Click on a word to bring up parses, dictionary entries, and frequency statistics
ὁ δὲ ναυτίλος πολύπους ἐστὶ καὶ αὐτός, καὶ κόγχην μίαν ἔχει. ἀναπλεῖ μὲν οὖν τὴν κόγχην στρέψας περὶ τὰ κάτω, ἵνα μὴ τῆς ἅλμης ἀρύσηται καὶ ὠθήσῃ αὖθις αὑτόν: γενόμενος δὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς κύμασιν, ὅταν μὲν ᾖ γαλήνη καὶ εἰρήνη πνευμάτων, στρέφει τὴν κόγχην ὑπτίαν ῾ἣ δὲ ἐπιπλεῖ δίκην πορθμίδοσ᾽ καὶ παρεὶς δύο πλεκτάνας ἐντεῦθέν τε καὶ ἐκεῖθεν καὶ ὑποκινῶν ἡσυχῆ ἐρέττει τε καὶ προωθεῖ τὴν συμφυῆ ναῦν. εἰ δὲ εἴη πνεῦμα, τοὺς ἐρετμοὺς μὲν τοὺς τέως προτείνας μακροτέρους οἴακας ἐργάζεται, ἄλλας δὲ ἀνατείνας πλεκτάνας, ὧν μέσος χιτών ἐστι λεπτότατος, τοῦτον διαστήσας ἱστίον αὐτὸν ἀποφαίνει. [p. 231] πλεῖ μὲν δὴ τὸν τρόπον τοῦτον ἀδεὴς ὤν: ἐὰν μέντοι φοβηθῇ τι τῶν ἁδροτέρων, βυθίσας τὴν κόγχην ἐπλήρωσε, καὶ κατώλισθεν ἐκ τοῦ βάρους, καὶ ἑαυτὸν ἀφανίσας τὸν ἐχθρὸν ἀπέδρα. εἶτα ἐν εἰρήνῃ γενόμενος ἀνέθορέ τε καὶ πλεῖ πάλιν. καὶ ἐκ τούτων ἔχει τὸ ὄνομα.
Claudii Aeliani de natura animalium libri xvii, varia historia, epistolae, fragmenta, Vol 1. Aelian. Rudolf Hercher. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1864. Keyboarding.
Google Digital Humanities Awards Program provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.