Laudator Temporis Acti

Donald Kagan (1932-2021), The Fall of the Athenian Empire (1987; rpt. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), p. 107:

Theognis divided mankind into two distinct types: the good and noble and the bad and base. The distinction is based on birth and establishes a clear and firm tie between social status and virtue. The noble alone possesses judgment (gnome) and reverence (aidos); therefore, the noble alone is capable of moderation, restraint, and justice. These are qualities enjoyed by few, and the many who are without them, who lack judgment and reverence, are necessarily shameless and arrogant. The good qualities, moreover, are acquired only by birth; they cannot be taught: "It is easier to beget and rear a man than to put good sense into him. No one has ever discovered a way to make a fool wise or a bad man good .... If thought could be made and put into a man, the son of a good man would never become bad since he would obey good counsel. But you will never make the bad man good by teaching."<sup>3

3</sup> Theognis 429-438.

Theognis 429-438 (tr. Douglas E. Gerber):

It is easier to beget and rear a man than to put good sense in him. No one has yet devised a means whereby one has made the fool wise and a noble man out of one who is base. If the god had granted this power to the Asclepiads, to cure men’s baseness and muddled wits, they would be earning many a handsome fee. And if good sense could be made and placed in a man, there would never be a base son of a noble father, since he would heed words of wisdom. But you will never make the base man noble through teaching.

φῦσαι καὶ θρέψαι ῥᾷον βροτὸν ἢ φρένας ἐσθλάς
    ἐνθέμεν· οὐδείς πω τοῦτό γ' ἐπεφράσατο,        430
ᾧ τις σώφρον' ἔθηκε τὸν ἄφρονα κἀκ κακοῦ ἐσθλόν.
    εἰ δ' Ἀσκληπιάδαις τοῦτό γ' ἔδωκε θεός,
ἰᾶσθαι κακότητα καὶ ἀτηρὰς φρένας ἀνδρῶν,
    πολλοὺς ἂν μισθοὺς καὶ μεγάλους ἔφερον.
εἰ δ' ἦν ποιητόν τε καὶ ἔνθετον ἀνδρὶ νόημα,        435
    οὔποτ' ἂν ἐξ ἀγαθοῦ πατρὸς ἔγεντο κακός,
πειθόμενος μύθοισι σαόφροσιν· ἀλλὰ διδάσκων
    οὔποτε ποιήσει τὸν κακὸν ἄνδρ' ἀγαθόν.

Archilochus, fragment 130 West, from Stobaeus 4.41.24 (tr. Anne Pippin Burnett):

Fulfillment is the gods' affair. Often when
a man lies helpless on the dark earth they
set him right again; often too they overturn
the ones who journey at their ease, calling up a swarm
of evils to pursue, and then a man will wander
hungrily, with madness running in his mind.

τοῖς θεοῖς τέλεια πάντα· πολλάκις μὲν ἐκ κακῶν
ἄνδρας ὀρθοῦσιν μελαίνῃ κειμένους ἐπὶ χθονί,
πολλάκις δ᾿ ἀνατρέπουσι καὶ μάλ᾿ εὖ βεβηκότας
ὑπτίους, κείνοις <δ᾿> ἔπειτα πολλὰ γίνεται κακά,
καὶ βίου χρήμῃ πλανᾶται καὶ νόου παρήορος.        5

1 θεοῖς τέλεια πάντα Hommel: θεοῖς τ᾿ εἰθεῖάπαντα cod. S: θεοῖσι ῥεῖα πάντα Wilamowitz

4 κείνοις Blaydes: κίνουσ᾽ S: κλίνουσ᾽ Valckenaer
δ' add. West

See Fernando García Romero, "Archilochus fr.130 West," Philologus 139 (1995) 179-182.

