NOTES, BOOK 171. 16. 2x7
9) According to Susemihl the words are to be taken as follows:
6 It is clear that generation implies some antecedent principle and
the end which springs from an antecedent principle is in turn
relative to a further end.’ According to this way of taking the
passage yhns in the 1st clause is equivalent to ~~‘XOS in the and.
Generation has an antecedent principle of which it is the end.
The end .crhich thus springs from an antecedent principle has a
further end, namely, intelligence and reason. But tWo objections
may be offered to this way of translating the words. a) TI& has
no meaning. b) The less natural construction is adopted instead
of the more natural. For IlxXov TAOW would naturally depend
upon the words which immediately precede, &d TlllOS dpX+.
3) Once more, AIr. Postgate proposes to take the passage as
follow : ‘ So much then is evident-first here, as in other cases,
coming into existence is the beginning of all, and what is the end,
viewed from a certain beginning, is itself directed towards a further
end.’ To this interpretation it may be objected that d?; dpxijs is
taken in a different sense from 2nd Twos dpxfjs and that TOG T~~OUS,
as in the preceding explanation, is construed unnaturally.See infra note on 5 9. 16.5.TdV XPVUpdV. 16. 7.
The oracle ‘prj rlpvc ubav AIorta’ which is found in the margin
of two AlSS. is probably made up from the context. Out of these
words Gottling has constructed a hexameter dhX& U~QS, Tpoisr)v,
iXoKas p$ r+f paOtias. The equivocation may either consist in the
double meaning of ds ‘ fallow ground ’ (in Attic used for vricis)
and uiar ‘ the young maiden :’ or the disputed point may have been
only whether the oracle was to be taken literally or metaphorically.
6tb ~hs pLJv &pphcL rep; T;U T~V dKioKai&Ka &v $dav uv[fyu6val, 16. 9.The words 4 pqbv probably mean ‘thereabouts’ or ‘nearly,’
like ptrpo; ; or Some word such as B~~;OU may have dropped Out.
The disparity of age between the man and woman appears to
be great; but as Aristotle extends the term for the women from
18 to 50, and for the men from 35 to 70 years, the time allowed
Tois 6’ &Th KQi Tpl&OVTa, 4 plKp6V.