE p. 104, #117).
50 γνώσομαι The future of γιγνώσκω (γνω-), based on the bracketed stem. See GE p. 105, #120.
57 κόψω Notice how the -σ- in the future can combine with a labial consonant stem (κοπ-) to produce -ψ-. See GE p. 103, #114.
Translation for 5D
S T R E P S I A D E S Look over here. Do you see this door and the house?
P H E I D I P P I D E S I see it. What is it, Father?
S T R. This is the thinkery of wise souls. Inside live wise men, and speaking they persuade their pupils that the heaven is a bell-oven and this bell-oven is around us and we are the coals. These men persuade their pupils, always teaching and
66 Section 5D
receiving a lot of money. And by Zeus no one of them will stop receiving much money from their pupils.
P H E I. But what do the men teach? What will young men learn, becoming [their] pupils?
S T R. The pupils will learn arguments.
P H E I. Which arguments do you mean, Father?
S T R. Which? I mean the just and unjust argument.
P H E I. The students will learn these arguments?
S T R. [Yes], by Zeus. And what’s more in lawsuits they will always defeat their opponents.
P H E I. Who are these men? What is the name of the men?
S T R. I do not know the name. But they are fi ne, noble sophists.
P H E I. Yuck! Awful [people], I know. You mean the pale shoeless [people], wretched Socrates and Chaerephon.
S T R. Hey, hey, be quiet! Will you not listen?
P H E I. I will listen. What will you tell me?
S T R. But as I was saying, those inside have two arguments, the just and the unjust.
Why do you not go in as a student? For this way we shall stop ourselves from our debts.
P H E I. What will I learn?
S T R. The unjust argument. For the unjust argument will put a stop to our debts, the just one won’t. So learn: in this way the creditors will not recover any of these debts. Why don’t you go into the thinkery, best of men?
P H E I. What are you saying? I, [go] into the thinkery? By Poseidon, god of horses, I won’t do this. I’m not going in today, I won’t go in tomorrow and I won’t do so in any way. For I love horses, not sophists.
S T R. Won’t you obey and do this?
S T R. What shall I do? Pheidippides will not win, but I shall become the winner.
I know: I myself will go into the thinkery and will become a pupil of the sophists and I will learn the unjust argument. In this way I shall stop those creditors taking their money. But how shall I, an old man and slow in exact arguments, learn philosophy? All the same I’ll go in. Why don’t I knock at this door and shout? I’ll do this and I’ll knock at the door and shout.
Grammar
Do not neglect the very useful table of indefi nites and interrogatives in GE p. 109,
#125. And learn to decline Σωκράτης in GE p. 110, #127a.
At this point you may fi nd it useful to revise the different formations of the future tense, before you go on (GE pp. 102–103, #112–114). You may fi nd it
Exercises for section 5C–D 67 helpful to make a chart like this, leaving the third column free to add the fi rst person of the aorist tense as you learn it in the next section.
Present Future Aorist
Vowel stems παύω παύσω
Consonant stems
κ, γ, χ εὔχομαι εὔξομαι
π, β, ϕ κόπτω κόψω
τ, δ, θ πείθω πείσω
most ζ θαυμάζω θαυμάσω
μ, ν, λ, ρ διαϕθείρω διαϕθερῶ (έω) most –ιζω νομίζω νομιῶ (έω) Contracted verbs ποιέω ποιήσω
τιμάω τιμήσω
δηλόω δηλώσω
The future of contracted verbs has ordinary, not contracted, endings: -ω, -εις, -ει
… , but the stem vowel is lengthened.
Irregular verbs μανθάνω μαθήσομαι
λαμβάνω λήψομαι
γιγνώσκω γνώσομαι
γίγνομαι γενήσομαι
EXERCISES FOR SECTION 5C–D