Bacchylides, Victory Odes 3.75-92 (tr. Richard C. Jebb):

But deceitful Hope has crept into the hearts of men, children of a day. Yet the lord Apollo [, the shepherd,] said to the son of Pheres:— 'As a mortal, thou must nourish each of two

forebodings; that to-morrow's sunlight will be the last that thou shalt see; or that for fifty years thou wilt live out thy life in ample wealth. Act righteously, and be of a cheerful spirit: that is the supreme gain.'

I speak words of meaning for the wise: the depths of air receive no taint; the waters of the sea are incorrupt; gold is a joy: but for a man it is not lawful to pass by hoary

eld, and to recover the bloom of youth. Yet the radiance of manly worth wanes not with the mortal body; it is cherished by the Muse.

δολό]εσσα δ᾽ ἐλπὶς ὑπ[ὸ κέαρ δέδυκεν        75
    ἐφαμ]ερίων· ὁ δ᾽ ἄναξ [Ἀπόλλων
ὁ βουκό]λος εἶπε Φέρη[τος υἷι·
θνατὸν εὖντα χρὴ διδύμους ἀέξειν

γνώμας, ὅτι τ᾽ αὔριον ὄψεαι
    μοῦνον ἁλίου φάος,        80
χὥτι πεντήκοντ᾽ ἔτεα
ζωὰν βαθύπλουτον τελεῖς.
ὅσια δρῶν εὔφραινε θυμόν· τοῦτο γὰρ
κερδέων ὑπέρτατον.

φρονέοντι συνετὰ γαρύω· βαθὺς μὲν        85
αἰθὴρ ἀμίαντος· ὕδωρ δὲ πόντου
οὐ σάπεται· εὐφροσύνα δ᾽ ὁ χρυσός·
    ἀνδρὶ δ᾽ οὐ θέμις, πολιὸν π[αρ]έντα

γῆρας, θάλειαν αὖτις ἀγκομίσσαι
ἥβαν. ἀρετᾶ[ς γε μ]ὲν οὐ μινύθει        90
βροτῶν ἅμα σ[ώμα]τι φέγγος, ἀλλὰ
    Μοῦσά νιν τρ[έφει].

Eric Thomson sent me the following image of Herwig Maehler's Teubner text as a reminder of the advances in the study of Bacchylides since Jebb's day: Winged hope undermines the understanding of short-lived men, etc.

Regulations of a private cult association, from Philadelphia in Lydia, Asia Minor, late 2nd/early 1st century BC = Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 4th ed., Vol. III (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1960), pp. 113-119 (number 985), tr. Frederick C. Grant, Hellenistic Religions: The Age of Syncretism (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1953), pp. 28-30:

Good fortune! They were written for the health and common welfare and the noblest thought, the commandments given to Dionysius [by Zeus], granting access in sleep to his own house both to free men and women, and to household slaves. For here are the altars of Zeus Eumenes, Hestia who is seated beside him, and the other Savior Gods: Eudaimonia, Plutus, Arete, Hygiaea, Tyche Agathe, Agathos Daimon, Mneme, Charites, Nike.

To him Zeus gave commandments: To observe the purification and cleansing rites, and offer the sacrifices in accordance with ancestral rites and as now practiced. Those who enter this house [i.e., temple], both men and women, both bound and free, are to take oath before all the gods that, conscious of no guile toward man or woman, they will not [administer] an evil drug to men, nor will they learn or practice wicked charms, nor [give] any philter, or any abortive or contraceptive drug, nor [commit] robbery or murder, either carrying it out themselves or advising another or acting as witness [for his defense], nor overlook complacently those who rob [or withhold—i.e., offerings] in this house; and if anyone shall do any of these things or advise them, they will not consent or pass over it in silence, but will bring it out into the open and see that [the crime] is punished.

