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Friday, December 22, 2023

Clarity

Euripides, Orestes 397 (tr. David Kovacs):
Clarity is the wise thing, not unclarity.

σοφόν τοι τὸ σαφές, οὐ τὸ μὴ σαφές.
C.W. Willink on οὐ τὸ μὴ σαφές:
the 'pleonastic negative converse' (a common idiom for emphasis, cf. 613-14*; Bruhn 118-19) became something of a mannerism in late E., cf. IA 93, 916.