Saturday, December 23, 2023
Indifference to Public Opinion
Mimnermus, fragment 7, tr. C.M. Bowra, with his note, in Early Greek Elegists (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1938), p. 33:
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Make glad your own heart. Of your pitiless townsmen
One will speak with ill words, one with good.
σὴν αὐτοῦ φρένα τέρπε· δυσηλεγέων δὲ πολιτέων
ἄλλος τίς σε κακῶς, ἄλλος ἄμεινον ἐρεῖ.
We may contrast this independence with Pindar's horror of slander or with Solon's prayer to have a good report.