A man [is not to take] another woman in addition to his own wife, either a free woman or a slave who has a husband, nor is he to corrupt either a child [boy] or a virgin, nor is he to counsel another [to do so]; but if he should witness anyone [doing this], he must not hide it or keep silent. Woman and man [alike], whoever does any of the things above written, let them not enter this house. For the gods who dwell here are mighty and watch over these things and will not hold back [punishment] from those who transgress their commandments. A free woman is to be pure and is not to know bed or intercourse with any man other than her own [husband]. If she does she shall not be pure [as before], but is defiled and full of corruption within her family [i.e., she has corrupted the family line] and is unworthy to worship this god for whom these rites were established, or to offer sacrifices, or to . . . [about twelve lines are missing] to stumble upon or to see the mysteries observed. If anyone does any of these things with which the commandments here copied have to do, terrible curses from the gods will come upon those who disregard them. For God does not by any means will that these things should come to pass, nor does he desire it, but to obey [i.e., God wills that men should obey the commandments, and not be punished for disobedience].

To those who obey the gods will be gracious and will always be giving them everything good, such as the gods are wont to give to men they love. But if any transgress, they will hate such persons and will lay upon them great penalties.

These commandments were placed [here] by Agdistis, the most holy Guardian and Mistress of this house, that she might show her good will [or intentions] to men and women, bond and free, so that they might follow the [rules] written here and take part in the sacrifices which [are offered] month by month and year by year, even those, both men and women, who believe within themselves [i.e., are faithful to] this writing in which the commandments of God are written, so that those who follow the commandments may become known openly, and also those who do not.

O Zeus the Savior, graciously and favorably accept this account and ... [about eighteen lines are missing] provide a good requital, health, safety, peace, security by land and sea ... . [about twenty lines are missing] likewise.

The Greek text is online here, from Tituli Asiae Minoris, V: Tituli Lydiae linguis Graeca et Latina conscripti, ed. Georg Petzl (Vienna, 2007), Vol. 3, nos. 1415-1953: Philadelpheia et Ager Philadelphenus (number 1539). The stone is now lost.

See Otto Weinreich, "Stiftung und Kultsatzungen eines Privatheiligtums in Philadelpheia in Lydien," Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 16.3 (1919) 1-68, and María-Paz de Hoz, "The Regulations of Dionysius in the So-Called Lex Sacra from Philadelphia in Lydia," Epigraphica Anatolica 50 (2017) 93-108. There is another (partial) translation by Arthur Darby Nock, Early Gentile Christianity and its Hellenistic Background (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1964), pp. 20-21.

Scholars compare Didache 2 (tr. Bart D. Ehrman):

[1] And now the second commandment of the teaching. [2] Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not engage in pederasty, do not engage in sexual immorality. Do not steal, do not practice magic, do not use enchanted potions, do not abort a fetus or kill a child that is born. [3] Do not desire what belongs to your neighbor, do not commit perjury, do not give false testimony, do not speak insults, do not bear grudges. [4] Do not be of two minds or speak from both sides of your mouth, for speaking from both sides of your mouth is a deadly trap. [5] Your word must not be empty or false. [6] Do not be greedy, rapacious, hypocriti­cal, spiteful, or haughty. Do not entertain a wicked plot against your neighbor. [7] Do not hate anyone—but re­prove some, pray for others, and love still others more than yourself.

Demosthenes 19.65-66 (On the Dishonest Embassy; tr. Arthur Wallace Pickard-Cambridge, with his notes):

For when recently we were on our way to Delphiⁿ we could not help seeing it all—houses razed to the ground, cities stripped of their walls, the land destitute of men in their prime—only a few poor women and little children left, and some old men in misery. Indeed, no words can describe the distress now prevailing there. Yet this was the people, I hear you all saying, that once gave its vote against the Thebans,ⁿ when the question of your enslavement was laid before them.

What then, men of Athens, do you think would be the vote, what the sentence, that your forefathers would give, if they could recover consciousness, upon those who were responsible for the destruction of this people? I believe that if they stoned them to death with their own hands, they would hold themselves guiltless of blood. Is it not utterly shameful—does it not, if possible, go beyond all shame—that those who saved us then, and gave the saving vote for us, should now have met with the very opposite fate through these men, suffering as no Hellenic people has ever suffered before, with none to hinder it? Who then is responsible for this crime? Who is the author of this deception? Who but Aeschines?

