Section Seventeen

Discussion
In view of what was said at the end of the notes to Section 16, it will come as no surprise that the whole of Section 17 is quite irrelevant to the case; the false testimony of Euergos and Mnesiboulos is not so much as mentioned. The whole thing is designed merely to show what nasty people they were.
Grammar
The most important points of accidence and syntax are respectively vnpi and result clauses. Indefinite temporals (including npiv) are completed here, together with a full range of optative usages in secondary sequence. Deliberatives complete the syntax.
If pressed for time, translate Section 17C-D for the students, highlighting essential features.
Section Seventeen A
Background
Houses 2.8, 35-7; farming 2.10-17 Sheep 2.16
Slaves and slavery 5.61-6 Slaves and population 5.7-8 Slave jobs 5.52 Seclusion of women 5.23-6
Grammar
+ optative (a^)vnpi
Commentary
p. 205 line
1- 2 Insist that the significance of erac; + optative is appreciated. 
2 fia/.aKa: most sheep had long, tough and shaggy wool; those with shorter and softer wool provided much more profitable fleeces which were ideal for fine cloth.
5 8iaKovo^: cf. deacon, from the Christian Greek usage of this word. In classical times it meant attendant, valet - a servant clearly considered here reliable enough not to drop a valuable pitcher borrowed from a friend.
6 flTn^vnv: analyse this out very carefully as the perfect participle passive of airera. Work here may help prepare the way for fi^av (aaara) at line 8.
Zn^O^vxrov: there is useful revision of the genitive absolute here. fnireZ06v're<;: note eni- compounds often with the sense of ‘attack’. The sheep had been taken from the fields; the %rapfov comprised the farmhouse and the area immediately surrounding - all that is visible in the illustration on Text p. 204.
p. 206 line
12 Insist on ‘whatever they wanted’ for a Povloivro (as elsewhere in the passages to come).
15 Note this digression upon the old slave: she had been loyal, therefore freed. When widowed, she had returned to the son of her former owner, who treated her almost like an aged mother whom one was duty-bound to protect and support (note especially avayKaiov, 18). The episode is as irrelevant - to us - as the whole of this section to the case actually being tried, but would have appeared far differently to the original jury: the slave-woman (who is in fact the one murdered in this attack) is here established as almost a second mother - an interesting comment on some family's public attitudes towards slaves.
At this point various forms of vnpi begin to be introduced. It may be useful to revise all the stems of the -pi verbs met to date, and show how vnpi fits neatly into the pattern, e.g.:
SvSrapi SiSo- SiSou- SiSra-
So- Sou- Sra-
rv0npi Ti0e- Ti0ei- ri0n-
0e- 0ei- 0n-
vnpi ie- iei- in-
E- ei- ^1-
varnpi iara- iarn-
ara- arn-

As the above table clearly shows, comparison with n0npi is very instructive.
20 The other female slaves kept clear - contrast the involvement of the Ypav;, still as loyal as ever. The whole presentation is ‘see what a nice man I am in contrast to these murderous thugs'.
21 rcvpYo;: slaves’ quarters on the upper floor, called a nvpYo; because it did not cover the whole of the ground floor. 
In the whole of this episode, note the offence against property in bursting in upon the womenfolk when the man of the house was absent - contrast the plaintiff himself earlier (see on p. 200.5).
Section Seventeen B
Background
Female rights in the home 5.23-4 Kupioc; of the house 5.11, 18
Grammar
+ indicative npiv av + subjunctive, nptv + optative 5iau0npi, Siaxeipai
Commentary p. 207 line
2 Property in the dowry: see Text p. 162.10.
Note the wife’s absolute refusal to be cowed by this incursion into her own territory. She knows her rights and insists that they leave her property alone. Cf. line 5: Greek women could be informed of their husband’s business deals. They were, therefore, not necessarily, in certain circumstances, as helpless or ignorant as they are sometimes represented.
