Hecuba, Orestes, and The Phoenician Women

Grammatical Commentary on Quantity and Order

The triad The number three is derived from what, and how is it named? One must interpret the nature of the third and the dual in terms of the power of order. It is said that the unit the "monad" is consistent with itself, just as we say "the one" and "the same." For it is clear that everything has a first, a second, and a third.

The feminine forms of these words are derived from the female gender: "the first," "the second," and "the third." The Greek text here explains how numerical adjectives change their endings to match feminine nouns. The term "third" is a derivative word. It signifies something like "the third one" or similar. It is said that "the third" and the rest are derived from the feminine forms.

The "third" is taken from the middle. We say "the third" when there is a "fourth" following in this sequence. If we speak of parts, we ask: "what is it?" in terms of position. For example, a part of a part.

A definition in common speech concerns "how much" Quantity: in Greek 'poson', referring to things that can be counted, "how big" Magnitude: in Greek 'pelikon', referring to the size of continuous things like lines or space, and the relationship between them. The "third" relates to the "how many" of an order, just as "how much" relates to "how many days old" or "four days old."

We distinguish between things that are continuous like a liquid or a line and things that are discrete like a pile of stones or a group of people. All things are compared against magnitude—that which is continuous.

The Tragedy of Hecuba (continued)

the woman from there Since there was a sacrifice and a place and...?
soul the woman... and the same... breath...
himself the? Trojans...
He himself referring to King Priam before the altar in front of...
Slaughtered instead of as if not with honey but with blood a poetic way of describing a violent death rather than a peaceful libation
he passed away.
And I, the wretched one, by his hands referring to the killer, Polymestor
The old guest-friend threw me in and having killed me into the swelling? sea
He cast me so that now he might keep the gold for himself in his house.
I lie now upon the shores near in and at other times in the salt of the sea,
in the harbor carried by many waves being carried tossed about,
Unwept not, unburied now, by the hands of my dear
mother... into a net... having reached... hovering now...
around the wave... for three days now I have been suspended in the air.
Just as much as ...? in this Chersonese
My mother Hecuba living there after the destruction of Troy.
All the Greeks, having their ships, stay quiet here
By the sea in on the shores of this Thracian land.
For the son of Peleus the hero Achilles appearing above his tomb
Held back the whole Greek army,
toward the magnitude as many as, for example, the quantity... all things defined...
As they were turning their sails homeward.
He asks to have my sister, Polyxena, as a sacrificial prize.
the magnitude, as many as, for example, the quantity... all things defined...