Section Four

A
Background
Walls of Athens 1.41; 2.23, 30-3 Farmer’s lot 2.11, 16; 5.51-2 Sea-power 7.3, 5; 1.40 Periclean policy 1.57 Beginnings of empire 1.49; 6.70ff.
Plague and suffering 1.57; 3.8-9; Thucydides andplague 8.42-3; 5.82; unpredict¬ability of gods 3.7-8
Grammar
npay^a, rc^0oc;, rco^ic;, rcpeaPuc;, aaxu; ev^p®v, xvc;, tic;, ovSevc;; rav (nom., acc.) Present participle active and middle (nom., acc.)
Verbs taking participles PaaiAevc; (nom., acc.)
Adjectives translated as adverbs Elision and crasis
The participle is crucial, first of ei^v, then of the active and middle generally. Since participles are extremely common in Greek, and have such a wide range of usages, it is essential that their forms are firmly fixed at this point. Set up a grid setting definite article + ^i^v, and definite article + xo^a against the new rav, ovaa, ov participle forms, e.g.
Nom. o A,^fv rav ^ TO^,a ouaa TO ov
Acc.
Gen.
Dat. xov ^eva ovxa x^v xo^av ouaav TO ov

Plurals similarly.
Review and fill in the two known nouns, then prepare to fill in the participles as they are met. Apply the same principle to KaKoSai^®v.
Middle participles are much easier: stress the comparison with Ka^oc; and point to -^ev-, the sign of a middle participle.
Other new accidence includes a further range of third-declension nouns (TEV%O;, rcpay^a, noli;). Again, compare these with li^v, but point up their -e- stems (giving e.g. Tei%ou; (-eo;), reixn (-ea)). This contraction of epsilon is a very important principle, already met with verbs, and is worth pointing out here.
CD
The whole of Section 4 is recorded on CD 2, tracks 29-32.
Commentary
p. 42 line
1 Herakles was most commonly invoked in times of (suspected) danger, for he had been human too, and he was invincible.
1 8afywv: a good starting point for comment on Greek religious thought. Our derivation word ‘demon’ is ‘black’, since we tend to view the world in the light of the Christian dualism of white/black, whereas Sai^rav in Greek is simply a god; the gods themselves were not good/bad, white/black - they were all a murky shade of grey. Here the idea of gods punishing mortals occurs, but stress that it is only an opinion offered. Most examples of divine punishment are of individual gods punishing individual mortals for specific offences against either them, their temples or their priests. So was there any such thing as a concept of sin (the usual word a^aprn^a means nothing more than a bad shot - you try, but miss)? Punishment as a result of ‘sin’ is elusive; Oedipus, for instance, was most dreadfully punished, yet the question ‘Whose fault?’ remains unanswerable, since all acted for what they thought was the best. Similarly, in Thucydides’ account of the plague - on which Section 4a is based - the writer’s underlying feeling that some force hostile to Athens is at work can be clearly felt, as it can explicitly here with the repetition of KaKoSai^rav in the text. Recommend students to read Thucydides ii.51-3 in translation.
1 Note KaKoSai^rav forms: ask the students to identify the cases and to say how they are formed.
2 y€ropyo^: cf. the synonym awoupyo; for its implicit comment on Greek ideas (see WoA 4.21 for the value Greeks placed on independence).
3 Pericles again: an anti-Pericles sentiment from the farmer. Read Thucydides
ii. 13-17 on the hardships imposed upon farmers by the evacuation of Attica. Stress here the diversity of attitudes towards both Pericles and the Peloponnesian War: Pericles advanced the mercantile and imperial interests of Athens (hence his popularity with sailors), to some extent without regard for the domestic problems caused by the war (hence Dikaiopolis’objections, vociferously given when he reaches the Assembly). Cf. Sections 3C 22-7, 11B 13ff.
p. 43 line
12 treat this as an oddity; there is no need for a full explanation (which
is given in Section 7D-F).
17-18 p^Twp ... ni0avo^: outstanding individual orators like Pericles could keep the confidence of the Assembly (which was composed in theory of all adult male citizens) over a period of many years, lending some consistency to policy. The question as to how many attended is thorny: probably those from outlying areas seldom came. Aristotle (Politics 1319a) specifically states that farmers neither attended nor wished to attend. Discuss how unrepresentative local political parties or trade union branches can be: those with the greatest interest attend, but their views may not be typical.
17 Euboia: perhaps we now know what Dikaiopolis was doing there, back in the first passage of the Course.
p. 44 line
21ff. Many more examples of rav ovaa ov occur. Ask students to identify what part they are, entering them on the grid, and varying translations according to context (‘when/since/as’ etc.). Stress the variety of possibilities after the literal translation ‘being’ in each case. Note the possible confusion (implicit always with the verb ‘to be’) between ‘being a farmer, he ...’ and ‘the farmer, being miserable ...’
