Saturday, March 04, 2023
A Simple Explanation
Aristophanes, Frogs 1445 (tr. Stephen Halliwell):
N.G. Wilson, ed., Aristophanis Fabulae, Tomus II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007), p. 200, in his apparatus implies that Gellius omitted εἰπὲ:
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Explain yourself in a clearer, less erudite way.Aulus Gellius 12.5.6 (tr. John C. Rolfe):
ἀμαθέστερόν πως εἰπὲ καὶ σαφέστερον.
But to oblige you, I will say 'unlearnedly and clearly,' as the adage has it, what I imagine that any Stoic now present would have said more intricately and cleverly. For you know, I suppose, that old and familiar proverb: Less eruditely speak and clearer, please.I don't know why Rolfe made the last two adverbs comparative, but not the first two, when all four are comparative in the Latin. I would translate 'more unlearnedly and clearly'.
sed ut tibi a me mos geratur, dicam ego indoctius, ut aiunt, et apertius, quae fuisse dicturum puto sinuosius atque sollertius, si quis nunc adesset Stoicorum; nosti enim, credo, verbum illud vetus et pervolgatum:ἀμαθέστερόν πως εἰπὲ καὶ σαφέστερον λέγε.
N.G. Wilson, ed., Aristophanis Fabulae, Tomus II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007), p. 200, in his apparatus implies that Gellius omitted εἰπὲ:
1445 εἶπε καὶ ϲαφέϲτερον] καὶ ϲαφέϲτερον λέγε Gellius, NA 12.5.6But I don't think Gellius did omit it—he simply added λέγε, if the editions of C. Hosius (Teubner) and P.K. Marshall (Oxford) can be trusted. Wilson's apparatus here is also defective in its accentuation of εἶπε—he prints εἰπὲ in the text.
