εἰ μὴ ἄρα δεινὸν καλοῦσιν οὗτοι λέγειν τὸν τἀληθῆ λέγοντα

[sovay]

Thank you, Al Gore and Barack Obama, for demonstrating that rhetoric in the modern political arena is not dead.

Comments

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

I have to ask. What does the Greek say?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

*makes note to come back and check out answer to this question*

[sovay]

What does the Greek say?

It's from the very beginning of Plato's Apology of Sokrates:

ὅτι μὲν ὑμεῖς, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, πεπόνθατε ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμῶν κατηγόρων, οὐκ οἶδα: ἐγὼ δ' οὖν καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπ' αὐτῶν ὀλίγου ἐμαυτοῦ ἐπελαθόμην, οὕτω πιθανῶς ἔλεγον. καίτοι ἀληθές γε ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν οὐδὲν εἰρήκασιν. μάλιστα δὲ αὐτῶν ἓν ἐθαύμασα τῶν πολλῶν ὧν ἐψεύσαντο, τοῦτο ἐν ᾧ ἔλεγον ὡς χρῆν ὑμᾶς εὐλαβεῖσθαι μὴ ὑπ' ἐμοῦ ἐξαπατηθῆτε ὡς δεινοῦ ὄντος λέγειν. τὸ γὰρ μὴ αἰσχυνθῆναι ὅτι αὐτίκα ὑπ' ἐμοῦ ἐξελεγχθήσονται ἔργῳ, ἐπειδὰν μηδ' ὁπωστιοῦν φαίνωμαι δεινὸς λέγειν, τοῦτό μοι ἔδοξεν αὐτῶν ἀναισχυντότατον εἶναι, εἰ μὴ ἄρα δεινὸν καλοῦσιν οὗτοι λέγειν τὸν τἀληθῆ λέγοντα: εἰ μὲν γὰρ τοῦτο λέγουσιν, ὁμολογοίην ἂν ἔγωγε οὐ κατὰ τούτους εἶναι ῥήτωρ.

What effect my accusers have had on you, o men of Athens, I do not know: but for my part, even I almost forgot who I was because of them, so persuasively were they speaking. And yet, in a word, they have said not one true thing. I marveled most of all at one of the many lies they told, the one in which they said that you should be careful not to be deceived by me, because I am clever at speaking—the fact that they are not ashamed to be immediately contradicted by me in action, when it becomes obvious that I am not even remotely clever at speaking, this seemed to me the most shameful of all, unless of course they call clever at speaking a person who speaks the truth: if this is what they mean, then I would have to admit that I am an orator; just not their kind.

[zdenka]

Ah, good, then I recognized it correctly.