21st Century Classical Greek -- negating the conceptual

Book I section 32.  This is one of Thucydides’ made-up speeches. He already told his audience that he would be doing this. The grammar he uses has to offset their scepticism and he does so, in part, by catering to what they know actually happened.

‘Δίκαιον, ὦ Ἀθηναῖοι, τοὺς μήτε εὐεργεσίας μεγάλης μήτε ξυμμαχίας προυφειλομένης ἥκοντας παρὰ τοὺς πέλας ἐπικουρίας, ὥσπερ καὶ ἡμεῖς νῦν, δεησομένους ἀναδιδάξαι πρῶτον, μάλιστα μὲν ὡς καὶ ξύμφορα δέονται, εἰ δὲ μή, ὅτι γε οὐκ ἐπιζήμια, ἔπειτα δὲ ὡς καὶ τὴν χάριν βέβαιον ἕξουσιν: εἰ δὲ τούτων μηδὲν σαφὲς καταστήσουσι, μὴ ὀργίζεσθαι ἢν ἀτυχῶσιν.

[2] Κερκυραῖοι δὲ μετὰ τῆς ξυμμαχίας τῆς αἰτήσεως καὶ ταῦτα πιστεύοντες ἐχυρὰ ὑμῖν παρέξεσθαι ἀπέστειλαν ἡμᾶς.

[3] τετύχηκε δὲ τὸ αὐτὸ ἐπιτήδευμα πρός τε ὑμᾶς ἐς τὴν χρείαν ἡμῖν ἄλογον καὶ ἐς τὰ ἡμέτερα αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ παρόντι ἀξύμφορον.

[4] ξύμμαχοί τε γὰρ οὐδενός πω ἐν τῷ πρὸ τοῦ χρόνῳ ἑκούσιοι γενόμενοι νῦν ἄλλων τοῦτο δεησόμενοι ἥκομεν, καὶ ἅμα ἐς τὸν παρόντα πόλεμον Κορινθίων ἐρῆμοι δι᾽ αὐτὸ καθέσταμεν. καὶ περιέστηκεν ἡ δοκοῦσα ἡμῶν πρότερον σωφροσύνη, τὸ μὴ ἐν ἀλλοτρίᾳ ξυμμαχίᾳ τῇ τοῦ πέλας γνώμῃ ξυγκινδυνεύειν, νῦν ἀβουλία καὶ ἀσθένεια φαινομένη.

[5] τὴν μὲν οὖν γενομένην ναυμαχίαν αὐτοὶ κατὰ μόνας ἀπεωσάμεθα Κορινθίους: ἐπειδὴ δὲ μείζονι παρασκευῇ ἀπὸ Πελοποννήσου καὶ τῆς ἄλλης Ἑλλάδος ἐφ᾽ ἡμᾶς ὥρμηνται καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀδύνατοι ὁρῶμεν ὄντες τῇ οἰκείᾳ μόνον δυνάμει περιγενέσθαι, καὶ ἅμα μέγας ὁ κίνδυνος εἰ ἐσόμεθα ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῖς, ἀνάγκη καὶ ὑμῶν καὶ ἄλλου παντὸς ἐπικουρίας δεῖσθαι, καὶ ξυγγνώμη εἰ μὴ μετὰ κακίας, δόξης δὲ μᾶλλον ἁμαρτίᾳ τῇ πρότερον ἀπραγμοσύνῃ ἐναντία τολμῶμεν..

Jowett transposes phrases in subsection 1. What’s the difference? The Kerkyraeans open with information common to all their speakers: yes, we have no treaty with you and we agree that’s a reason not to listen to us. It disarms criticism. What’s more, Thucydides speaks of great benefits exchanged first, a lesser level than a treaty, but Jowett’s transposition reverses them. This is another example of Jowett’s ignorance of good rhetoric.

Anadidaksai has multiple possible assignments in the Word Tool. The important one is the imperfective eventive impersonal gerundive. You have to choose this because of deisomenous, making this a phrase of obligation.

The negations in subsection 1 use mi for a partitive sense, out of all the benefits and alliances that exist, none exist of which Kerkyraea either takes advantage or has membership. The nouns are in -on case due to negation of existence.

The conditional at the end of subsection 1 goes like this: If we should be unable to establish our case, then we should not be angry at our failure [to get the help we want].

Goodwin wants mi plus an oblique to mean “lest something happen”. That’s not what we have here. This is a straight negation of an action, with the action in imperfective conceptual executive voice. Then it is followed by mi plus an impersonal gerundive in progressive conceptual in base voice. This is a result clause for a negated situation.

I have been searching for negated conceptuals and they work out in a very straightforward way. The Kerkyraeans negate a future event, and the result of the negation is a negated situation.

Notice the perfective at the start of subsection 3 for a fixed custom; it uses a conjugated verb. The Kerkyraeans don’t intend to form alliances with anybody and everybody. Their presentation to the Athinaians is quite different.

In Jowett’s translation, the text from “inconsistent” to the end of his subsection 3 actually appears at the start of subsection 4 in Thucydides. This is another problem with translations and it also shows up in the Bible. The Kerkyraeans state the problem with what they are doing. Thucydides explains why they say so in subsection 4. Jowett disrupts the parallelism of subsection 4 to subsection 3.

Jowett’s changes in material from one subsection to the next is so common that Perseus will not give you his translation for individual subsections, like they do for Hobbes and the other English translation. They only give you Jowett’s translation for whole sections. I would tell you to use the Loeb edition that is free online, but the Perseus word tool is too useful. And I want you to see just how bad a translation can be – and understand that this is the boss of Balliol college who did this hatchet job.