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προδῶσιν. προδιδόναι ἡδονάς could not mean merely, ‘to resign’ one's joys. It necessarily implies a fault on the loser's part; and it is precisely because Creon had committed such a fault that I believe προδῶσιν to be sound. The man accused of taking a bribe to break the law was described at 322 as “ἐπ᾽ ἀργύρῳ... τὴν ψυχὴν προδούς”. Our word, ‘to forfeit,’ i.e. ‘to lose by one's own fault,’ seems fairly to represent the shade of meaning which distinguishes “προδιδόναι ἡδονάς” from “ἀπολλύναι ἡδονάς”. Creon's joys—the life of his son, and the good opinion of his subjects—have been sacrificed by him to the indulgence of stubborn self-will. Athenaeus, who twice quotes this passage (cr. n.), shows that c. 200 A. D. it was read as above: he is our oldest and best source for it. L's ἀνδρὸς must be considered in connection with the fact that L (like our other MSS.) omits v. 1167. L has a point at προδῶσιν, and its reading was (I suspect) understood thus: ‘when (men) forfeit their pleasures, I do not count that the part of a man’ (i.e. of one who can be really said to live). Hence I do not think that L's “ἀνδρὸς” really confirms Seyffert's conjecture, “καὶ γὰρ ἡδοναὶ ὅταν προδῶσιν ἀνδρός”, ‘when a man's pleasures fail.’ For this use of “προδιδόναι”, cp. Her. 7.187οὐδέν μοι θωῦμα παρίσταται προδοῦναι τὰ ῥέεθρα τῶν ποταμῶν” (that they failed=“ἐπιλιπεῖν”): id. 8. 52τοῦ φράγματος προδεδωκότος”, the barricade having failed (them). Xenophanes fr. 1. 5 “ἄλλος δ᾽ οἶνος ἑτοῖμος, ὃς οὔποτέ φησι προδώσειν”. So with acc., [Dem. ] or. 52 § 13τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν αὐτὸν προδιδόντα” (his eye-sight failing him). Yet here the phrase would seem a strange one. And if ἄνδρες was older than ἀνδρός, as we have reason to believe that it was, that fact would confirm the genuineness of τὰς γὰρ ἡδονάς.—See Appendix.

οὐ τίθημι with inf., as oft. with the midd. “τίθεμαι”; Plat. Phaedo 93Cτῶν οὖν τιθεμένων ψυχὴν ἁρμονίαν εἶναι”. Cp. El. 1270δαιμόνιον αὐτὸ τίθημ᾽ ἐγώ”.


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hide References (5 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (5):
    • Demosthenes, Against Callippus, 13
    • Herodotus, Histories, 8.52
    • Herodotus, Histories, 7.187
    • Plato, Phaedo, 93c
    • Sophocles, Electra, 1270
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