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ἑώρων . . . οὕτως . . . ὡς . . εἰκὸς τὴν μὲν ὄψιν . . . προορᾶν, τὴν δὲ γνῶσιν . . . ἀπιστεῖσθαι—though we have no such idiom, yet in Greek there is certainly not an ellipse of ὸρᾶν after εἰκός, as the edd. say. In the case of correlatives, the explanation which we put in earlier is often deferred to the relative clause. So here the contrast between ὄψιν and γνῶσιν is deferred to the ὡς clause. Traus. ‘as was natural for them to see in the moonlight, they saw the outline of a figure in front without being able to distinguish whether it was that of a friend.’ This idiom is very common with τοσοῦτον . . . ὅσον, and is often misunderstood. (Cf. v. 95 οὐ τοσοῦτον ἡμᾶς βλάπτει ἡ ἔχθρα ὑμῶν ὅσον ἡ φιλία μὲν ἀσθενείας, τὸ δὲ μῖσος δυνάμεως παράδειγμα τοῖς ἀρχομένοις δηλούμενον, where a reference to ἡ φιλία is at first sight expected in the τοσοῦτον clause. The idiom with οὐχ ὥσπερ is similar, as Aristoph. Eq. 784 οὐχ ὥσπερ ἐγὼ ῥαψάμενός σοι τουτὶ φέρω=‘he does bring you this as I do.’） ὄψιν—outline. Cf. Plat. Rep. 376B ὄψιν φίλην καὶ ἐχθρὰν διακρίνει. 12-3. τὴν δὲ γνῶσιν τοῦ οἰκείου ἀπιστεῖσθαι—lit. that their recognition of friends should be distrusted τοῦ οἰκείου is neut. collective, as in c. 43.7. Classen takes it to mean what was peculiar in contrast to τοῦ σώματος.
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