Well, I think this is the last question I have from my present reading. I have mostly teased out the meaning of this passage, but there is just one word (in bold) that confuses me.
Ἤδη οὖν καὶ αὐτὸς μαλθακίζομαι, καὶ ἐκεῖνα μὲν ἐπιθῡμῶ ἀναβαλέσθαι καὶ ὕστερον σκέψασθαι ᾗ δυνατά, νῦν δ᾽ ὡς δυνατῶν ὄντων θεὶς σκέψομαι, ἄν μοι παρῑῇς, πῶς διατάξουσιν αὐτὰ οἱ ἄρχοντες γιγνόμενα, καὶ ὅτι πάντων συμφορώτατα ἂν εἴη πρᾱχθέντα τῇ τε πόλει καὶ τοῖς φύλαξιν. ταῦτα πειράσομαι σὺν σοὶ πρότερα σκοπεῖσθαι, ὕστερα δ᾽ ἐκεῖνα, εἴπερ παρῑεῖς.
Ἀλλὰ παρίημι, ἔφη, καὶ σκόπει.
My take:
"And therefore I myself have become lazy, and desire to postpone those things and examine later their feasibility, but now, making the assumption that they are possible, I will, if you allow me, inquire how the archons will arrange these things as they happen, and that they are done most advantageously of all for both the city and the guards. I will try to examine these former things with you, and then those later things, if you will allow it."
"I do allow it," he said, "proceed with the inquiry."
I am confused about the word πῶς, which is either the direct interrogative adverb ("how?") or the enclitic adverb ("somehow"). Wouldn't you expect ὅπως instead of πῶς? I thought that πῶς was only used, in the definite sense, in direct questions, and that ὅπως should be used in contexts like this. What are your thoughts? Does the choice of πῶς make sense to you?
