Monday, June 26, 2023
Abuse of the Dead
Moschion, fragment 3 (from his Men of Pherae; tr. M.J. Cropp):
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It's futile to abuse the shade of a dead man.Cf. Euripides, fragment 176 (from Antigone; tr. Christopher Collard and M.J. Cropp):
It's proper to punish the living, not the dead.
κενὸν θανόντος ἀνδρὸς αἰκίζειν σκιάν·
ζῶντας κολάζειν, οὐ θανόντας εὐσεβές.
κενὸν Nauck: καινὸν codd.
Death is the end of their quarrels for men; and this is easy for everyone to understand. For who will inflict pain on a lofty crag by wounding it with a spear, and who on a corpse by dishonouring it, if these felt nothing of what they underwent?Related posts:
θάνατος γὰρ ἀνθρώποισι νεικέων τέλος
ἔχει· μαθεῖν δὲ πᾶσίν ἐστιν εὐμαρές.
τίς γὰρ πετραῖον σκόπελον οὐτάζων δορὶ
ὀδύναισι δώσει, τίς δ' ἀτιμάζων νέκυν,
εἰ μηδὲν αἰσθάνοιντο τῶν παθημάτων;
