Friday, June 08, 2007
Mihi et Musis
Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Preface (Democritus to the Reader):
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Yet thus much I will say of myself, and that I hope without all suspicion of pride, or self-conceit, I have lived a silent, sedentary, solitary, private life, mihi et musis [for myself and the Muses] in the University, as long almost as Xenocrates in Athens, ad senectam fere [nearly to old age] to learn wisdom as he did, penned up most part in my study.Julian the Apostate, Misopogon (Beard-Hater) 338 A (tr. Wilmer Cave Wright):
For I think it is always the case that inferior musicians, though they annoy their audiences, give very great pleasure to themselves. And with this in mind I often say to myself, like Ismenias--for though my talents are not equal to his, I have as I persuade myself a similar independence of soul--"I sing for the Muses and myself" [ταῖς μούσαις ᾄδω καὶ ἐμαυτῷ].
