Table of Contents:
V Προοίμιον
section 1
section 2
section 3
section 4
section 5
> εἰρωνείας Α᾽
> κολακείας Β᾽
> ἀδολεσχίας Γ᾽
> ἀγροικίας Δ᾽
> Ἀρεσκειάς Ε᾽
> Ἀπονοιάς σ᾽
> Λαλιάς Ζ᾽
> λογοποιίας Η᾽
> ἀναισχυντίας Θ᾽
> μικρολογίας Ι᾽
> βδελυρίας ΙΑ᾽
> ἀκαιρίας ΙΒ᾽
> περιεργίας ΙΓ᾽
> ἀναισθησίας ΙΔ᾽
> αὐθαδείας ΙΕ᾽
> δεισιδαιμονίας Ισ᾽
> μεμψιμοιρίας ΙΖ᾽
> ἀπιστίας ΙΗ᾽
> Δυσχέρειας ΙΘ᾽
> ἀηδίας Κ᾽
> Μικροφιλοτιμίας ΚΑ᾽
> ἀνελευθερίας ΚΒ᾽
> ἀλαζονείας ΚΓ᾽
> ὑπερηφανίας ΚΔ᾽
> δειλίας ΚΕ᾽
> ὀλιγαρχίας Κσ᾽
> Ὀψιμαθίας ΚΖ᾽
> κακολογίας ΚΗ᾽
> Φιλοπονηρίας ΚΘ᾽
> Αἰσχροκερδειάς Λ᾽

next

Click on a word to bring up parses, dictionary entries, and frequency statistics
Προοίμιον

ἤδη μὲν καὶ πρότερον πολλάκις ἐπιστήσας τὴν διάνοιαν ἐθαύμασα, ἴσως δὲ οὐδὲ παύσομαι θαυμάζων, 
τί γὰρ δήποτε, τῆς Ἑλλάδος ὑπὸ τὸν αὐτὸν ἀέρα κειμένης καὶ πάντων τῶν Ἑλλήνων ὁμοίως παιδευομένων,
συμβέβηκεν ἡμῖν οὐ τὴν [2] αὐτὴν τάξιν τῶν τρόπων ἔχειν.

Proem

[Often before now have I applied my thoughts to the puzzling question — one, probably, which will puzzle me for ever — why it is that, while all Greece lies under the same sky and all the Greeks are educated alike, it has befallen us to have characters so variously constituted.

ἐγὼ γάρ, ὦ Πολύκλεις, συνθεωρήσας ἐκ πολλοῦ χρόνου τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν καὶ βεβιωκὼς ἔτη ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα, ἔτι δὲ ὡμιληκὼς πολλαῖς τε καὶ παντοδαπαῖς φύσεσι καὶ παρατεθεαμένος ἐξ ἀκριβείας πολλῆς τούς τε ἀγαθοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ τοὺς φαύλους ὑπέλαβον δεῖν συγγράψαι, ἃ ἑκάτεροι αὐτῶν ἐπιτηδεύουσιν [3] ἐν τῷ βίῳ. 

For a long time, Polycles, I have been a student of human nature; I have lived ninety years and nine; I have associated, too, with many and diverse natures; and, having observed side by side, with great closeness, both the good and the worthless among men, I conceived that I ought to write a book about the practices in life of either sort.

ἐκθήσω δέ σοι κατὰ γένος, ὅσα τε τυγχάνει γένη τρόπων τούτοις προσκείμενα καὶ ὃν τρόπον τῇ οἰκονομίᾳ χρῶνται: ὑπολαμβάνω γάρ, ὦ Πολύκλεις, τοὺς υἱεῖς ἡμῶν βελτίους ἔσεσθαι, καταλειφθέντων αὐτοῖς ὑπομνημάτων τοιούτων, οἷς παραδείγμασι χρώμενοι αἱρήσονται τοῖς εὐσχημονεστάτοις συνεῖναί τε καὶ ὁμιλεῖν, ὅπως μὴ [4] καταδεέστεροι ὦσιν αὐτῶν. 

I will describe to you, class by class, the several kinds of conduct which characterise them and the mode in which they administer their affairs; for I conceive, Polycles, that our sons will be the better if such memorials are bequeathed to them, using which as examples they shall choose to live and consort with men of the fairest lives, in order that they may not fall short of them.

τρέψομαι δὲ ἤδη ἐπὶ τὸν λόγον: σὸν δὲ παρακολουθῆσαί τε ὀρθῶς καὶ εἰδῆσαι, εἰ ὀρθῶς λέγω. πρῶτον μὲν οὖν ποιήσομαι τὸν λόγον ἀπὸ τῶν τὴν εἰρωνείαν ἐζηλωκότων, ἀφεὶς τὸ προοιμιάζεσθαι καὶ [5] πολλὰ περὶ τοῦ πράγματος λέγειν: καὶ ἄρξομαι πρῶτον ἀπὸ τῆς εἰρωνείας καὶ ὁριοῦμαι αὐτήν, εἶθ᾽ οὕτως τὸν εἴρωνα διέξειμι, ποῖός τίς ἐστι καὶ εἰς τίνα τρόπον κατενήνεκται: καὶ τὰ ἄλλα δὴ τῶν παθημάτων, ὥσπερ ὑπεθέμην, πειράσομαι κατὰ γένος φανερὰ καθιστάναι.
And now I will turn to my narrative; be it your part to come along with it and to see if I speak rightly. In the first place, then, I will commence my account with those who have studied Irony, dispensing with preface or many words about the matter. I will begin with Irony and define it; next I will set forth, in like manner, the nature of the Ironical man, and of the character into which he has drifted; and then I will try, as I proposed, to make the other affections of the mind plain, each after its kind.]