§ 65. on our may to Delphi. Demosthenes had been one of the Athenian representatives at the meeting of the Amphictyonic Council at Delphi this year.

gave its vote, &c. After the battle of Aegospotami at the end of the Peloponnesian War, the representative of Thebes proposed to the Spartans and their allies that Athens should be destroyed and its inhabitants sold into slavery.

ὅτε γὰρ νῦν ἐπορευόμεθ᾽ εἰς Δελφούς, ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἦν ὁρᾶν ἡμῖν πάντα ταῦτα, οἰκίας κατεσκαμμένας, τείχη περιῃρημένα, χώραν ἔρημον τῶν ἐν ἡλικίᾳ, γύναια δὲ καὶ παιδάρι᾽ ὀλίγα καὶ πρεσβύτας ἀνθρώπους οἰκτρούς· οὐδ᾽ ἂν εἷς δύναιτ᾽ ἐφικέσθαι τῷ λόγῳ τῶν ἐκεῖ κακῶν νῦν ὄντων. ἀλλὰ μὴν ὅτι τὴν ἐναντίαν ποτὲ Θηβαίοις ψῆφον ἔθενθ᾽ οὗτοι περὶ ἡμῶν ὑπὲρ ἀνδραποδισμοῦ προτεθεῖσαν, ὑμῶν ἔγωγ᾽ ἀκούω πάντων.

τίν᾽ ἂν οὖν οἴεσθ᾽, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, τοὺς προγόνους ὑμῶν, εἰ λάβοιεν αἴσθησιν, ψῆφον ἢ γνώμην θέσθαι περὶ τῶν αἰτίων τοῦ τούτων ὀλέθρου; ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οἶμαι κἂν καταλεύσαντας αὐτοὺς ταῖς ἑαυτῶν χερσὶν καθαροὺς ἔσεσθαι νομίζειν. πῶς γὰρ οὐκ αἰσχρόν, μᾶλλον δ᾽ εἴ τις ἔστιν ὑπερβολὴ τούτου, τοὺς σεσωκότας ἡμᾶς τότε καὶ τὴν σῴζουσαν περὶ ἡμῶν ψῆφον θεμένους, τούτους τῶν ἐναντίων τετυχηκέναι διὰ τούτους, καὶ περιῶφθαι τοιαῦτα πεπονθότας οἷ᾽ οὐδένες ἄλλοι τῶν Ἑλλήνων; τίς οὖν ὁ τούτων αἴτιος; τίς ὁ ταῦτα φενακίσας; οὐχ οὗτος;

The name Aeschines doesn't appear in the Greek, just the pronoun οὗτος.

Bacchylides, Victory Odes 1.159-177 (tr. Richard C. Jebb):

The best glory is that of Virtue, so deem I now and ever: wealth may dwell with men of little worth, and will exalt the spirit; but he who is bountiful to the gods can cheer his heart with a loftier hope. If a mortal is blessed with health, and can live on his own substance, he vies with the most fortunate. Joy attends on every state of life, if only disease and helpless poverty be not there. The rich man yearns for great things, as the poorer for less; mortals find no sweetness in opulence, but are ever pursuing visions that flee before them.

