Translation - Μετάφραση

Translation Assistance => Other language pairs => Ancient Greek→English translation forum => Topic started by: Jedothek on 14 Sep, 2021, 20:15:22

Title: ζῶντι καὶ μάλα μόλις –> nay, only just alive | just barely alive
Post by: Jedothek on 14 Sep, 2021, 20:15:22

In Plato's Theaetetus, 142b, we find   

Ζῶντι καὶ μάλα μόλις· χαλεπῶς μὲν γὰρ ἔχει καὶ ὑπὸ τραυμάτων τινῶν, μᾶλλον μὴν αὐτὸν αἱρεῖ τὸ γεγονὸς νόσημα ἐν τῷ στρατεύματι

what is the   καὶ  doing in    ἔχει καὶ ὑπὸ  ? I know it doesn't have to mean "and" but it doesn't seem to serve any other function either; by its placement it cannot mean "suffering from wounds AND disease" 

Title: ζῶντι καὶ μάλα μόλις –> nay, only just alive | just barely alive
Post by: spiros on 14 Sep, 2021, 20:59:05

Maybe this translation would make it clearer: nay, only just alive. Just interpret it as an emphatic particle.

and; also Adv., even, also, just, freq. expressing emphatic assertion or assent, corresponding as positive to the negative οὐ (μή) or οὐδέ (μηδέ).
καί - Ancient Greek (LSJ) (https://lsj.gr/wiki/%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%AF)

Ζῶντι καὶ μάλα μόλις· χαλεπῶς μὲν γὰρ ἔχει καὶ ὑπὸ τραυμάτων τινῶν, μᾶλλον μὴν αὐτὸν αἱρεῖ τὸ γεγονὸς νόσημα ἐν τῷ στρατεύματι.

Just barely alive; for he is suffering severely from wounds, and, worse than that, he has been taken with the sickness that has broken out in the army.