‘And those who are neither in a state of feeling implying courage, as anger or confidence,—for these (ταῦτα, τὰ πάθη) take no thought for’ (‘are devoid of calculation or reflexion’, as before) ‘the future —nor in a temper of insolence and wantonness—for these also never reflect upon the possibility of future disaster, but those who are in a state of mind intermediate to these. Nor again those who are in excessive terror, for people who are startled (frightened out of their wits) have no pity for others because they are absorbed by their own emotion (or suffering)’. οἰκείῳ ‘that which is their own’, or proper to them at the moment, and so does not allow them to think of the suffering of others, opposed to τῷ ἀλλοτρίῳ. Comp. infra § II, τὸ γὰρ δεινὸν ἕτερον τοῦ ἐλεεινοῦ, καὶ ἐκκρουστικὸν τοῦ ἐλέου κ.τ.λ., and King Lear, V 3. 230. Albany. “Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead. This judgment of the heavens, that makes us tremble, touches us not with pity.” Compare also, I 14. 5, ὃ οἱ ἀκούοντες φοβοῦνται μᾶλλον ἢ ἐλεοῦσιν, and Cic. Tusc. Disp. III 27, quoted by Victorius on that passage. πρὸς τῷ οἰκείῳ πάθει.] From the primary, physical, sense of πρός with the dative ‘at, by, upon’, (βάλλειν ποτὶ γαίῃ, Hom. Il. A 245,) and so ‘resting upon’, is immediately derived, by an obvious metaphor, that of ‘mentally resting upon, fixed upon, devoted to, busily engaged in (as a pursuit)’, or as here, ‘absorbed in’; generally with εἶναι but also with other verbs signifying a state of rest. The usage is very inadequately illustrated, in fact, hardly noticed, in most of the graminars and lexicons that I have consulted, with the exception of that of Rost and Palm: I will therefore add a few examples that I have noted, though some of these are to be found in the lexicon above named. Wyttenbach, on Plut. de ser. num. vind. 549 D (Op. VII p. 328), and on Plat. Phaedo 84 C (p. 223), has supplied instances chiefly from Plutarch and still later writers, to which Heindorf refers in his note on a passage of the Phaedo. Plat. Rep. VI 500 B, πρὸς τοῖς οὖσι τὴν διάνοιαν ἔχοντι (with the mind, i. e. the attention fixed upon), Ib. VIII 567 A, πρὸς τῷ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν (βίῳ i. e. τροφῇ) ἀναγκάζωνται εἶναι, Ib. IX 585 A, πρὸς πληρώσει τε καὶ ἡδονῇ γίγνεσθαι. Critias, 109 E, Parmen. 126 C, πρὸς ἱππικῇ τὰ πολλὰ διατρίβει. Phaedo 84 C, Phaedr. 249 C, πρὸς ἐκείνοις ἀεὶ ἔστι μνήμῃ, D, πρὸς τῷ θείῳ γιγνόμενος. Demosth. de Cor. § 176, ἢν...πρὸς τῷ σκοπεῖν...γένησθε (seriously occupy yourselves in the consideration...give your serious attention to it). Id. de Fals. Leg. § 139, ὅλος πρὸς τῷ λήμματι ἦν. Aesch. c. Timarch, § 74, πρὸς τῇ ἀνάγκῃ ταύτῃ γίγνεσθαι. Ib. adv. Ctes. § 192, πρὸς ἑτέρῳ τινὶ τὴν γνώμην ἔχειν. Arist. Pol. VIII (V) 8, ter. 1308 b 36, πρὸς τοῖς ἰδίοις σχολάζειν (to have leisure to attend to their private affairs), 1309 a 5, πρὸς τοῖς ἰδίοις εἶναι, Ib. line 8, διατρίβειν πρὸς τοῖς ἔργοις. Ib. c. 11, 1313 b 20, πρὸς τῷ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν ὄντες ἄσχολοι ὦσιν ἐπιβουλεύειν. Ib. VII (VI) 4, 1318 b 13, πρὸς τοῖς ἔργοις διατρίβειν. Similarly in Latin: Cic. de Or. I 8. 34, studium in quo estis. Hor. Sat. I 9. 2, totus in illis. Epist. I 1. 11, omnis in hoc sum.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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