Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War 2.44

Διόπερ —‘This is the reason why,’ viz. because in their death they were εὐδαίμονες, or, as he says presently, εὐτυχεῖς. νῦν—belongs to τῶνδε= τῶν νῦν θαπτομένων, and inserted because since the γνώμη with which 43, 3 opened, Pericles had been generalising.

τοκέας —poetical, for γονέας. πάρεστε —contrast ἐπίστανται below: cf. c. 11, 1. It is clear that the Greek orators interchanged direct address and reflection more rapidly than we can do.

πολυτρόποις —of experiences as varied as those of Odysseus.

τὸ δ’ εὐτυχὲς —sc. ἐστίν; here follows a remarkable definition of εὐτυχία. Intr. p. xl. fol.

οἳ ἂν —cf. c. 62, 4.

τῆς εὐπρεπεστάτης —belongs both to τελευτῆς and λύπης. ‘This is good fortune, to have gained an honourable death, like theirs, or an honourable grief, like yours.’ With ὑμεῖς supply ὥσπερ. καὶ οἷς—the change from οἳ ἂν shows that Pericles is not now speaking generally, but referring to the fallen particularly, so that οἷς ... ξυνεμετρήθη= οἷς ἂν ὥσπερ τοῖσδε ξυμμετρηθῇ. ἐνευδαιμονῆσαι —= εὐδαιμονῆσαι ἐν αὐτῷ ( i.e. τῷ βίῳ). Infin. of purpose. Intr. p. xli.

ἐνταλαιπωρῆσαι —‘whose life has been meted out to prosper in and to suffer in alike,’ i.e. ‘they may be deemed happy in whose life prosperity and adversity are equally balanced.’ A philosophical definition of human εὐτυχία, for which cf. Pindar, Pyth. 7, 20 φαντί γε μὰν οὕτω κεν ἀνδρὶ παρμονίμαν θάλλουσαν εὐδαιμονίαν τὰ καὶ τὰ φέρεσθαι: that man, says Pericles, is happy who has τὰ καὶ τὰ in equal proportions. ( Alii alia, says Herw.: those who do not like this explanation will find others elsewhere. Sta. reads ἐντελευτῆσαι {ἡ εὐδαιμονία} ξυν.)

Μὴ} ποθεῖν ... ὑπομνήματα —cf. the Funeral Oration attributed to Demosth. 16 ὥσπερ ἴχνη γνωρίζουσα νῦν ἡ τῶν οἰκείων αὐτοῖς καὶ φίλων μνήμη πᾶσαν ὥραν ἐπὶ τούτους φέρεται τῷ πόθῳ, πόλλ’ ὑπομνήματα λαμβάνουσα. Plat. Rep. I. p. 329 A τὰς ἐν τῆ? νεότητι ἡδονὰς ποθοῦντες καὶ ἀναμιμνῃσκόμενοι. Add Andoc. I. 70 εἴ τίς τι ὑμῶν ποθεῖ. ἀναστὰς ὑπομνησάτω (if A desiderat aliquid which B is able and willing to give to him, A naturally reminds B of it; conversely, if D has something, which C has lost, and cannot give it to C, but cannot help reminding C of it, D naturally feels desiderium, πόθος).

ὧν — = αὐτοὺς ὧν. καὶ πολλάκις—‘only too often.’

εὐτυχίαις — related to εὐτυχία or τὸ εὐτυχές as τύχαι or τὰ τῆς τύχης to τύχη, i.e. the plur. denotes instances of good luck rather than good luck in the abstract. This refers back to τὸ εὐτυχὲς above: for, though a man cannot be judged prosperous till after his death, still instances of good luck may of course occur in life, and if these are as frequent as the misfortunes of life, the whole result will be τὸ εὐτυχές. Cf. Soph. frag. οὐ χρή ποτ’ εὖ πράσσοντος ὀλβίσαι τύχας | ἀνδρός, πρὶν αὐτῷ παντελῶς ἤδη βίος | διεκπερανθῇ καὶ τελευτήσῃ βίον. Pericles refers especially to the noble deeds of sons who will thus bring joy to their parents. Cf. 43, 4.

