Eustr. in EN. 256.24

[ObsequiousNewt]

I would like to translate this sentence:

ὥστε καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν τι ὑπολαβοῦσα χρηστὸν πεπείρασαι καὶ ἀφ᾿ ἡμῶν πορίσασθαί τι τελοῦν εἰς ὄνησιν καίτοι γε ἡμεῖς ὀλιγομαθεῖς καὶ ἀσθενεῖς καὶ γήρᾳ καὶ νόσοις κατακαμπτόμενοι καὶ διανοίας στενότητα περικείμενοι καί τι χαρίεν ἐκθέσθαι καὶ ἄξιον σπουδῆς μὴ δυνάμενοι.

Confusingly (for someone, at least, who is not used to reading complex prose) the sentence has no finite verbs. Also confusingly, it uses μή in what doesn't look like an indirect clause. (Also, what's up with τελοῦν?)

My best effort is thus:
"So as to try assuming (?) something good for us, and to procure from us something useful, and yet we oligomathes, weak, bent down to old age and sickness, clad in narrowness of thought, setting forth something graceful, not (?) able to be worth the effort."

(The surrounding context can be found here.)

[mwh]

You emphatically say you’re not interested in learning Greek. So how can you expect to be able to translate it (let alone compose it)?

The sentence does have a finite verb, btw. Another hint: ask yourself why εκθεσθαι is infinitive.

[ObsequiousNewt]

You emphatically say you’re not interested in learning Greek. So how can you expect to be able to translate it (let alone compose it)?

The sentence does have a finite verb, btw. Another hint: ask yourself why εκθεσθαι is infinitive.

I put that statement in my signature because this board seems to have an overall ideology of "learning how to read Greek is the ultimate goal, and anything else one might do is a means to that end." By contrast, I compose Greek simply because I find it fun; I translate it because I want to know what it says, and I study it because I want to know how the language acts diachronically—and to some degree morphologically as well—but I do not desire to become fluent in it, even in reading. If I must translate a passage, I will make an attempt at translating it myself rather than directly asking for a translation, because it certainly does help me to understand grammar, but I will not make what I consider undue effort.

I do not know why ἐκθέσθαι is infinitive. There are many different uses of the infinitive and I am not knowledgeable enough to determine or even intuit any specific one, but the most usual usage of which I am aware requires a finite verb, which is either omitted (and which I do not know enough to supply) or which I am overlooking.

[bedwere]

The finite verb should be πεπείρασαι. And ἐκθέσθαι depends on μὴ δυνάμενοι.

[ObsequiousNewt]

Ah, I see. I accidentally misread πεπείρασαι as an aorist infinitive.

So— "And so you have tried both to assume something good for us, and to procure something useful from us, and yet we [are?] oligomathes, weak, bent down to old age and sickness, clad in narrowness of thought, unable to set forth something graceful, and worth the effort."

This almost makes sense (grammatically, at least; I'm not sure what he's talking about in that first clause), except I still don't understand the place of ἄξιον σπουδῆς (or does he mean to contrast these things by saying that it is "worth the effort"?) or why μή is being used with δύναμαι in what looks like a statement of fact—and, if an omitted ἐσμέν is correct, why not write ἐσμέν instead of ἡμεῖς in the first place?

[bedwere]

It seems to me that πορίσασθαί should depend on πεπείρασαι, not the aorist participle ὑπολαβοῦσα. Also, ἄξιον σπουδῆς refers to the τι just mentioned.

[ObsequiousNewt]

"And so you have tried to procure something useful from us, assuming something good for us, and yet we [are?] oligomathes, weak, bent down to old age and sickness, clad in narrowness of thought, unable to set forth something both graceful and worth the effort."
Why is μή being used with what looks like a statement of fact? Is it correct to infer an omitted ἐσμέν, and, if so, why did the author write ἡμεῖς instead of ἐσμεν?

[bedwere]

Although I'm not an English native speaker, I would write "of little learning". I think that ἐσμέν is indeed omitted, while ἡμεῖς is used to give emphasis. Maybe μή is used because the wily courtesan didn't want that to be a statement of fact, but of will and thought. From LSJ:

not, the negative of the will and thought, as οὐ of fact and statement; μή rejects, οὐ denies; μή is relative, οὐ absolute; μή subjective, οὐ objective.

Perhaps you could say "we wouldn't be able" instead of "unable"?

Also
assuming something good about us

[ObsequiousNewt]

"And so you have tried to procure something useful from us, assuming something good about us, and yet we are of little learning, weak, bent down to old age and sickness, clad in narrowness of thought, unable to set forth something both graceful and worth the effort."

Are there any other corrections (or better wording)?

Thank you for your help.