[Used] with a dative.[1] [Meaning] to bump into.
And [there is] a proverb:[2] "not to stumble against the same rock many times, if one has an agreed-upon occasion."[3]
*ptai/ein: dotikh=|. proskrou/ein. kai\ paroimi/a: mh\ polla/kis pro\s to\n au)to\n li/qon ptai/ein, e)/xonta kairo\n o(mologou/menon.
[1] (Adler cites comparable material ('cf.') in the
Syntacticum Gudianum.) In fact this verb can be construed with the dative alone, but occurs more frequently with a preposition governing the dative or (as in the proverb cited) accusative.
[2] cf. Gregorius 2.15 (the metrical
di\s pro\s to\n au)to\n ai)sxro\n proskrou/ein li/qon), and further in next note.
[3] Numbered by Meineke (380) and Kock (391-392) among the anonymous fragments of Attic comedy (
Comica adespota), but not included in the more recent collection of Kassel & Austin. The second part of the quotation, from
ptai/ein to
o(mologou/menon, makes a good comic iambic trimeter, but the first part, though vaguely iambic, does not. Various emendations have been proposed to make the first part scan (see Kock ad loc.), but it may be that the actual source of this is not comedy but
Polybius. In 31.11.5 (web address 1), repeated 31.12.2,
Polybius records the advice he gave to
Demetrius Soter of
Syria "not to stumble twice against the same rock" by attempting to address the Roman senate a second time. The statement is identical to the present passage with the exception of the alternation between "twice" and "many times". The rest of the entry, "if one has an agreed-upon occasion," may be continuing the paraphrase of
Polybius in more summary fashion: he goes on to advise
Demetrius of the many occasions (
kairou/s) he can take advantage of if he remains patient. If this is correct then the iambic meter of the last half is purely fortuitous. The whole phrase is repeated without a gloss at
mu 972, where the headword of this entry
ptai/ein is replaced by
pai/ein ('strike').
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