αἷς —cf. Isocr. 14, 47 ἢν ὡς εὖ πράττοντας ἔλθωμεν, ἔτι χαλεπώτερον ἔχομεν, οὐ ταῖς ἐκείνων φθονοῦντες εὐπορίαις ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἐν τοῖς τῶν πέλας ἀγαθοῖς τὰς ἡμετέρας αὐτῶν συμφορὰς καθορῶντες. λύπη —sc. ἐστίν, ‘a man feels sorrow, not for the want of blessings which he loses before he knows them.’ ὧν is governed by both partic. and verb.

πειρασάμενος —c. 5, 5.

οὗ ἂν —a conspicuous instance of the rule referred to on c. 13, 2; the gen. depends on ἐθάς, while ἀφαιρεθῇ would take accus. The change from ὧν to οὗ is another instance of irregularity in the form of rel. clauses.

ἐθας —synonym of ἠθἀς, Soph. El. 372 ; both forms appear in the ancient lexica: probably ἐθὰς does not occur elsewhere in Attic prose.

Καρτερεῖν —(sometimes joined with ὑπομένειν). See c. 61, 2.

τέκνωσιν π —= παιδοποιεῖσθαι. τῶν οὐκ ὄντων —= τῶν τεθνηκότων. λήθη—‘cause of forgetfulness.’

ἔκ τε .. καὶ ἀσφαλείᾳ —these give the two grounds referred to in διχόθεν; for the variety of construction, cf. c. 36, 4; I. 138, 2, μὴ ἐρημοῦσθαι, by means of the soldiers and citizens she would acquire; ἀσφαλείᾳ, by the increased anxiety of the parents to benefit the state, as explained in the next sentence.

ξυνοίσει —sc. τὸ παῖδας ἐπιγίγνεσθαι. Cf. c. 3, 3.

ἴσον τι ἢ δίκαιον —equal, in the sense of ‘democratic,’ conforming to the equality that characterises the Athenian polity; cf. c. 37, 1: just, in the sense of ‘regular’ or ‘sober,’ in accordance with a sane judgment of religion and politics.

ἐκ τοῦ ὁμοίου —= ὁμοίως, equally with otbers. Adverbial phrases with ἐκ and an adj. are common in Thuc., who has ἐκ τοῦ προφανοῦς, ἐκ τοῦ φανεροῦ, ἐκ τοῦ εὐθέος, ἐκ τοῦ εἰκότος, ἐκ τοῦ εὐπρεποῦς, ἐκ τοῦ αἰσχίονος, ἐκ τοῦ δικαίου, ἐξ ἴσου, and others. This one occurs also I. 143, 4, and elsewhere. One or two of these phrases were colloquial, as ἐξ ἴσου, ἐξ ἑνὸς ( τρόπου or λόγου ), ἐκ παντὸς ( τρόπου) (these are the only ones found in Aristoph.); the rest are formed on the analogy of such simple phrases. The orators use them, but only with common adjectives: Thuc. confines them to speeches and highly-wrought passages. The 8th book contains only three examples.

παραβαλλόμενοι — discrimini objicientes: a dictionary may here be useful to some. To have children in peril would constitute having a stake in the state.

Παρηβήκατε —antithesis to οἷς ἔτι ἡλικία. κέρδος— predicate, in an unexpected place, and so emphatic.

τόνδε —‘your present life,’ i e. your sorrow will be short-lived, because your lives are drawing to a close.

τὸ φιλότιμον — ‘love of honour,’ which would be gratified in their case, as they would be honoured on account of their children's fame.

ἐν τῷ ἀχρείῳ τῆς ἡλικίας —cf. c. 40, 2, = ἐν τῷ γήρᾳ. τὸ κερδαίνειν ... τὸ τιμᾶσθαι—a true description of the ‘last infirmity’ of base and noble minds respectively.

ἀλλὰ —c. 40, 1, 43, 2.