Thursday, May 05, 2016
The People
[Phalaris,] Letters 67.2 (my translation):
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The people, as a whole, are undisciplined, senseless, unmanageable, very ready to be turned in any direction whatsoever, faithless, fickle, passionate, treacherous, mistaken, a mere useless noise, and easily swayed toward praise and toward anger.Note the two series of asyndetic privative adjectives: ἄτακτος, ἄνους, ἄπρακτος and ἄπιστος, ἀβέβαιος.
δῆμος ἄπας ἄτακτος, ἄνους, ἄπρακτος, ἑτοιμότατος ἐφ' ὅ τι ἂν τύχῃ μεταχθῆναι, ἄπιστος, ἀβέβαιος, ὀξύς, προδοτιχός, ἐψευσμένος, φωνὴ μόνον ἀνωφελής, καὶ πρὸς ἔπαινον καὶ πρός ὀργὴν εὐχερής.
Labels: asyndetic privative adjectives
