Understanding the Language of the Ancients

People didn't really read back then like they do now. Like, everything wasn't precise, but rather worked through contextualized rather than denotative meaning and structure. Like, there'd be no people telling one another to define what a word means, and then sticking to that definition. People understood things through their relation.

A good example is Socrates talking to Euthyphro. Like, a lot of people misinterpret it, saying that Socrates is looking for a precise definition, when in fact, Socrates is not questioning his definition, but the ethical dilemma of testifying against your father, and thinking such a thing is Pious. The fact is, Piety is already understood by the audience--just like the notion of Good in Phaedo--and it's not what's being defined, but rather the impiety of thinking you have to destroy your father for nothing.

Socrates was not a Nihilist, and we tend to actually ascribe the methods of the Sophists when trying to understand the Greeks. And so with everything else. A lexicon in these days would be so rare, and it would only be understood in the most loose ways. Not something defined so precisely it becomes useless.

This is found in all strains of Philosophical understanding, from Lao Tsu and Confucius, to the Founding Fathers, to even men like Christ and Plato. The issue was always an assumption of "The Way" not baseless skepticism into it, through rigid empiricism, which is something new.