Kitap 3
16
Perhaps then it will be as well to specify the nature and number of these circumstances. They are (1) the agent, (2) the act, (3) the thingThings seems to include persons, see example (3) below. that is affected by or is the sphere ofἐν τίνι seems to bear a more limited sense than ἐν οἷς ll. 1, 16, 19, 24, which covers the circumstances of all sorts. the act; and sometimes also (4) the instrument, for instance, a tool with which the act is done, (5) the effect, for instance, saving a man’s life, and (6) the manner, for instance, gently or violently.
17
Now no one, unless mad, could be ignorant of all these circumstances together; nor yet, obviously, of (l) the agent—for a man must know who he is himself. But a man may be ignorant of (2) what he is doing, as for instance when people say it slipped out while they were speaking, or they were not aware that the matter was a secret, as Aeschylus said of the MysteriesAeschylus was accused before the Areopagus of having divulged the Mysteries of Demeter in certain of his tragedies, but was acquitted. A phrase of his, It came to my mouth, became proverbial (Plat. Rep. 563c, etc.), and he may have used it on this occasion.; or that they let it off when they only meant to show how it worked as the prisoner pleaded in the catapult case. Again (3) a person might mistake his son for an enemy, as Merope doesIn the lost Cresphontes of Euripides.; or (4) mistake a sharp spear for one with a button on it, or a heavy stone for a pumice-stone; or (5) one might kill a man by giving him medicine with the intention of saving his life; or (6) in loose wrestlingA style of wrestling in which the adversaries only gripped each other’s hands without closing. hit him a blow when meaning only to grip his hand.
