Friday, January 29, 2021

 

Three Types of Government

Pindar, Pythian Odes 2.86-88 (tr. Richmond Lattimore):
Yet in each state the candid man will go far,
when tyrants rule, or the swirling rabble,
or the wise keep the city in ward.

ἐν πάντα δὲ νόμον εὐθύγλωσσος ἀνὴρ προφέρει,
παρὰ τυραννίδι, χὠπόταν ὁ λάβρος στρατός,
χὤταν πόλιν οἱ σοφοὶ τηρέωντι.
The three types of government:
  1. Monarchy (παρὰ τυραννίδι, 6 syllables)
  2. Democracy (χὠπόταν ὁ λάβρος στρατός, 8 syllables)
  3. Aristocracy (χὤταν πόλιν οἱ σοφοὶ τηρέωντι, 11 syllables)
William H. Race, Style and Rhetoric in Pindar's Odes (Atlanta: Scholar's Press, 1990), p. 21, regards these lines as an example of das Gesetz der wachsenden Glieder (the law of increasing elements). See Otto Behaghel, "Beziehungen zwischen Umfang und Reihenfolge von Satzgliedern," Indogermanische Forschungen 25 (1909) 110-142.

Related post: The Law of the Increasing Members.

# posted by Michael Gilleland @ 4:53 AM


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