Monday, March 28, 2022
The Dead and the Living
Archilochus, fragment 133 West (tr. Laura Swift):
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No one is respected or famous among the citizens once he is dead. Rather we living chase after the living, and the dead always get the worst.The same, tr. Richmond Lattimore:
οὔ τις αἰδοῖος μετ᾽ ἀστῶν οὐδὲ περίφημος θανὼν
γίνεται· χάριν δὲ μᾶλλον τοῦ ζοοῦ διώκομεν
οἱ ζοοί, κάκιστα δ᾽ αἰεὶ τῷ θανόντι γίνεται.
No man is respected, no man spoken of, when he is dead
by his townsmen. All of us, when still alive, will cultivate
the live man, and thus the dead will always have the worst of it.
