Laudator Temporis Acti

Archilochus, fragment [50] Diehl (tr. William Harris):

An idle life is suitable for the aged,
especially if they be simple in their ways,
or babble foolishly or are completely stupid,
as old men are likely to be.

βίος δ᾽ ἀπράγμων τοῖς γέρουσι συμφέρει,
μάλιστα δ᾽ εἰ τύχοιεν ἁπλοῖ τοῖς τρόποις
ἢ μακκοᾶν μέλλοιεν ἢ ληρεῖν ὅλως,
ὅπερ γερόντων ἐστίν.

Idle here is ἀπράγμων, as opposed to πολυπράγμων. The corresponding abstract nouns are ἀπραγμοσύνη and πολυπραγμοσύνη. But K.J. Dover, Greek Popular Morality (1974; rpt. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994), p. 188, favors φιλοπράγμων (φιλοπραγμοσύνη) as the antonym of ἀπράγμων (ἀπραγμοσύνη). In a note on the same page Dover cites W. Nestle, "Ἀπραγμοσύνη," Philologus 81 (1926) 129-140, and K. Dienelt, "Ἀπραγμοσύνη," Wiener Studien 66 (1953) 94-104, which I haven't looked at yet. Add to Dover's citations Koen Vanhaegendoren, Semantische Studie van het Woordveld ἀπραγμοσύνη - πολυπραγμοσύνη van de Aanvang van de Griekse Letterkunde tot en met Thucydides (Leuven: Garant, 1999).

---

Thanks to Dave Lull for the following references to books and a web site extolling the virtue of idleness:

• Tom Hodgkinson, How to be Idle: A Loafer's Manifesto (2005; rpt. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007)
  
• Tom Lutz, Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers and Bums in America (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006)
  
• The Idler

While I was loafing, lounging, and doing nothing at a secondhand bookstore last Friday night, as befits an idle old man, a slacker, and a bum, I also noticed Wendy Wasserstein, Sloth (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), in the Seven Deadly Sins series.

---

Related posts:

• Idleness
  
• More on Idleness
  
• Futile Work