[22.3] epiponôs de hêurisketo, dioti hoi parontes tois ergois hekastois
ou tauta peri tôn autôn elegon, all' hôs hekaterôn tis eunoias ê mnêmês
echoi.
I have some questions. (EURISKETO is imperfect. Does that mean I
should translate it as "And I was finding out with difficulty [the
facts],"? Or, tryin g to be less accurate but smoother, "I was having
difficulty determining the facts,"? I couldn't find a meaing for
(EURISKW that seemed to fit well and I wasn't sure how to deal with the
imperfect. Since we're supposed to abandon the notin of the imperfect
as continuous action in the past, due to an analysis of verbal aspect, I
don't know what to do with it.
Second OU TAUTA has me a little stumped. TAUTA is a demonstrative
pronoun, meaning "these", but as the LCL translation suggest, the
meaning "the sme tings" seems more appropriate, but that's not what
TAUTA means. I think this says "because those who were present were not
saing these tings concerning the events." TAUTA should be referring to
the facts that Thucydides thinks are correct, but if that's what he
meant, he should have said so more clearly!!!
Finally, EUNOIAS has me puzzled. LSJ says that EUNOIAN ECHEIN means
to "wish heartily." that's obviuosly not appropriate here I don't
think. LCL says "but reports varying according to their championship of
one side or the other...." I don't see any definition for RUNOIA that
would support "championship". In fact, I don't see any meanings that
seem to fit except for the meaning "partially" that might apply, but
that requires KAT' EUNOIAS. So what is one to do? I had thought that I
should at some point take classical Greek. I think I've changed my mind
if this is what there is in store. Thanks.
Ken Litwak