Monday, April 08, 2019
Life and Death
Demosthenes, On the Crown 97 (tr. Harvey Yunis):
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Indeed, since all men find the limit of life in death—even one who has shut himself in a closet and watches—good men must always venture all noble acts with good hope as their shield and worthily endure whatever god gives them.William Watson Goodwin ad loc.:
πέρας μὲν γὰρ ἅπασιν ἀνθρώποις ἐστὶ τοῦ βίου θάνατος, κἂν ἐν οἰκίσκῳ τις αὑτὸν καθείρξας τηρῇ· δεῖ δὲ τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς ἄνδρας ἐγχειρεῖν μὲν ἅπασιν ἀεὶ τοῖς καλοῖς, τὴν ἀγαθὴν προβαλλομένους ἐλπίδα, φέρειν δ᾿ ὅ τι ἂν ὁ θεὸς διδῷ γενναίως.
The meaning is not the flat truism, "death is the end of all men's lives," but all men's lives have a fixed limit in death, and this is made a ground for devoting our lives to noble ends, for which it is worthy to die.
