12-15

Theomnestos says that Stephanos has offended against the laws, the gods, and the city by living with a non-citizen woman and passing off her children as citizens. He calls Apollodoros to speak.

12

παρακαλούντων δή με ἁπάντων: “since, in fact, everybody is urging me...” beginning a long genitive absolute that stretches on into the next paragraph, leading to the climactic main verb, ἥκω (§13).

ἰδίᾳ: adverbial, “on one’s own, privately” (LSJ ἴδιος VI.2).

ὀνειδιζόντων μοι: “reproaching me with the charge that” + indirect statement.

οἰκείως ἔχων: adverb + ἔχω = εἰμί + adjective.

ἔχων τά: Dilts 2009 follows Lamb in deleting τά.

λήψομαι < λαμβάνω + δίκην, “exact punishment.” λήψομαι is a future in an emotional future condition (also known as a future most vivid condition) (G. 648.b, S. 2328); so too καταστήσω, below.

μηδὲ . . . καταστήσω: take these together; μηδέ coordinates λήψομαι and καταστήσω.

τὴν . . . ἀσεβοῦσαν: i.e., Neaira, the nominal defendant in the case (although the real target is Stephanos); ἀσέβεια was an offense taken very seriously by the Greeks.

καταστήσω κυρίους: “render you empowered to,” i.e., enable you (legally) to. Supply as subject ὑμᾶς; governs the infinitive χρῆσθαι, “treat,” “handle” + dat.

13

ἀφῃρεῖτο: “sought to deprive,” conative imperfect (G. 459.a, S. 1895) + double acc.

εἰς ὑμᾶς: “before you, in front of you”.

ἐπιδείξων: “to show,” “to prove that” + acc. + ptc. (LSJ ἐπιδείκνυμι II.1).

συνοικοῦντα < συνοικέω: this is the most common way of saying “be married to” in Greek.

εἰσαγαγόντα εἴς τε τοὺς φράτερας: male Athenian citizens introduced their sons (after 451/0 BCE, only those born to two citizen parents) to their phratries (or “brotherhoods”) during the first year of their lives; at the age of fourteen, boys were reintroduced to their fathers’ phratries. Introduction of one’s son into one’s phratry was, among other things, a way of acknowledging him as one’s legitimate citizen offspring.

εἰς τοὺς δημότας: every male citizen belonged to both a phratry and a deme (a self-governed geographic unit of Attica). Young men were registered in their demes at the age of eighteen after undergoing a scrutiny.

ἐγγυῶντα: ἐγγύη was a common form of marriage in Greece, in which the girl’s guardian or κύριος (either father or brother) betrothed to her to her future husband.

ἑταιρῶν: ἑταίρα is often translated as “courtesan”: it refers to a prostitute of relatively high status, though she was still often slave or freed slave, as opposed to the lower-status πορνή, a streetwalker or brothel prostitute (see further Kurke 1999: 175-219). Images of what scholars conventionally label as ἑταῖραι are common in Greek vase painting, but cf. Topper 2012: 105–35 on the difficulties of identifying such individuals as ἑταῖραι.

ἄκυρον . . . τῶν αὑτοῦ: “powerless over its own affairs”. 

ἐξόν < ἔξεστι; accusative absolute (G. 591, S. 2076).

ἐλάττονος: comparative degree of ὀλίγος. 

τὸ αὐτὸ τοῦτο: “this same result,” i.e., bypassing the normal procedures for obtaining citizenship. 

14

ἃ . . . ἀδικηθεὶς . . . ἐγραψάμην: “With respect to which things having been wronged I lodged this indictment,” i.e., “The wrongs I suffered that led me to lodge this indictment.” The participial phrase is causal. The accusative ἅ can be taken as a cognate or internal accusative with ἀδικηθείς (G. 536).

αὑτηί: on the deictic iota (-ι), see §1.

παρανενόμηκεν < παρα-νομέω.

ἅπερ ἡγοῦμαι προσήκειν: “something which I consider it appropriate for” + acc. + infin.

νέον τε ὄντα καὶ ἀπείρως ἔχοντα τοῦ λέγειν: claims to youth and inexperience are commonplace in Attic oratory.

συνήγορον: it was not uncommon for speakers to use συνήγοροι (who were not professional advocates, but friends or family) to assist in delivering their speeches. In this case, the συνήγορος (Apollodoros) delivers the bulk of the speech.

κελεῦσαι: dependent on δέομαι above; supply ὑμᾶς as subject.

15

τὸν ὑπάρξαντα: “the one who started (the trouble),” i.e., Stephanos.

οὕτως ἤδη: “only at that point,” having heard all the details.

ὑπέρ: “in the interests of”.