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Sextus Empiricus

Against the Ethicists, Book XI of Against the Learned Section 251

Section 251 of 257

Canonical reference 11.251

Ancient Greek

Hermann Mutschmann and Jürgen Mau, editors · adversus-grc

ὧς ὅταν ἀπ’ ἀνθρώπου καὶ ἵππου κατ’ ἐπισύνθεσιν νοῶμεν τὸν ἀνύπαρκτον ἱπποκένταυρον, ἢ κατὰ ἀναλογίαν, ὡς ὅταν ἀπὸ τοῦ κοινοῦ ἀνθρώπου παραυξητικῶς μὲν λαμβάνηται ὁ Κύκλωψ, ὃς οὐκ ἐῴκει (ι 191) ἀνδρί γε σιτοφάγῳ, ἀλλὰ ῥίῳ ὑλήεντι, μειωτικῶς δὲ ὁ πυγμαῖος ἄνθρωπος.

English AI-generated translation, non-official

Codex gpt-5.6-sol · Non-official working translation · 2026-09-11

as when, by combining a human being and a horse, we conceive the nonexistent horse-centaur; or by analogy, as when from an ordinary human being the Cyclops is conceived through enlargement, “who resembled not a bread-eating man, but a wooded mountain peak” (Od. 9.191), and the pygmy human being through diminution.

French AI-generated translation, non-official

Codex gpt-5.6-sol · Non-official working translation · 2026-09-11

comme lorsque, par la composition d’un homme et d’un cheval, nous concevons l’hippocentaure inexistant, soit par analogie, comme lorsque, à partir de l’homme ordinaire, on conçoit par agrandissement le Cyclope, qui ne ressemblait pas (ι 191) à un homme mangeur de pain, mais à un sommet boisé, et par réduction l’homme pygmée.

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