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Not an oracle
Source evidence first. Interpretation remains yours.
The point is not to accuse a translator, copyist, school, or edition. The point is narrower and more useful: pair a familiar English reception with the best cited source wording available, then let readers inspect the grammatical branches and test coherent alternatives.
Seed corpus
Sixteen matched pairs for v0.3.
Friendship
Epicurus, Principal Doctrines 27
English first
The greatest thing wisdom provides for a happy life is friendship.
Critical source text
Ὧν ἡ σοφία παρασκευάζεται εἰς τὴν τοῦ ὅλου βίου μακαριότητα,
πολὺ μέγιστόν ἐστιν ἡ τῆς φιλίας κτῆσις.
Greek text: Usener edition via Lexundria, Epic. KD 27.
Tool evidence signals
- φιλίας returned 5 morphology paths; genitive forms can point to friendship as relation, not only friends as people.
- κτῆσις returned noun evidence for acquisition, getting, or possession.
- μακαριότητα is stronger than casual happiness; blessedness, flourishing, or complete life-satisfaction may be in play.
Grammatically viable renderings
- Of what wisdom prepares for happiness over the whole life, by far the greatest is acquiring friendship.
- Among the provisions wisdom makes for a completely blessed life, the possession of friendship is much the greatest.
- For lifelong flourishing, wisdom's largest provision is the gaining of friendship.
Where reception can tilt
Turning κτῆσις into only "having friends" can hide the active sense of acquiring or securing friendship. Turning φιλία into "friends" can shift the sentence from a practice or relation into a countable social asset.
Community
Aristotle, Politics 1.1253a
English first
Man is by nature a political animal.
Critical source text
ὁ ἄνθρωπος φύσει πολιτικὸν ζῷον ... λόγον δὲ μόνον ἄνθρωπος
ἔχει τῶν ζῴων ... ἡ δὲ τούτων κοινωνία ποιεῖ οἰκίαν καὶ πόλιν.
Greek text: W. D. Ross edition via Perseus, Arist. Pol. 1253a.
Tool evidence signals
- πολιτικὸν returned adjective evidence tied to citizens, civic life, and the polis.
- ζῷον is living creature or animal, not a modern political actor.
- λόγος can mean speech, account, reasoning, or argument, so "political" rests on communicative judgment.
Grammatically viable renderings
- The human being is by nature a polis-living creature.
- A human is naturally a civic animal, more than any bee or herd creature.
- The human animal is fitted by nature for shared civic life because it has speech or reason.
Where reception can tilt
"Political animal" sounds modern and institutional. The Greek phrase sits inside a claim about λόγος, shared judgment, household, and polis. "Social animal" also loses something if it drops the civic and verbal logic of the sentence.
Intelligence
Socrates in Plato, Apology 21d
English first
I know that I know nothing.
Critical source text
ἔοικα γοῦν τούτου γε σμικρῷ τινι αὐτῷ τούτῳ σοφώτερος εἶναι,
ὅτι ἃ μὴ οἶδα οὐδὲ οἴομαι εἰδέναι.
Greek text: John Burnet edition via Perseus, Pl. Ap. 21d.
Tool evidence signals
- οἶδα returned perfect-form verb evidence for knowing or having seen.
- οἴομαι returned verb evidence for supposing, thinking, or imagining.
- ἃ μὴ frames "the things which I do not know," not an unlimited doctrine that nothing is known.
Grammatically viable renderings
- What I do not know, I do not even suppose that I know.
- The things I am not aware of, I also do not imagine myself to know.
- Where I lack knowledge, I do not hold the opinion that I know.
Where reception can tilt
The slogan "I know nothing" makes the sentence absolute. The Greek is narrower: Socrates marks the boundary between not knowing and not pretending to know. That difference matters for any reader thinking about intelligence, humility, or expertise.
Love
Diotima in Plato, Symposium 206a
English first
Love is the desire to possess the good forever.
Critical source text
ἔστιν ἄρα συλλήβδην, ἔφη, ὁ ἔρως τοῦ τὸ ἀγαθὸν αὑτῷ εἶναι ἀεί.
Greek text: John Burnet edition via Perseus, Pl. Sym. 206a.
Tool evidence signals
- ἔρως can sit between love, longing, and desire, not only romance.
- τοῦ ... εἶναι marks an articular infinitive: the object or aim is "being."
- αὑτῷ is reflexive dative: to oneself, for oneself, or as one's own.
Grammatically viable renderings
- So, in sum, love is for the good to be one's own always.
- Love, taken together, is directed at the good being present to oneself forever.
- Desire is that the good should belong to oneself always.
Where reception can tilt
"Possess" is compact English, but it can sound acquisitive. The Greek construction can also be read around belonging, being present, or being for oneself. "Love" also imports modern romance unless ἔρως stays visible.
How to read this demo
Evidence first, interpretation later.
What is simulated here
The page uses v0.3 corpus data plus lookup behavior collected locally for the highlighted Greek terms: morphology paths, lexicon signals, and source provenance. It is a public static demo, so it does not run the FastAPI app in your browser.
What it does not claim
It does not claim to recover a single true meaning. It does not claim that any named translator or copyist distorted a text. It shows where grammar, lexical range, historical transmission, and English convention can create different responsible readings.
v0.3 local flow
Users can add matched pairs locally, query public databases for the original-language tokens, save branch choices, export the corpus, and submit new sourced pairs back to the repository.
Local quick start