Tuesday, September 08, 2020
Forgiveness
C.M. Bowra, The Greek Experience (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, ©1957), pp. 30-31, with note on p. 203:
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The Greeks never thought it possible or desirable to love their enemies, and forgiveness is a rare word in their vocabulary except for trivial or involuntary offences. More often they found a positive pleasure in hating their enemies and enjoyed the prospect of revenge. They would see nothing wrong in a couplet attributed to Theognis: 'Think of my hatred and my violence, and know in your heart that for your offence I shall avenge myself as I can.'31Theognis 1247-1248:
31. 1247-8.
φρόντισον ἔχθος ἐμὸν καὶ ὑπέρβασιν, ἴσθι δὲ θυμῷS.C. Woodhouse, English-Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language (1910; rpt. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1950), p. 338, col. 1:
ὥς σ᾿ ἐφ᾿ ἁμαρτωλῇ τείσομαι ὡς δύναμαι.
