Laudator Temporis Acti

When a man drinks it, it immediately makes him more cheerful than he was before; the more he takes, the more it fills him with boundless optimism: he thinks he can do anything. Finally, bursting with self-esteem and imposing no restraint on his speech and actions, the fellow loses all his inhibitions and becomes completely fearless: he'll say and do anything, without a qualm.

πιόντα τὸν ἄνθρωπον αὐτὸν αὑτοῦ ποιεῖ πρῶτον ἵλεων εὐθὺς μᾶλλον ἢ πρότερον, καὶ ὁπόσῳ ἂν πλέον αὐτοῦ γεύηται, τοσούτῳ πλειόνων ἐλπίδων ἀγαθῶν πληροῦσθαι καὶ δυνάμεως εἰς δόξαν; καὶ τελευτῶν δὴ πάσης ὁ τοιοῦτος παρρησίας ὡς σοφὸς ὢν μεστοῦται καὶ ἐλευθερίας, πάσης δὲ ἀφοβίας, ὥστε εἰπεῖν τε ἀόκνως ὁτιοῦν, ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ πρᾶξαι;

• Some Effects of Wine
• Praise of Dionysus
• Wine
• The Power of Wine
• Effects of Wine

In order to have original, extraordinary, perhaps even immortal thoughts it suffices to alienate oneself so thoroughly from the world and things for a few moments that the most ordinary objects and events appear to one as entirely new and unfamiliar, thereby revealing their true nature.

Um originelle, außerordentliche, vielleicht gar unsterbliche Gedanken zu haben, ist es hinreichend, sich der Welt und den Dingen auf einige Augenblicke so gänzlich zu entfremden, daß Einem die allergewöhnlichsten Gegenstände und Vorgänge als völlig neu und unbekannt erscheinen, als wodurch eben ihr wahres Wesen sich ausschließt.

For Time changes the nature of the whole world, and one phase
Must be succeeded by the next; there is no thing that stays
The same. Everything flows. Nature makes everything alter,
For as one thing grows feeble with old age and starts to falter,
Another strengthens, emerging from obscurity.

mutat enim mundi naturam totius aetas
ex alioque alius status excipere omnia debet
nec manet ulla sui similis res: omnia migrant,        830
omnia commutat natura et vertere cogit.
namque aliud putrescit et aevo debile languet,
porro aliud succrescit et e contemptibus exit.

Not that God, the Lord and Creator of the universe, takes any delight in the rumbling of our intestines or the emptiness of our stomach or the inflammation of our lungs...

non quo deus, universitatis creator et dominus, intestinorum nostrorum rugitu et inanitate ventris pulmonumque delectetur ardore....

Everything a man does in the service of the state is contrary to his nature...

Alles, was ein Mensch im Dienste des Staates thut, geht wider seine Natur...

I hope succeeding generations will be able to be idle. I hope that nine tenths of their time will be leisure time; that they may enjoy their days, and the earth, and the beauty of this beautiful world; that they may rest by the sea and dream; that they may dance and sing and eat and drink.

• The Case for Inactivity
• Heatherlegh's Prescription
• Song of the Slackers
• A Fool
• Laziness as a Good Quality
• On Laziness
• To Loaf
• Kayf
• Slackers
• Planet of the Apes
• Ode to Indolence
• The More Idle, the More Deserving
• Work and Leisure
• Praise of Laziness
• Lazy Man's Song
• Exquisite Pregnant Idleness
• How Can I Work?
• Dolce Far Niente
• Weekdays of Unfreedom
• The Dreary Vacuum of Idleness
• Idleness and Business
• Archilochus on the Idle Life
• Idleness
• Futile Work
• Otium Cum Dignitate

A human baby's like a sailor washed up on a beach
By the battering of the surf, naked, lacking the power of speech,
Possessing no means of survival, when first Nature pours
Him forth with birth-pangs from his mother's womb upon Light's shores.
He fills the room up with his sorrowful squalls, and rightly so!
Just think what lies in store for him, Life's full supply of woe.

tum porro puer, ut saevis proiectus ab undis
navita, nudus humi iacet infans indigus omni
vitali auxilio, cum primum in luminis oras
nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit,        225
vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut aequumst
cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum.

227 restet transire Lact. opif. 3.2 : re et transirest (transire est Q) Ω

Stupidity carried beyond a certain point becomes a public menace.

I will do as you wish, as well as I can, and shall at once begin my discussion, following the rule which, I think, ought always to be observed in the exposition of a subject if one wishes to avoid confusion; that is, that if the name of a subject is agreed upon, the meaning of this name should first be explained. Not until this meaning is agreed upon should the actual discussion be begun; for the qualities of the thing to be discussed can never be understood unless one understands first exactly what the thing itself is.

faciam, quod vultis, ut potero, et iam ingrediar in disputationem ea lege, qua credo omnibus in rebus disserendis utendum esse, si errorem velis tollere, ut eius rei, de qua quaeretur, si nomen quod sit conveniat, explicetur, quid declaretur eo nomine; quod si convenerit, tum demum decebit ingredi in sermonem; numquam enim, quale sit illud, de quo disputabitur, intellegi poterit, nisi, quid sit, fuerit intellectum prius.

