Plato's Ion, 540e (two finite verbs in the same clause?)
Posted: April 25th, 2020, 11:23 am
Hi everyone, I am a beginner/intermediate in Greek and I'm having trouble translating this sentence and similar ones from the Ion:
"οὐκοῦν εἰ καὶ τοὺς εὖ κιθαρίζοντας διεγίγνωσκες, ὡμολόγεις ἄν, ᾗ κιθαριστὴς εἶ, ταύτῃ διαγιγνώσειν, ἀλλ' οὐχ ᾗ ἱππεύς."
My translation runs as follows: "Then, likewise, if you were determining whether people were playing the cithara well, you would agree that you are someone who knows based on the art of playing the cithara and not that of riding horses."
My specific question is: How does the εἶ function grammatically in this sentence? The ὡμολόγεις ἄν seems to anticipate either an acc. + infin. or a οτι + indic., yet neither construction appears. This issue with the εἶ shows up again a line or two later. Socrates says to Ion: "Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τὰ στρατιωτικὰ γιγνώσκεις, πότερον ᾗ στραηγικὸς εἶ γιγνωσκεις ἢ ᾗ ῥαψῳδὸς ἀγαθός;" Here, again, I don't understand how the εἶ fits into the passage. Help is much appreciated!
"οὐκοῦν εἰ καὶ τοὺς εὖ κιθαρίζοντας διεγίγνωσκες, ὡμολόγεις ἄν, ᾗ κιθαριστὴς εἶ, ταύτῃ διαγιγνώσειν, ἀλλ' οὐχ ᾗ ἱππεύς."
My translation runs as follows: "Then, likewise, if you were determining whether people were playing the cithara well, you would agree that you are someone who knows based on the art of playing the cithara and not that of riding horses."
My specific question is: How does the εἶ function grammatically in this sentence? The ὡμολόγεις ἄν seems to anticipate either an acc. + infin. or a οτι + indic., yet neither construction appears. This issue with the εἶ shows up again a line or two later. Socrates says to Ion: "Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τὰ στρατιωτικὰ γιγνώσκεις, πότερον ᾗ στραηγικὸς εἶ γιγνωσκεις ἢ ᾗ ῥαψῳδὸς ἀγαθός;" Here, again, I don't understand how the εἶ fits into the passage. Help is much appreciated!