Wednesday, May 08, 2024
No Choice
Aeschylus, Persians 293-294 (tr. Alan H. Sommerstein):
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Still, we mortals have no choice but to endure the sorrowsA.F. Garvie ad loc.:
the gods send us.
ὅμως δ᾽ ἀνάγκη πημονὰς βροτοῖς φέρειν
θεῶν διδόντων.
[S]ufferings must be endured when, or because, the gods bestow them on mortals. For this common form of consolation see Garvie on Hom. Od. 6.187–90 . . . καί που σοὶ τάδ᾽ ἔδωκε [Zeus], σὲ δὲ χρὴ τετλάμεν ἔμπης, Richardson on Hom. Hy. Dem. 147f. = 216-17; cf. also Od. 3.208-9, Archil. 13.5-10, Theogn. 445-6, 591-2 τολμᾶν χρή, τὰ διδοῦσι θεοὶ θνητοῖσι βροτοῖσιν, | ῥηϊδίως δὲ φέρειν ἀμφοτέρων τὸ λάχος, Sept. 719, PV 103-5, S. Ph. 1316-17 ἀνθρώποισι τὰς μὲν ἐκ θεῶν | τύχας δοθείσας ἔστ᾽ ἀναγκαῖον φέρειν, frr. 585, 680, E. Alc. 416 ἀνάγκη τάσδε συμφορὰς φέρειν, Med. 1018, Hipp. 1433-4, HF 1228, Phoen. 382, AR 1.298-300, QS 7.54-5. Rarely is any attempt made to explain why the gods bestow misfortunes, apparently on the good and the wicked alike. The distribution of suffering and prosperity is seen, rather, as arbitrary, or at least unpredictable.