‘And further, those who are pleasant to pass our life, or spend the day, with; such are men who are good-tempered and cheerful’, (εὔκολος contrasted with δύσκολος, transferred from good and bad digestion κῶλον, to the temper and character; Arist. Ran. 82, of the good-tempered, genial Sophocles), ‘and not inclined to find fault with any accidental error or mistake (not critical and censorious), and not quarrelsome, or contentious: for all such are combative, pugnacious; and people that contend with one (in word or act, by contradiction, or interference with and opposition to our tastes and wishes) appear to have wishes contrary to ours’—and as to have the same wishes is characteristic of friendship, § 4, it is plain that people of this sort cannot be our friends. Comp. Eth. Nic. VIII 6, 1157 b 15, οὐδεὶς δὲ δύναται συνημερεύειν τῷ λυπηρῷ οὐδὲ τῷ μὴ ἡδεῖ. These two words are joined together again in Eth. Nic. VIII 6, 1157 b 21, Ib. c. 15, 1162 b 14, 16. συνδιαγαγεῖν, συνδιημερεῦσαι] This form of verb, principally with the prepositions ἐν and σύν—also in two or three cases with ἐπί—which assumes for its explanation the dative of the indefinite pronoun, αὐτῷ or αὐτῇ, αὐτοῖς or αὐταῖς, as the case may be, (the repetition of some substantive immediately preceding in which the person or thing resides, or with which it is associated,) as understood after the preposition, is expressed in our idiom by adding the preposition at the end of the phrase. Thus, the two verbs here in question are represented in English by ‘to pass one's life with’, ‘to spend the day with’, the phrase at full length being, τοὺς ἡδεῖς ὥστε τινὰ συνδιαγαγεῖν αὐτοῖς, αὐτοῖς being the persons previously mentioned. Porson, Advers. p. 265, has referred to notes of various Commentators, who have illustrated this idiom, and Elmsley has supplied four examples, on Eur. Bacch. 508, ἐνδυστυχῆσαι τοὔνομ᾽ ἐπιτήδειος εἶ. Add the following, Soph. Oed. Col. 790, χθονὸς λαχεῖν τοσοῦτον, ἐνθανεῖν μόνον, ‘earth enough to die in’. Phoen. 727, ἐνδυστυχῆσαι δεινὸν εὐφρόνης κνέφας (comp. Shaksp. Lear, III 4. 116, a naughty night to swim in). Ib. Erecth. Fragm. XX V 22 (Dind.) ἤθη, λαμπρὰ συγγελᾷν μόνον. Arist. Nub. 422, ἐπιχαλκεύειν παρέχοιμ᾽ ἄν, ‘I would lend myself to be forged on’ (παρέχοιμ᾽ ἄν supply ἐμαυτόν, as Aj. 1146, πατεῖν παρεῖχε τῷ θέλοντι ναυτίλων, ‘lent himself to be trodden on’); Id. Equit. 616, ἄξιόν γε πᾶσιν ἐπολολύξαι, ‘to shout at’, Pac. 1127, ap. Elms. Thuc. III 23, οὐ βέβαιος ὥστε ἐπελθεῖν, ‘ice, not firm, unsafe, to tread on’. And the false antithesis in II 44, καὶ οἷς ἐνευδαιμονῆσαί τε ὁ βίος ὁμοίως καὶ ἐντελευτῆσαι ξυνεμετρήθη. II 74, γῆν...εὐμενῆ ἐναγωνίσασθαι τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ‘a land propitious for the Greeks to fight in’. I 2, ὅσον ἀποζῇν, ‘enough to live off’ or ‘on’. Xenoph. Symp. II 18, οἴκημα ἐνιδρῶσαι, Ib. III 8, (γῆν) ἱκανῶς γένοιτο ἐγκονίσασθαι. Memor. III 8. 8 (οἰκία) ἡδίστη ἐνδιαιτᾶσθαι. Plat. Polit. 302 B (πολιτεία) ἥκιστα χαλεπὴ συζῇν, ‘by no means hard to live with’. Ib. E, βαρυτάτη ξυνοικῆσαι. Phaedr. 228 E, ἐμαυτόν σοι ἐμμελετᾷν παρέχειν. Phaedo 84 A, παραδιδόναι ἑαυτὴν (τὴν ψυχὴν) πάλιν αὖ ἐγκαταδεῖν. Herod. VII 59, ὁ χῶρος ἐπιτήδεος ἐνδιατάξαι τε καὶ ἐναριθμῆσαι. Comp. VI 102, IX 7, quoted by Elmsley. Arist. Pol. IV (VII) 12, 1331 b 12, ἀγορα ἐνσχολάζειν ‘a market-place to lounge in’. Lucian, Ver. Hist. I 31, ἱκανὸν μυριάνδρῳ πόλει ἐνοικεῖν. Aelian, Hist. Anim. VI 42, στιβάδα ἐγκαθεύδειν. Dem. de Cor. § 198, τὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀτυχήματα ἐνευδοκιμεῖν ἀπέκειτο. ἐγκαταλείπειν, passim. Matth. Gr. Gr. 533, obs. 2.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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