Section 1A (second paragraph)

Ask the students to read the paragraph in Greek and then begin translation. p. 4 line

8               ^£v ... 8£: ignore this to start with, then, when the whole sentence has been translated, try to elicit the idea of a change of subject. If that fails, explain the idiom. Mention ‘on the one hand ... on the other’ as a literal, but forbidden, translation. Establish P^etcei as the verb in the second clause, then rcpoc; as ‘towards’ x^v y^v. Hence Sd. is doing something towards something.

y^v: cf. geography, geology - explain the literal meanings, then P^etcei should fit in.

r^v should be entered on the grid.

9               If punctuation has not been mentioned before, read the sentence with the intonation of a question, and ask about; = ? Establish Sd. as subject; if the students cannot translate, give them x^ = what? Draw attention to opa. What person? Draw attention to the iota subscript (sometimes printed as an adscript) and its connection with the -ei ending. For opara, cf. panorama, diorama, cyclorama.

9               aKpono^iv: note acro- as in acronym, acrostic, acrobat (acro- + Pawra); for -tcoA,ic; cf. politics etc.

10               rov: enter on the grid.

11               oprooiv: stress the ending - what person? Note the similarity with -oumv.

13                f^a^vn? will probably have to be given, but aKovoumv can be guessed via derivations (acoustic etc.); yo^ov will then easily be deduced.

Again, reread the passage encouraging questions about uncertainties. Refer to the grids so far filled in (the complete singular of the definite article can be shown by reference to ev; + accusative which gives the accusative neuter in lines 2 and 3 twice).

Two points to stress are the importance of the definite article as indicating the cases of nouns, and the verb inflections. Filling in grids must be seen as the recording of clues met during reading. Always ask students to tell you precisely what any new form is before it is entered on the grid.

Note: If the students have learnt Latin, it may be assumed that they all know what a subject and an object are. Do not assume this if they have learnt a modern language by oral, ‘active’ methods. For non-Latinists, note that the verb inflec­tions mean that subject pronouns may be omitted. At the same time stress that inflections of both noun and verb mean that greater flexibility in word order is possible, and in Greek freely used. If the lessons of Section 1a are firmly fixed, ib and c go at a lively pace. If the pace needs increasing, read the Greek yourself before the students translate.Background

Clarity of air 2.6 Ku^Epv^Tn; 7.34, 37, 43, 46

Commentary

p. 6 line

0               8€vpo f^0£: ‘acted’ reading by the teacher, coupled with reference to the stage direction, should enable students to translate this correctly. Note the phrase care­fully; ensure that they know which word means ‘over here’ and which ‘come’. Treat e^0E as a regular imperative (it has a regular imperative ending). Ensure that the students note the stem e^0-; this will help with strong aorists in Section 7g.

1               opra, opa?: the inclusion of pronouns eyra, au should ensure that these are correctly translated. Enter these forms on the -ara grid: if the students have absorbed the idea of contraction in Section 1a, they should be able to deduce -ei; from -a;. Always ask them what the ending is; in this way attention is drawn to the stem. As soon as mu is learnt, watch out for its being mistaken for ov.

8ff. Ka^o? begins to appear. Fill in the endings on the grid as they occur, pointing out the similarities with the definite article. Some students may take in nouns simultaneously as early as this. Otherwise fill in Ka^o; first and av0prano;/ epyov later, reinforcing the endings.

Ka^o^: cf. calligraphy, callisthenics. ‘Kal-eido-scope’ is a ‘beautiful shape/ pattern-examiner’. But to express ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’, eu- and dys- are more common prefixes in English (and Greek) than kal- and kak-. At 10, try the word eulogy; and at 21, connect eido- with evSov iS-. Frequent repetition of KaAoq in this section is introduced not just to practise morphology but to show how Greeks viewed their cities; a poet will refer to his city almost as though he were in love with it. (Sophocles’ Kolonos was little more than a patch of laurel, shrubs and ivy on a stony hillside, but it still evoked a hauntingly beautiful ode - OC 668­719.) That the Acropolis and Parthenon are beautiful causes no surprise. Yet it would be an unusual voyager up the Thames who exclaimed ‘How KaAoq is Rotherhithe Dock’; line 19 generally raises a laugh. Yet point out that the Acropolis and the Parthenon are not just beautiful in themselves but also visible signs of prosperity and pride. The admiration of the dockyards is not unintelli­gible. In nineteenth-century Newcastle in the UK, for example, any visitor would have been shown straight to the Elswick docks as the heart of the town’s prosper­ity; and if a local said ‘Fine docks’, he would be expressing a sentiment close to Sdenothemis’ here.

This section is based on an anonymous comic fragment:

Ssorcoiv’ anao®v novTi’ ’AGnvatov noAi, p,oi KaAov cou ^alvsTai to vsrapiov, raq KaAoq O napGsv®v, KaAoq S’ O nsipasy^. aA.cn Ss ilq n® ToiaS’ so%’ aAAn noAiq;

Kai Towpavofi ^aolv, scTiv sv KaAffl.                     (PCG viii.155)

Mistress of all, dear city of the Athenians,

How fine your dockyard seems to me,

How fine the Parthenon, and fine the Peiraieus.

What other city ever had such groves as these?

And the light from heaven too they say is fine.

Cf. Plutarch and Demosthenes:

There was one measure above all which at once gave the greatest pleasure to the Athenians, adorned their city and created amazement among the rest of mankind, and which is today the sole testimony that the tales of the ancient power and glory of Greece are no mere fables. I mean, Pericles’ construction of temples and public buildings.                                                                         (Plutarch, Pericles 12)

Once the Athenians possessed greater wealth than any other Greeks, but they spent it all for love of honour: they contributed from their own property and shirked no danger for the sake of glory. Because of this an immortal heritage comes down to the Athenian people: on the one hand the memory of their deeds, onthe other the beauty of the memorials set up for them - the Propylaea, the Parthenon, the porticos, the docks.                                                                          (Demosthenes 22.76)

Interestingly, this is one of the very few places in Greek literature where the Parthenon is called by that name.

15                ^povTiZ^: the ^pev- stem gives frenetic, frenzied, phrenology, frantic. Phrenology combines ^pev- with the ^Ey-/^oy - stem met in ^Eyeic; (line 21), the root of numerous-logy compounds. Note here the common e ^ o change in Greek (as in English, cf. foot ^ feet).

21                i8ov: treat as an oddity, cf. ecce! or Lo! Ensure that the 15- stem is highlighted (for ei5ov later) (15- was originally pi5-, hence video; digamma was possibly sounded but not written, in fifth-century Athens). Cf. epyov/pepyov = work (German Werke) (e ^ o again).