"I don't hold with politics," the Superintendent confided to Smiley inconsequentially, staring downward still. "I don't hold with politics and I don't hold with politicians either. Licensed lunatics most of them, in my view."

All this is recounted as though it had happened already, though in fact that psalm refers to future events, foreseen long before. But why need we labor this point? What does all our diligent research achieve? What does our careful inquiry reveal? When are we so confident in the result of our study that we can say with certainty, "This is how it is"? We observe that the prophets often use verbs in the past tense to predict the future; but it is not easy to find an example of the future tense being used to indicate past happenings. I do not presume to say that there is no such example; I would merely suggest to students of those writings a suitable object for their research. If they find an instance of it and report it to us, we busy older people will applaud the studies of younger scholars who have more time, and we too will learn something from their industry. We shall not think this beneath our dignity, for Christ uses all means to teach us.

Omnia quasi iam facta commemorantur, quae utique adhuc ventura cernebantur. Sed quantum potest nostra diligentia? Quantum autem potest tanta occupatio? Aut quando sic vacat, ut possimus pro certo dicere: 'Ita est'? Animadvertimus saepe prophetas praeterito tempore verborum dicere quae futura sunt; figura autem futuri dicere praeterita non facile occurrit legenti. Non audeo dicere: 'Non est', sed certe studiosis earum litterarum indixerim quid quaerant. Si invenerint et ad nos attulerint, gratulabimur adolescentium studiis otiosorum occupati senes, et ex eorum ministerio et nos aliquid discimus. Non enim dedignamur, quando Christus de omnibus docet.

A university is the organ of the intellectual life of the nation; it is the school of learning, the nursery of the liberal arts, the academy of the sciences, the home of letters, the retreat of the studious and the contemplative.

Your “What is a University” post reminds me that David Lance Goines (Berkeley poster artist and graphic designer) used to say:

“It’s not a university if it doesn’t have a classics department.”

He said this when he was designing a poster for one year’s Sather Lectures. 2013, François Lissarrague’s Panta Kala: Heroic Warriors and the Aesthetics of Weaponry in Greek Art.

Nothing is more hostile to a city than a despot; where he is, there are first no laws common to all, but one man is tyrant, in whose keeping and in his alone the law resides, and in that case equality is at an end.

οὐδὲν τυράννου δυσμενέστερον πόλει,
ὅπου τὸ μὲν πρώτιστον οὐκ εἰσὶν νόμοι        430
κοινοί, κρατεῖ δ᾽ εἷς τὸν νόμον κεκτημένος
αὐτὸς παρ᾽ αὑτῷ· καὶ τόδ᾽ οὐκέτ᾽ ἔστ᾽ ἴσον.

Change, we shall find, except in some thing evil, is extremely dangerous...

μεταβολὴν γὰρ δὴ πάντων πλὴν κακῶν πολὺ σφαλερώτατον εὑρήσομεν...

It does not appear that Joseph had learned the rudiments of Greek at the time of his father's death, 21st October, 1558. He certainly had not learned more than the rudiments. He had seen enough, however, to understand that 'not to know Greek was to know nothing.' The death of his father affected him so deeply as for some time to disorder his health. As soon as he had recovered from the blow, he determined to make good this deficiency.

Adrian Turnebus was at that time the most renowned Greek scholar in France and in Europe. For a youth of eighteen, who had yet to begin his grammar, less than the first Grecian of the day might have served. But this is a truth which only experiment can teach us. Joseph made his way to Paris, and enrolled himself in Turnebus's class, that he might imbibe Greek at the fountain-head. A trial of two months opened his eyes, and he understood that to begin one must begin at the beginning; a lesson, in learning which two months were well spent. He adopted the resolution—be it remembered he is nineteen—to shut himself up in his chamber, and become his own teacher. It is not said, but we may be certain that it was instinct, not accident, which guided him to Homer. With the aid of a Latin translation he went through it in one-and-twenty days. From Homer he passed in order down the series of the Greek poets; and four months sufficed to devour the whole. The same instinct, and the same spirit of determination, guided him here in not interrupting his poetic reading by any deviation into prose; the differences of idiom being, he may have felt, distinct dialects, incapable of being mastered at one effort. As he went along, he formed a grammar for himself by his own observation of the analogies, the only grammar he ever learnt. Huet, alluding to the Scaliger feat, thinks it incredible, but on no better ground than that he himself had made an unsuccessful attempt to repeat the experiment. Gibbon, more modestly, declares that he was well satisfied with himself when he got through the same task in as many weeks as Scaliger took days. We might quote against these authorities Wyttenbach despatching Athenaeus in fourteen days; or Milton's assertion that he had read 'all the Greek and Latin classics' in five years, if it were not that parallel is misplaced in speaking of Scaliger and Greek. There are things which a man cannot teach himself. And this he had now to experience, when, elated by his victory over Greek, he attempted to carry Hebrew by storm in the same manner. He did ultimately acquire both Hebrew and Arabic. But Dr. Bernays, who has the best title to judge in the case of the first-named tongue, pronounces that he never reached, in Hebrew, that practical hold upon the idiom—the usus linguae which was the foundation of his critical skill in Latin and Greek. This is sufficient to correct the idle romance of those biographers who, in their ignorance, make Scaliger's mythical eminence to consist in his knowing many languages. He spoke thirteen languages, says one of the most recent of these open-mouthed wonderers,¹ as if Scaliger was a Wotton or a Mezzofanti.

