Friday, August 16, 2019
What Is Man?
Stobaeus, Florilegium 4.34.60, in Ioannis Stobaei Anthologium, Vol. V: Anthologii Libri Quarti Partem Alteram, ed. Otto Hense (Berlin: Weidmann, 1912), p. 843 (attributed to Aristotle; my translation):
For τύχης παίγνιον cf. Secundus, Sententiae 7, in Friedrich Wilhelm August Mullach, ed., Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1860), p. 513 (with Mullach's Latin translation):
Newer› ‹Older
For what is man? Specimen of feebleness, time's spoils, fortune's toy, image of change, poised between envy and disaster, and, for the rest, phlegm and bile.I translate "phlegm and bile" (two of the humors), rather than as (e.g.) "fire and anger."
τί γάρ ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος; ἀσθενείας ὑπόδειγμα, καιροῦ λάφυρον, τύχης παίγνιον, μεταπτώσεως εἰκὼν, φθόνου καὶ συμφορᾶς πλάστιγξ, τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν φλέγμα καὶ χολή.
For τύχης παίγνιον cf. Secundus, Sententiae 7, in Friedrich Wilhelm August Mullach, ed., Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1860), p. 513 (with Mullach's Latin translation):
Τί ἐστιν Ἄνθρωπος; Νοῦς σεσαρκωμένος, πνευματικὸν ἀγγεῖον, αἰσθητικὸν οἴκημα, οἰκητήριον ὀλιγοχρόνιον, ἐπίπονος ψυχή, τύχης παίγνιον, φάντασμα χρόνου, ὠστεωμένον ὄργανον, κατάσκοπος βίου, φωτὸς ἀποστάτης, γής ἀπαίτημα.
Quid est Homo? Mens indula carne, vas spiritale, sensile domicilium, breve habitaculum, anima laboris patiens, fortunae ludibrium, vana temporis imago, instrumentum osseum, vitae explorator, lucis desertor, terrae postulatum.