23 ovoa^: students may need help to establish the feminine stem. The neuter does not appear though it can be deduced from KaKoSai^ov (p. 42.6); as all neuter plurals end in -a (except those which end in -n which are contracted from -ea), the plural can also be entered.
27-8 oAo^vpopai... xov £pov uiov: note the emotional involvement there and cf. Herodotus I.87: ‘No man is so stupid as to prefer war to peace, for in war fathers bury sons and in peace sons bury fathers.’ In Plato’s Hippias Major the Greek ideal is expressed as ‘to live in health and wealth, bury one’s own parents properly and be buried by one’s own children’. The worst thing was ‘to bury one’s own children’. Cf. further Herodotus - Solon’s choice of Tellos as the happiest of mortals; for a translation, see Text p. 227. Once again note the pragmatism of Greek thought: one produces children and looks after them on the assumption that they will return the compliment when one is old and possibly unable to look after oneself or earn one’s own living, naAiv yap av0iq navq o ynpaaKrav av^p (Sophocles, fr. 487.4).
Section Four B
Background
Death and burial 5.78-83 UPpiq 4.17
Need to respect the gods 3.39; 5.10, 82 
Human obligations 3.25-6 Pessimism about gods 3.23 The gods reciprocate 3.4; 3.24
Commentary
p. 45 line
2 AOYAOE: give the meaning, cf. Souloo^ai papw;: cf. baritone, barometer, isobar.
3 v€Kpo^: cf. necrophilia, necromancy.
9^pro: cf. (Latin) fero - Lucifer, Christopher.
10 ’v0pwrc€: note the aphaeresis (converse of elision) and the derogatory usage, cf. p. 10.19
11 Comment briefly on the exclamatory genitive; there are several examples in this section.
p. 46 line
18 o£p€i: link this with aaePeia; (Text p. 45.16). Also note the derivation Sebastian and ZePaaTo;, the Greek name for/translation of Augustus.
19 vo^ou^: cf. taxonomy, agronomy, nomothetic. This is the first mention of a concept which will become important later.
Cf. Aeschylus, Seven against Thebes 77: ‘A city that prospers honours its gods.’
21 foomp npopaxa: cf. our idiom ‘like flies’.
25- 7 For disasters calling even the existence of the gods into question, refer to Thucydides ii.51-3; cf. Euripides’ Antiope (?) fr. 853:
rpet; eiaiv aperal, ra; %pefflv O’ aoKetv, TEKVOV,
0eov; re Tip,av rov; re 0peyavra; yovei;, vop,ou; re Koivow; ‘EllaSo; Kai rafira Sprav Kalliarov s^ei; are^avov e^Klela; ael.
27 If the gods honour piety, why do the pious die alongside the impious? Read Theognis 373-82; cf. Euripides’ Skurioi fr. 684:
Tfflv Pporelrav ra; avra^aloi TO%ai. oi p,sv yap ew npaaaouai, rot; 8s cup^opai OKlnpai napeiaiv etiaePofiaiv ei; 0eov;,
Kai navr’ aKpiPra; Kani ^povrlSrav piov ofirra SiKalra; Zraoiv aio^uvn; arep.
28 ^xnp: cf. maternal, metropolis. nax^p: cf. paternal, patrimony, patronymic.
29 682190^: cf. Philadelphia, Christadelphians. The a- prefix here is not ‘neg¬ative’ but indicates ‘together-ness’, i.e. ‘together in the womb’ (Sel^v;). Cf. aloxo; (in bed with), and okoiti; (lying with), both = ‘wife’.
33 f^^poi: cf. ephemeral; explain the meaning from the elements. The young man himself is to be envisaged as in the incipient stages of the plague, hence his scepticism even in the face of a death that was regarded as a merciful release, cf. Aeschylus (?) fr. 466:
Zonc rcovnpfic 0avaio<; aipsTfflTspoi;. TO yevso0ai S’ eaxiv ns^uKsvai Kpsiooov KaKffl^ rcaa%ovxa.
33-5 Pindar, Pythian 8.135. Have a text of the original available - even more laconic and desperate than the version in the text here. ctkio, + ovpa (= tail) gives us ‘squirrel’.
p. 47 line
40 pfov: cf. biology, macrobiotic. Also amphibious.
