Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.51.2 · 2.51.2
No remedy that helped
Read the full text in our reader
ἔθνῃσκον δὲ οἱ μὲν ἀμελείᾳ, οἱ δὲ καὶ πάνυ θεραπευόμενοι. ἕν τε οὐδὲ ἓν κατέστη ἴαμα ὡς εἰπεῖν ὅτι χρῆν προσφέροντας ὠφελεῖν· τὸ γάρ τῳ ξυνενεγκὸν ἄλλον τοῦτο ἔβλαπτεν.
Some were dying through neglect, and others even though they were very well treated. Not one remedy was found, so to speak, that one should apply in order to help, for what helped one person harmed another.
Word by word
The setting
Some died for lack of care and some in spite of the best of it, and no single remedy could be found that worked for everyone.
A note on this passage
Two groups are set side by side with hoi men ... hoi de: those who died ameleiai, "through lack of care," and those who died even though therapeuomenoi, "being tended." The verb therapeuō is the ordinary word for looking after someone, and so for treating a patient, and it has no sense of a successful cure. The adverb panu, "thoroughly," makes the second group the harder case: even full care did not save them.
The negation is built up in steps. Hen te oude hen is "one and not even one," and the noun is iama, "remedy," a word for something that heals. Thucydides softens the claim with hōs eipein, "so to speak," so he is not saying there was literally no remedy at all, only none that could be relied on. The last clause explains why: the thing that xynenenkon, "had been of benefit," to one person eblapten, "was harming," another.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.51.2 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.51.2 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/thucydides/2.51.2/