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Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War §5.87.1

Athenian Demand to Discuss Survival Based on Reality

Passage 587 of 917 · Greek

Summary

The Athenians declare that if the Melians have met to consult for the safety of their city based on current reality rather than speculating on future suspicions, they will continue the discussion; otherwise, they will stop.

§5.87.1ΑΘ. εἰ μὲν τοίνυν ὑπονοίας τῶν μελλόντων λογιούμενοι ἢ ἄλλο τι ξυνήκετε ἢ ἐκ τῶν παρόντων καὶ ὧν ὁρᾶτε περὶ σωτηρίας βουλεύσοντες τῇ πόλει, παυοίμεθ’ ἄν· εἰ δ’ ἐπὶ τοῦτο, λέγοιμεν ἄν.
ATHENIANS 'If, then, you have met to calculate suspicions of the future, or for any other purpose than to consult for the safety of your city on the basis of your present situation and what you see before your eyes, we may as well stop; but if you have met for this purpose, we should like to speak.'

Notes

  1. 5.87.1ξυνήκετε — The second-person plural present of συνήκω ('to have come together', 'to meet'). It is easily confused with συνίημι ('to understand'), but here it functions with the future participles to indicate the purpose of meeting.
  2. 5.87.1ἢ ἄλλο τι ... ἢ — The first ἢ means 'or', while the second ἢ correlates with ἄλλο τι to mean 'than' (expressing comparison or exclusion). The whole phrase forms an exclusionary construction: 'for any other purpose than...'.
  3. 5.87.1ὧν ὁρᾶτε — An instance of the omission of the antecedent and attraction of the relative pronoun (attractio relativi). The underlying structure is ἐκ τούτων ἃ ὁρᾶτε ('from those things which you see'), where the relative pronoun ἃ has been attracted into the genitive case ὧν required by the preposition ἐκ.
  4. 5.87.1εἰ δ’ ἐπὶ τοῦτο — The verb ξυνήκετε is omitted. The demonstrative pronoun τοῦτο refers to the action of 'consulting for the safety of the city based on the present situation' (βουλεύειν περὶ σωτηρίας τῇ πόλει) mentioned in the preceding clause.

Cite this passage

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War §5.87.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:5.87.1

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