3 Note the neighbour’s propriety - he merely knocked on the door and passed on his message, not entering.
4 Presumably he told his wife, on leaving, where he was going and for what purpose.
5 It may be necessary to clarify that tov avSpa refers to the husband. p. 208 line
8 Ku^pfov: the plural has been met before in Section 9g (Text p. 110.17).
10-11 ovT®(c) ... SCTTE clauses begin here. Translate ‘so ... that’ and prepare for the usage with the infinitive ‘so as to’ (p. 209.5).
9 v^ai^oi: elicit from vno and atpa, cf. haemoglobin, haemorrhage etc.
ppaxiov€;: cf. the medical and biological terms brachiotomy, brachiopod. Also French bras.
Kaprcou zoologists use carpus (the Latin form) for wrist; also carpal (of bones).
13 Tpa/n^o;: cf. trachea.
OT^OO;: cf. stethoscope etc. Note that the basis of most medical words is Greek.
21 Once more the proprieties are underlined: one does not enter a house unless its Kvpioc; is present. Hagnophilos is even more circumspect: he does not even enter the %®pfov but observes from the land of neighbour Anthemion.
24 oiKixn?: here to be taken as ‘house-slave’ rather than ‘member of house¬hold’: Euergos and Mnesiboulos might have taken a slave (as they had the rcavc; SiaKovoc), but drew the line at abducting a (citizen) son.
24-5 Why erac; with indicative? Stress that the indicative shows that it actually happened. Compare this with indefinite usages.
(We are told that the testimony of Hermogenes was given here, but it is not included in our MSS of the speech.)
Section Seventeen C
Background
Travel 2.18
Doctors 5.72-7; 8.12, 15, 29 Ai06Konoc 8.83-4
Grammar
raare + indicative/infinitive Numerals
Commentary
p. 209 line
3 There is no need to mention the oddity of rcpiv (before, until) + indicative/ indefinite construction (after a negative main verb) unless specifically asked about it.
5 Cf. on p. 207.10-11 above.
8 Insist on ‘whomever’ for ov PovAoivro.
9 Kai avxo^: ‘that he himself also’. avr6c; may need revision here. p. 210 line
13 xpeia: here in its basic sense of ‘necessity’ (xpn) - met earlier (Section 5A) as ‘debt’ (see on p. 54.12, 14).
17 One stipulation made by Theophemos is omitted in this text: he demanded that the plaintiff should release him and his friends from all claims, including that of false witness. On those terms, he would restore the stolen property.
^prcao^iva: revise perfect participles middle and passive, as there are some more to come. 
Section Seventeen D
Background
E^YW 3.33
purification 3.33, 5.81; family and murder 6.42 Grammar
Aorist passive imperative Middles with passive forms in aorist
Commentary p. 211 line
14 Note the inadmissibility of evidence from wives or children.
15 The Paaileuc (ap%»v) was responsible for murder trials.
16 The old woman was neither family nor slave: the law assigned the duty of prosecution to relatives or masters, and nobody else. Even in murder cases, the prosecution had to be brought by a relation of the deceased.
17 Duties at the funerals of those who had died a violent death included carrying a spear in front of the funeral procession (representing the pursuit of the murderer), reading a proclamation at the graveside which laid the murderer under an interdict to keep away from the tomb and all sacred places, planting the spear near the tomb (to keep the murderer at bay), and watching over it and the tomb for three days.
Section Seventeen E
Background
Friends and enemies 4.2, 14 Climate 2.5-6
Grammar
Deliberative
Xpaopai
Correlatives
Discussion
It is worth taking some care with this section, as it revises most of the subjunctive and optative usages encountered in Sections 16 and 17. If students have a good grasp of these, they are well prepared for Sections 18-20.
From the final sections of the speech (not included in our text), it becomes clear that at the time of the trial the three men still possess what they have taken of the plaintiff’s property, holding on to it in the hope of dissuading him from the suit of false witness. How much time elapsed between the seizure of property and the case we do not know (%0ec; (211.5) is not from the original, and gives a false sense of ‘swift justice’).