Section Four C
Background
Altar of Twelve Gods 2.28 Supplication 3.35-6 Travelling 2.18 The Eleven 6.30-1 vnnpeTn? 5.63 K^pu^ 6.33-4 Sanctuary 3.37
Responsibility for suppliants 3.25
Commentary
p. 48 line
5 ^av0av€i: give the hackneyed translation ‘escapes the notice of’ to fix the basic idea of doing something unseen by or unbeknown to another.
Tp£/wv: even if students have not already been told that rav ovaa ov provides endings for the active participles, extract this information from them, confirming it by npoaTpexovTa in the next line. Enter this on the grid. (Note the suggested forms of translation in GE, pp. 85-6.)
6 aTonov: a- privative, totcoc; - topical, so Utopia (= ov, totcoc; - ‘no (such) place’). Carlyle (Sartor Resartus) uses ‘Weissnichtwo’, ‘Don’t know where.’
4 Why should the rhapsode suggest that he was Sov^oc; ? Could the supplicant not tell from his clothing? Possibly - but the ‘Old Oligarch’ (10-12) complains that in Athens it is no longer possible to tell a slave from a free man by clothing. Yet vase-painting, perhaps by convention, seems to differentiate. Most likely, the rhapsode is thinking of the number of runaway slaves during the war (as below on p. 56.6-7): cf. Thucydides VII.75, hoplites carrying their own supplies because of the number of slaves deserting.
5 68oircopo<;: both roots are known so the meaning should be deduced.
^aimrai: the verb has already been met: note that, where English uses an infinitive, Greek uses a participle.
12 op0w<;: cf. orthodontic, orthodox, orthography etc.
11 rcao^i: note the variety of translations and explain that the sense is not so violent as the English ‘suffer’. The basic meaning is ‘have an experience’. The phrase ‘Paschal Lamb’ derives not from Greek, but from the Hebrew for ‘Passover’.
12 iK€T€iav: cf. p. 24.14. The mediaeval concept of ‘sanctuary’ may perhaps be familiar. Cf. children’s games, where there is certain ground on which one cannot be ‘had’ or ‘tagged’.
17 K^pu^: the herald of the original (Xenophon, Hellenica ii.3.54-6) was the herald of the Thirty Tyrants, conveying their orders for the arrest of Theramenes. Theramenes had taken refuge at the altar, from which he was dragged away bodily by Satyros.
18 £v8€Ka: cf. hendecagon, hendecasyllabic. ‘The Eleven’ were chosen by lot, one from each tribe plus a secretary, to act as a kind of police force - executing orders for arrest, for example, and looking after the prison (see on p. 50.25-6).
90av€i: another awkward word. Translate it literally first, and then adapt. See GE 95 for suggested translations.
31-2 The quotation may be found in context in the Text 20f p. 260 207-8 p. 49 line
35 8uoxux^^: dyslexia, dyspepsia, dysentery, muscular dystrophy (all invalu¬able Greek stems) will fix the idea that Sua- indicates something unpleasant.
Section Four D
Background
Part-source of the story 3.36 npeaPeuT^q (pl. npEaPeiq) 6.32, 35 Desire for peace 7.5
Commentary
p. 50 line
6 Herodotus reports the Aeginetans as doing exactly this, VI.91.
25-6 npo^ TOV^ aAAou^ Aaradaipovfoui;: viz. Sea^ra^piov, though note that this was never a place of punishment. It was used for those awaiting trial, or execution (e.g. Socrates).
p. 51 line
43 v£^oi<; ^eya^n: cf. nemesis in English, and cf. the Herodotus extract in Text p. 230.1
44 npoyovou^: Theognis 731-42 complains about inherited guilt - the guilty get off scot-free, the innocent descendants suffer. The text here envisages the ^evoc; as being one of the ambassadors killed (through inherited ‘guilt’) by Athenians in Herodotus VII.133-7.
48 d^op^a: met only as ‘at-a-loss-ness’ so far. Explain the nop- root as ‘provi¬sions’, ‘resources’, and quote Epnopiov, ‘place with provisions’. This helps both here and later.
49-50 The quotation from Solon (written in elegiacs (NB pentameter first) as is most of his gnomic poetry) underlines the theme of the chapter. On the breakdown of law and order leading to the questioning of conventional standards of morality generally, see Thucydides (as on p. 46.26-7).
Supplementary exercises
Thorough revision of these nouns and participles is necessary. If you need to, transform nouns from case to case, from singular to plural and from plural to singular; it is important to add the definite article or owoc; o to nouns so that students get an idea of the nouns’ typical genders. To impress the idea of the definite article + participle = ‘the people who’, transform a series such as owov eiai ^ owoi oi ovTec as well as transforming cases, genders and number, and adding the appropriate forms of participle to nouns.