    φαμὶ καὶ φάσω μέγιστον
κῦδος ἔχειν ἀρετάν· πλοῦ-        160
    τος δὲ καὶ δειλοῖσιν ἀνθρώπων ὁμιλεῖ,
ἐθέλει δ᾿ αὔξειν φρένας ἀν-
    δρός· ὁ δ᾿ εὖ ἔρδων θεούς
ἐλπίδι κυδροτέρᾳ
    σαίνει κέαρ. εἰ δ᾿ ὑγιείας        165
θνατὸς ἐὼν ἔλαχεν
    ζώειν τ᾿ ἀπ᾿ οἰκείων ἔχει,
πρώτοις ἐρίζει· παντί τοι
    τέρψις ἀνθρώπων βίῳ
ἕπεται νόσφιν γε νόσων        170
    πενίας τ᾿ ἀμαχάνου.
ἶσον ὅ τ᾿ ἀφνεὸς ἱ-
    μείρει μεγάλων ὅ τε μείων
παυροτέρων· τὸ δὲ πάν-
    των εὐμαρεῖν οὐδὲν γλυκύ        175
θνατοῖσιν, ἀλλ᾿ αἰεὶ τὰ φεύ-
    γοντα δίζηνται κιχεῖν.

See Herwig Maehler, Die Lieder des Bakchylides. Erster Teil: Die Siegeslieder, II. Kommentar (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1982), pp. 20-24.

Sophocles, Oedipus the King 1076-1077 (Oedipus speaking; tr. David Grene):

Break out what will! I at least shall be
willing to see my ancestry, though humble.

ὁποῖα χρῄζει ῥηγνύτω· τοὐμὸν δ᾽ ἐγώ,
κεἰ σμικρόν ἐστι, σπέρμ᾽ ἰδεῖν βουλήσομαι.

Euripides, Orestes 1022-1024 (Orestes to Electra; tr. Edward P. Coleridge):

Be silent! an end to womanish lamenting!
resign yourself to your fate. It is piteous, but nevertheless
you must bear the present fate.

οὐ σῖγ᾽ ἀφεῖσα τοὺς γυναικείους γόους
στέρξεις τὰ κρανθέντ᾽; οἰκτρὰ μὲν τάδ᾽, ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως
φέρειν σ᾽ ἀνάγκη τὰς παρεστώσας τύχας.

1022 γόους MB: λόγους rell.
1024 del. Kirchhoff (non habuit Σ)

C.W. Willink ad loc.:

Gilbert Highet (1906-1978), Explorations (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 112:

One variation of this idea appeals to me, although I know it is not to be taken seriously. This is the notion that some words, when they are written or printed, look like the thing they denote. My favorite is pool, where the two o's evoke the deep water with its reflection of the sky, and the downward stroke of the p and the riser of the l resemble the tree reflected in the still lakelet. Moon is also very good. Meat looks to me like a slab of tenderloin oozing with juice; and now that I think of it, ooze looks like something oozing and the word juice both looks and sounds like juice. The printed word potato is very like a big lumpy Long Island potato with two bumps on it. Bulb is just right, whether it means an electric bulb narrowing upwards to its neck, or a bulgy tulip bulb. Tulip is pretty good too, both in sound and in appearance. The r's in mirror seem to me to mirror the shiny surface of the mirror. Ankle and elbow both resemble bent joints. Tongue looks like the flexible boneless organ which curls and has a thin projecting tip. Dante thought a man's face looked like the old Italian word for man: omo, the strong bony nose being the M and the two round O's the eyes on each side of it. One scholar claimed that Hungarian was the ideal language because the Hungarian word for scissors, ollò, looked exactly like a pair of scissors. Stop. Stop! That way madness lies!

Homer, Odyssey 14.96-105 (tr. Peter Green):

Great indeed, past telling, were his resources: no other
heroic warrior, either away on the dark mainland,
or on Ithákē itself, could match them. Not twenty men
together had as much wealth: I'll list you the sum of it.
On the mainland, twelve herds of cattle, twelve flocks of sheep,
as many droves of swine and wide-ranging troops of goats
are pastured alike by outsiders and his own herdsmen.
Eleven wide-ranging troops of goats browse at the farthest
end of the island, and over them good men watch.

