Ἀναπαύλας
—an old Attic word, frequent in trag.
τῇ γνώμῃ
—‘for the mind,’ referring to the humanising and artistic value of the festivals.
ἀγῶσι
—namely, at the
πανηγύρεις, the chief festivals, when business ceased. Such were the Panathenaic Festival and the Dionysia.
θυσίαις
—not the ordinary sacrifices, but those performed at the
ἑορταί, the most important of which were
πανηγύρεις.
διετησίοις — ‘which succeed one another throughout the year.’ At Athens the festivals were more frequent than elsewhere, and perhaps ridicule was cast upon them by the Spartans, just as the Romans ridiculed the Jews and Christians for wasting time over their weekly sabbath.
νομίζοντες
—=
χρώμενοι: an Ionic use, cf.
I.
74,
end.
κατασκευαῖς εὐ
—c.
65,
2.
καθ’ ἡμέραν ἡ τέρψις
—
i.e.
ἡ καθ’ ἡ. τέρψις. Cf. c.
18.
3. For the reason of this transposition, see Intr. p. xl. The object here is to contrast
καθ’ ἡμέραν with
διετησίοις, in which there is a legitimate gain, since
καθ’ ἡμέραν is always used of
ordinary business, whereas
διετησίοις applies to the holidays: also to extend the force of
καθ’ ἡ. to
ἐκπλήσσει and
τὸ λυπηρόν, as in c.
7,
2
ἐξ Ἰταλίας belongs partly to
ποιεῖσθαι.
τὸ λυπηρὸν— of the petty worries of life, which oppress the middle classes, and take all the pleasure out of life. Pericles allndes to Sparta. Cf. Burke,
On American Taxation, ‘If I were to detail the imports, I could show how many enjoyments they procure which deceive the burden of life.’
Τὰ πάντα
—cf. c.
11,
6,
36, 4, ‘all that we need.’ The echo in
πάσης ... πάντα is what Cornificius calls
traductio. It is a variety of
παρονομασία. Cf.
VI.
87,
4
ἐν παντὶ γὰρ πᾶς χωρίῳ.
VI.
11,
1
διὰ πολλοῦ γε καὶ πολλῶν ὄντων.
οἰκειοτέρᾳ κ.τ.λ.—ht. ‘the enjoyment with which we reap the harvest of the good things produced in our own land is not more our own than that of the productions of the rest of the world,’
i.e. ‘we have the advantage of enjoying the products of other countries as freely as those of our own.’
τὰ ἀγαθὰ
—not the products of the soil only, but those of the mind as well.
αὐτοῦ
—adv., cf. c.
7,
2.
