Simonides critique of Tischendorf in Memnon

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cjab
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Simonides critique of Tischendorf in Memnon

Post by cjab »

Hi all,

I am (foolishly) trying to translate the tirade by Simonides against Tischendorf in the magazine Memnon circa 1857. Tischendorf was instrumental in Simonides' earlier arrest for forgery. Simonides was a famous orthodox Greek forger-come-scholar active in the middle of the 19th century, who became famous by pretending to have created the Codex Sinaiticus himself, in order to impair Tischendorf's fame at having discovered it - as well as passing off forged manuscripts as genuine. Simonides is an expert in all forms of Greek, and writes complex sentences, which seem to veer between classical and later Greek. This is a long phrase I am having trouble with constructing. Any help would be appreciated.

καὶ τῶν διαβόλων τούτων τῶν ἐπὶ τοῖς ὅπλοις ἀκκιζομένων κατηγοροῦσι τυφλοτέρους ἀσπαλάκων ἀποκαλοῦντες αὐτοὺς,

My analysis so far:

καὶ τῶν διαβόλων τούτων - "even of these devils
τῶν (genitive plural - article)
ἐπὶ - in the power of?
τοῖς (masc neut dat plural) - ?
ὅπλοις (dat plural) - shields/instruments
ἀκκιζομένων (pres part mp gen pl) - affecting indifference
κατηγοροῦσι (pres part act masc/neut dat pl) - accusing
τυφλοτέρους (3rd person plural, genitive comparative) - blinder (than)
ἀσπαλάκων (noun pl masc gen) - blind rats
ἀποκαλοῦντες (part pl pres act masc nom) - stigmatizing
αὐτοὺς (adj pl masc acc) - themselves,

I came up with "even of these devils, in the power of accusing instruments affecting indifference, stigmatizing themselves as blinder than blind rats."

Did I go wrong somewhere?

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jeidsath
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Re: Simonides critique of Tischendorf in Memnon

Post by jeidsath »

...καὶ τῶν διαβόλων τούτων τῶν ἐπὶ τοῖς ὅπλοις ἀκκιζομένων κατηγοροῦσι τυφλοτέρους ἀσπαλάκων ἀποκαλοῦντες αὐτοὺς...

"...and they accuse these slanderers who are shrinking away from implements of war, calling them blinder than blind-rats..."

As I see it, I assume that what they are being accused of can be discovered from context, as it looks like τυφλοτέρους ἀσπαλάκων goes with ἀποκαλοῦντες. I could be wrong though.
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

cjab
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Re: Simonides critique of Tischendorf in Memnon

Post by cjab »

Thanks for your reply. I can see I made some wrong choices. Perhaps this is better?

"...and they accuse these devils dissembling their implements of war, calling them blinder than blind-rats..."

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