εἰρωνείας Α᾽
I. The Ironical Man (v)

ἡ μὲν οὖν εἰρωνεία δόξειεν ἂν εἶναι, ὡς τύπῳ λαβεῖν, προσποίησις ἐπὶ χεῖρον πράξεων καὶ λόγων, ὁ δὲ εἴρων [2] τοιοῦτός τις, 
Irony, roughly defined, would seem to be an affectation of the worse in word or deed.

οἷος προσελθὼν τοῖς ἐχθροῖς ἐθέλειν λαλεῖν, οὐ μισεῖν: 
The Ironical Man is one who goes up to his enemies, and volunteers to chat with them, instead of showing hatred. 

καὶ ἐπαινεῖν παρόντας, οἷς ἐπέθετο λάθρα, καὶ τούτοις συλλυπεῖσθαι ἡττωμένοις:
He will praise to their faces those whom he attacked behind their backs, and will sympathise with them in their defeats.

καὶ συγγνώμην δὲ ἔχειν τοῖς αὑτὸν κακῶς λέγουσι καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς καθ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ λεγομένοις.
He will show forgiveness to his revilers, and excuse things said against him;

[3] καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἀδικουμένους καὶ ἀγανακτοῦντας πράως διαλέγεσθαι:
and he will talk blandly to persons who are smarting under a wrong.

καὶ τοῖς ἐντυγχάνειν κατὰ σπουδὴν βουλομένοις [4] προστάξαι ἐπανελθεῖν.
When people wish to seem him in a hurry, he will desire them to call again.

καὶ μηδὲν ὧν πράττει ὁμολογῆσαι, ἀλλὰ φῆσαι βουλεύεσθαι:
He will never confess to anything that he is doing, but will always just say that he is thinking about it.

καὶ προσποιήσασθαι ἄρτι παραγεγονέναι [5] καὶ ὀψὲ γενέσθαι αὐτὸν καὶ μαλακισθῆναι.
He will pretend that he has ‘just arrived,’ or that he ‘was too late,’ or that he ‘was unwell.’

αὶ πρὸς τοὺς δανειζομένους καὶ ἐρανίζοντας ...
To applicants for a loan or a subscription he will say that he has no money;

ὡς οὐ πωλεῖ, καὶ μὴ πωλῶν φῆσαι πωλεῖν:
when he has anything for sale, he will deny that he means to sell;

or, when he does not mean to sell, he will pretend that he does.

καὶ ἀκούσας τι μὴ προσποιεῖσθαι, καὶ ἰδὼν φῆσαι μὴ ἑορακέναι, 
Hearing, he will affect not to have heard, seeing, not to have seen; 

καὶ ὁμολογήσας μὴ μεμνῆσθαι:
if he has made an admission, he will say that he does not remember it.

καὶ τὰ μὲν σκέψασθαι φάσκειν, τὰ δὲ οὐκ εἰδέναι, τὰ δὲ θαυμάζειν, τὰ δ᾽ ἤδη ποτὲ καὶ αὐτὸς οὕτως διαλογίσασθαι.
Sometimes he has ‘been considering the question’; sometimes he does ‘not know’; sometimes he is ‘surprised’; sometimes it is ‘the very conclusion’ at which he ‘once arrived’ himself.

[6] καὶ τὸ ὅλον δεινὸς τῷ τοιούτῳ τρόπῳ τοῦ λόγου χρῆσθαι: 'οὐ πιστεύω᾽, 'οὐχ ὑπολαμβάνω᾽, 'ἐκπλήττομαι᾽ καὶ 'λέγεις αὐτὸν ἕτερον γεγονέναι: καὶ μὴν οὐ ταῦτα πρὸς ἐμὲ διεξῄει᾽, 'παράδοξόν μοι τὸ πρᾶγμα᾽, 'ἄλλῳ τινὶ λέγε᾽, 'ὅπως δὲ σοὶ ἀπιστήσω ἢ ἐκείνου καταγνῶ, ἀποροῦμαι᾽, 'ἀλλ᾽ ὅρα, μὴ σὺ θᾶττον πιστεύεισ᾽.

And, in general, he is very apt to use this kind of phrase: ‘I do not believe it’; ‘I do not understand it’; ‘I am astonished.’ Or he will say that he has heard it from some one else: ‘This, however, was not the story that he told me.’ ‘The thing surprises me’; ‘Don’t tell me’; ‘I do not know how I am to disbelieve you, or to condemn him’; ‘Take care that you are not too credulous.’

[7] τοιαύτας φωνὰς καὶ πλοκὰς καὶ παλιλλογίας εὑρεῖν ἐστι τῶν εἰρώνων. τὰ δὴ τῶν ἠθῶν μὴ ἁπλᾶ, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπίβουλα, φυλάττεσθαι μᾶλλον δεῖ ἢ τοὺς ἔχεις.
[Such the speeches, such the doublings and retractions to which the Ironical man will resort. Disingenuous and designing characters are in truth to be shunned more carefully than vipers.]










Characters. Theophrastus. Hermann Diels. Oxford. Oxford University Press. 1909.