and out of primeval ooze arose

Well, the snot has turned into oh-yes-I-really-am-sick, and it took all I had this morning to go to the pharmacy and acquire some pseudoephedrine (with the parent: I could not have walked it, so the lift was much appreciated), and to put on some banana bread, so that the soggy blackening bananas did not go to waste.

Also to put laundry on and sort out my sock drawer, so now that I consider it, I suppose I have done rather a lot for a woman colonised by Primordial Slime.

Naturally, my brain is incapable of braining. So I suppose I'm going to make a mess of the Plato that I have for translations this weekend. More of a mess than usual, I mean.

Still. Onwards!

Plato, Apology, 23b end

[23β] ταῦτ᾽ οὖν ἐγὼ μὲν ἔτι καὶ νῦν περιιὼν ζητῶ καὶ ἐρευνῶ κατὰ τὸν θεὸν καὶ τῶν ἀστῶν καὶ ξένων ἄν τινα οἴωμαι σοφὸν εἶναι: καὶ ἐπειδάν μοι μὴ δοκῇ, τῷ θεῷ βοηθῶν ἐνδείκνυμαι ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι σοφός. καὶ ὑπὸ ταύτης τῆς ἀσχολίας οὔτε τι τῶν τῆς πόλεως πρᾶξαί μοι σχολὴ γέγονεν ἄξιον λόγου οὔτε τῶν οἰκείων, ἀλλ᾽ ἐν

Since I was superior to these, still now also I meant to search and inquire according to the god also for someone among the city-dwellers and the foreigners who I thought to be wise: and whenever [I did], it seemed to me not to be the case, and as an assistant to the god I pointed out that he was not wise. And by this occupation, neither it has come to pass to me leisure to have taken part in something worthy of mention of the matters of the city, nor of household matters, but

[23ξ] πενίᾳ μυρίᾳ εἰμὶ διὰ τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ λατρείαν.

πρὸς δὲ τούτοις οἱ νέοι μοι ἐπακολουθοῦντες—οἷς μάλιστα σχολή ἐστιν, οἱ τῶν πλουσιωτάτων—αὐτόματοι, χαίρουσιν ἀκούοντες ἐξεταζομένων τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ αὐτοὶ πολλάκις ἐμὲ μιμοῦνται, εἶτα ἐπιχειροῦσιν ἄλλους ἐξετάζειν: κἄπειτα οἶμαι εὑρίσκουσι πολλὴν ἀφθονίαν οἰομένων μὲν εἰδέναι τι ἀνθρώπων, εἰδότων δὲ ὀλίγα ἢ οὐδέν. ἐντεῦθεν οὖν οἱ ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν ἐξεταζόμενοι ἐμοὶ ὀργίζονται, οὐχ αὑτοῖς,

I am in enormous poverty because of the service of the god.

And with respect to these things, the young men who follow after me - indeed they have leisure, the ones of the most wealthy class - of their own will are delighted, hearing the examination of men, and they often imitate me, and accordingly make an attempt at examining others: why then, I think they find great abundance of men supposing they know something, but knowing little or nothing. So from this the ones examined by them are angry with me, not with them.

---

And that's about as much as I can do right now.

Also, Twitter seems to hate me. Oh, well. All I would be doing today is complaining about slime, anyway.

(The banana bread turned out tasty. Pity I have no appetite.)

Plato, Apology, 23d-24a beginning

Making another run at the next section:

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[23δ] καὶ λέγουσιν ὡς Σωκράτης τίς ἐστι μιαρώτατος καὶ διαφθείρει τοὺς νέους: καὶ ἐπειδάν τις αὐτοὺς ἐρωτᾷ ὅτι ποιῶν καὶ ὅτι διδάσκων, ἔχουσι μὲν οὐδὲν εἰπεῖν ἀλλ᾽ ἀγνοοῦσιν, ἵνα δὲ μὴ δοκῶσιν ἀπορεῖν, τὰ κατὰ πάντων τῶν φιλοσοφούντων πρόχειρα ταῦτα λέγουσιν, ὅτι ‘τὰ μετέωρα καὶ τὰ ὑπὸ γῆς’ καὶ ‘θεοὺς μὴ νομίζειν’ καὶ ‘τὸν ἥττω λόγον κρείττω ποιεῖν.’ τὰ γὰρ ἀληθῆ οἴομαι οὐκ ἂν ἐθέλοιεν λέγειν, ὅτι κατάδηλοι γίγνονται προσποιούμενοι μὲν εἰδέναι, εἰδότες δὲ οὐδέν. ἅτε οὖν οἶμαι φιλότιμοι

And they say that a certain Socrates is most polluted and that he is ruining the young men: and whenever someone asks them by doing what and by teaching what, they have nothing to say but they're ignorant, and so in order not to appear to be at a loss, they say these things convenient according to all those who teach philosophy, like "the heavenly things and the things under the earth" and "not to acknowledge the gods" and "to make the worse argument the better." For I think they may not be willing to speak the truth, that plainly those who lay claim to know things, are knowing nothing. So, seeing that I know they love honour

[23ε] ὄντες καὶ σφοδροὶ καὶ πολλοί, καὶ συντεταμένως καὶ πιθανῶς λέγοντες περὶ ἐμοῦ, ἐμπεπλήκασιν ὑμῶν τὰ ὦτα καὶ πάλαι καὶ σφοδρῶς διαβάλλοντες. ἐκ τούτων καὶ Μέλητός μοι ἐπέθετο καὶ Ἄνυτος καὶ Λύκων, Μέλητος μὲν ὑπὲρ τῶν ποιητῶν ἀχθόμενος, Ἄνυτος δὲ ὑπὲρ τῶν δημιουργῶν καὶ

excessively and greatly, and [I know] they speak vigorously and persuasively concerning me, your ears have been satisfied of old, [I know] they also slander me violently. And from this Meletos laid [the charge against] me, and Anytos, and Lykon, Meletos being grieved on behalf of the poets, and Anytos on behalf of the artisans and

[24α] τῶν πολιτικῶν, Λύκων δὲ ὑπὲρ τῶν ῥητόρων:

the politicians, and Lykon on behalf of the orators.

