Sunday, April 14, 2024

 

Friends or Kinsmen?

Euripides, Orestes 804-806 (tr. David Kovacs):
This proves it: get comrades, not just blood kin!
An outsider whose character fuses with yours
is a better friend to have than countless blood relations!

τοῦτ᾽ ἐκεῖνο, κτᾶσθ᾽ ἑταίρους, μὴ τὸ συγγενὲς μόνον·
ὡς ἀνὴρ ὅστις τρόποισι συντακῇ, θυραῖος ὢν,        805
μυρίων κρείσσων ὁμαίμων ἀνδρὶ κεκτῆσθαι φίλος.
Proverbs 18:24 (KJV):
There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Cf. Hesiod, Works and Days 707 (tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White):
Do not make a friend equal to a brother.

μὴ δὲ κασιγνήτῳ ἶσον ποιεῖσθαι ἑταῖρον.
Related post: Family Values.



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