ἦ γάρ οἱ ζωή γ᾽ ἦν ἄσπετος· οὔ τινι τόσση
ἀνδρῶν ἡρώων, οὔτ᾽ ἠπείροιο μελαίνης
οὔτ᾽ αὐτῆς Ἰθάκης· οὐδὲ ξυνεείκοσι φωτῶν
ἔστ᾽ ἄφενος τοσσοῦτον· ἐγὼ δέ κέ τοι καταλέξω.
δώδεκ᾽ ἐν ἠπείρῳ ἀγέλαι· τόσα πώεα οἰῶν,        100
τόσσα συῶν συβόσια, τόσ᾽ αἰπόλια πλατέ᾽ αἰγῶν
βόσκουσι ξεῖνοί τε καὶ αὐτοῦ βώτορες ἄνδρες.
ἐνθάδε δ᾽ αἰπόλια πλατέ᾽ αἰγῶν ἕνδεκα πάντα
ἐσχατιῇ βόσκοντ᾽, ἐπὶ δ᾽ ἀνέρες ἐσθλοὶ ὄρονται.        105

Related post: Wealth in Cattle.

Hesiod, Works and Days 238-247 (tr. M.L. West):

But for those who occupy themselves with violence and wickedness and brutal deeds,
Kronos' son, wide-seeing Zeus, marks out retribution.
Often a whole community together suffers in consequence of a bad man
who does wrong and contrives evil.
From heaven Kronos' son brings disaster upon them,
famine and with it plague, and the people waste away.
The womenfolk do not give birth, and households decline,
by Olympian Zeus' design. At other times again
he either destroys those men's broad army or city wall,
or punishes their ships at sea.

οἷς δ᾽ ὕβρις τε μέμηλε κακὴ καὶ σχέτλια ἔργα,
τοῖς δὲ δίκην Κρονίδης τεκμαίρεται εὐρύοπα Ζεύς.
πολλάκι καὶ ξύμπασα πόλις κακοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἀπηύρα,        240
ὅστις ἀλιτραίνει καὶ ἀτάσθαλα μηχανάαται.
τοῖσιν δ᾽ οὐρανόθεν μέγ᾽ ἐπήγαγε πῆμα Κρονίων,
λιμὸν ὁμοῦ καὶ λοιμόν· ἀποφθινύθουσι δὲ λαοί·
οὐδὲ γυναῖκες τίκτουσιν, μινύθουσι δὲ οἶκοι
Ζηνὸς φραδμοσύνῃσιν Ὀλυμπίου· ἄλλοτε δ᾽ αὖτε        245
ἢ τῶν γε στρατὸν εὐρὺν ἀπώλεσεν ἢ ὅ γε τεῖχος
ἢ νέας ἐν πόντῳ Κρονίδης ἀποτείνυται αὐτῶν.

Sophocles, Oedipus the King 1065 (Oedipus to Jocasta; tr. Hugh Lloyd-Jones):

You will never persuade me not to find out the truth!

οὐκ ἂν πιθοίμην μὴ οὐ τάδ᾽ ἐκμαθεῖν σαφῶς.

Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar, rev. Gordon M. Messing (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, ©1984), p. 624, § 2745:

Any infinitive that would take μή, takes μὴ οὐ (with a negative force), if dependent on a negatived verb. Here οὐ is the sympathetic negative and is untranslatable.

οὐκ ἂν πιθοίμην μὴ οὐ τάδ᾽ ἐκμαθεῖν σαφῶς I cannot consent not to learn this exactly as it is S. O.T. 1065.

See also William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1890), p. 326 (§ 815, 2).

Homer, Odyssey 13.362 (Athena to Odysseus; tr. A.T. Murray):

Be of good cheer, and let not these things distress thy heart.

θάρσει, μή τοι ταῦτα μετὰ φρεσὶ σῇσι μελόντων.

Also at Odyssey 24.357 (Odysseus to Laertes) and Iliad 18.463 (Hephaestus to Thetis). Cf. also Iliad 19.29 (Thetis to Achilles):

τέκνον, μή τοι ταῦτα μετὰ φρεσὶ σῇσι μελόντων.