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I'm stopping again for now, to wallow some more in self-pity and primeval slime. Maybe I will watch bad movies, or something. Or perhaps I will come back and bang my head against Greek some more, when there in food in the house and in my stomach.

Plato, Apology, 24a - 24c beginning. Also, zombie film marathon

[24α] ὥστε, ὅπερ ἀρχόμενος ἐγὼ ἔλεγον, θαυμάζοιμ᾽ ἂν εἰ οἷός τ᾽ εἴην ἐγὼ ὑμῶν ταύτην τὴν διαβολὴν ἐξελέσθαι ἐν οὕτως ὀλίγῳ χρόνῳ οὕτω πολλὴν γεγονυῖαν. ταῦτ᾽ ἔστιν ὑμῖν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, τἀληθῆ, καὶ ὑμᾶς οὔτε μέγα οὔτε μικρὸν ἀποκρυψάμενος ἐγὼ λέγω οὐδ᾽ ὑποστειλάμενος. καίτοι οἶδα σχεδὸν ὅτι αὐτοῖς τούτοις ἀπεχθάνομαι, ὃ καὶ τεκμήριον ὅτι ἀληθῆ λέγω καὶ ὅτι αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ διαβολὴ ἡ ἐμὴ καὶ τὰ αἴτια

since it was the very thing which I was speaking about from the beginning, I would be amazed if it would be possible for me to remove from you this slander in this little time which has existed for so long. This is the truth for you, O Athenian men, and I speak, neither concealing from you a lot or a little, nor dissembling. And indeed I know well that I am hated by these men themselves, which is a sure sign that I speak truth and that this is my slander and the causes

[24β] ταῦτά ἐστιν. καὶ ἐάντε νῦν ἐάντε αὖθις ζητήσητε ταῦτα, οὕτως εὑρήσετε.

περὶ μὲν οὖν ὧν οἱ πρῶτοί μου κατήγοροι κατηγόρουν αὕτη ἔστω ἱκανὴ ἀπολογία πρὸς ὑμᾶς: πρὸς δὲ Μέλητον τὸν ἀγαθὸν καὶ φιλόπολιν, ὥς φησι, καὶ τοὺς ὑστέρους μετὰ ταῦτα πειράσομαι ἀπολογήσασθαι. αὖθις γὰρ δή, ὥσπερ ἑτέρων τούτων ὄντων κατηγόρων, λάβωμεν αὖ τὴν τούτων ἀντωμοσίαν. ἔχει δέ πως ὧδε: Σωκράτη φησὶν ἀδικεῖν τούς τε νέους διαφθείροντα καὶ θεοὺς οὓς ἡ πόλις

are these. And if now, if once more you will investigate these things, you will find in this way.

So, concerning the things which the first prosecutors alleged against me, let this be sufficient defence against you: and against Meletos the good and patriotic, as they say, and against the latter ones, next after these I will try to make defense. For indeed once more, as if these were different accusers, let us take up afresh their sworn statement. And how does it go: Socrates, they say, does wrong both by ruining the young men and by


[24ξ] νομίζει οὐ νομίζοντα, ἕτερα δὲ δαιμόνια καινά. τὸ μὲν δὴ ἔγκλημα τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν: τούτου δὲ τοῦ ἐγκλήματος ἓν ἕκαστον ἐξετάσωμεν.

not acknowledging the gods, the ones the city acknowledges, but other, different divine things. Indeed the charge is of this kind: let us examine this accusation in each point.

---

There are maybe eight lines left in my assigned translations for this weekend. I'm not going to scrape them out tonight, though. I think I've reached my limit.

I spent the afternoon and most of the evening marathoning the first four Resident Evil films. I'd never seen them before. They're impressive B-movies, despite progressing through increasingly demented levels of WTFery on behalf of Corporation Evil Stupid (and some worldbuilding WTF, and Mad!Science WTFery): the first two are well-constructed and bring the BOOM; the third is sloppier but has a delightful Wagon Train Of The Zombpocalypse West vibe going on (and fucking aces the Bechdel test with its eyes closed) although the WTFery mounts to new levels; while the fourth one doesn't really balance its BOOM vs DOOM ratio quite right, and loses points in addition for structuring its climax a little too obviously like a videogame boss fight.

Boss fights are boring, on a structural level. Even drugged to the eyeballs, you can call the beats.

These aren't films to be watched for logic, but I'm legitimately impressed at how well they manage characterisation within the limitations of the genre - and how they all bloody well pass the fucking Bechdel test without looking like they're even trying, BLOODY HELL PEOPLE. For that alone, they get mad props - sad but true, so very few action films actually bother, and here is Resident Evil with its zombies and its fleshmonsters and its TENTACLE ZOMBIES WTF, and it passes the Bechdel in the first ten to twenty minutes.

Also, Milla Jovovich has real muscles. They flex. And great shoulders. So used to seeing lady actors with stringy muscles play fighter-types, it's nice to have some muscle definition in there for change.

Okay, I'm going to go lie down and read about the Thirty Years War and hope that I survive a night of primordial ooze. You guys have fun out there.