¹ Poirson, Histoire du Règne de Henri IV, vol. IV, p. 230.

[There is] also a proverb: "In a city of blind men, a blear-eyed man rules as a king."

καὶ παροιμία "ἐν τυφλῶν πόλει γλαμυρὸς βασιλεύει".

Among blind men, the one-eyed man [is] king.

Monoculus inter cecos rex.

Cecorum in patria luscus rex imperat omnis.

In terra ceci regnat vir luscus egeni.

Inter pigmeos regnat nanus, strabo luscos,
Loripes extalos, monotalmus rex quoque cecos.

If you think this is not a fair picture of our life, see if you can find any pleasure in which there are no thorns. Choose what you want to be—a miser, a libertine, to mention only two. Or add a third possibility—an ambitious place-seeker. What a crop of thorns springs up in the quest for honors! How many thorns there are in the indulgence of lust, how many thorns in burning avarice! How much harassment do base loves bring with them? How much vexation do they create in this life? I am not even speaking of hell. Be careful not to become a hell for yourself.

Aut si est aliud vita nostra, si potes, convertere ad aliquam voluptatem, ubi spinas non sentias. Elige quod volueris, avarus, luxuriosus, ut duo ista sola dicamus; adde et tertium, ambitiosus. In honorum cupiditate quantae spinae! In ardore avaritiae quantae spinae! In luxuria libidinum quantae spinae! Amores turpes quantas molestias habent! Quantas sollicitudines hic in ista vita! Omitto gehennas. Vide ne iam ipse tibi gehenna sis!

And yet each man among us knows which of the two to prefer, the good or ill, and how much better peace is for mankind than war, peace, the Muses' dearest friend, the foe of Sorrow, whose joy is in glad throngs of children, and its delight in prosperity. These are the blessings we cast away and wickedly embark on war, man enslaving his weaker brother, and cities following suit.

καίτοι δυοῖν γε πάντες ἄνθρωποι λόγοιν
τὸν κρείσσον᾽ ἴσμεν, καὶ τὰ χρηστὰ καὶ κακά,
ὅσῳ τε πολέμου κρεῖσσον εἰρήνη βροτοῖς·
ἣ πρῶτα μὲν Μούσαισι προσφιλεστάτη,
Ποιναῖσι δ᾽ ἐχθρά, τέρπεται δ᾽ εὐπαιδίᾳ,        490
χαίρει δὲ πλούτῳ. ταῦτ᾽ ἀφέντες οἱ κακοὶ
πολέμους ἀναιρούμεσθα καὶ τὸν ἥσσονα
δουλούμεθ᾽, ἄνδρες ἄνδρα καὶ πόλις πόλιν.

And who in this life is not sick? Is there anyone who does not have to drag his way through a long illness? Even to be born here, in a mortal body, is the onset of our maladies. Our needy condition is supported by daily doses of medicine, for the means we use to relieve our wants are like remedies applied every day. Would hunger not kill you if you did not treat it with the appropriate medicine? Would thirst not destroy you if you neglected to drink? Yet your drinking only keeps thirst at bay; it does not quench it entirely, for after that temporary relief thirst will return. With remedies like these we alleviate the distress of our sickness. You were wearied with standing; you are rested by sitting down. Sitting is a remedy for your fatigue, but the remedy itself tires you, for you cannot continue to sit for very long. Wherever our fatigue is relieved, another form of fatigue makes its entrance.

Quis enim non aegrotat in hac vita? Quis non languorem longum trahit? Nasci hic in corpore mortali incipere aegrotare est. Quotidianis medicamentis fulciuntur indigentiae nostrae, quotidiana medicamenta sunt refectiones omnium indigentiarum. Fames nonne te occideret, nisi medicamentum eius apponeres? Sitis non te perimeret, nisi eam tu bibendo, non penitus exstingueres, sed differres? Reditura est enim sitis paululum temperata. Temperamus ergo istis fomentis aerumnam aegritudinis nostrae. Stando lassatus eras, sedendo reficeris; ipsum sedere medicina est lassitudinis; in ipsa medicina rursus lassaris: diu sedere non poteris. Quidquid est, ubi fatigato succurritur, alia fatigatio inchoatur.

He was interred in the common cemetery near the Hôtel Dieu. A detachment of the burgher guard was obliged to turn out to protect the interment from the violence of the Catholic mob of Lyons, barbarized by the efforts of the religious confraternities. He was pursued beyond the grave by the especial hatred of the Catholic world. Of this a remarkable example has been perpetuated. It is not uncommon to find copies of the Thesaurus in our libraries, in which the name 'Henricus Stephanus' has been carefully obliterated from the title-page and preface. A copy of the Pindar has been found in Spain, in the cover of which are written these words: 'H. Stephanus, autor damnatus, opus tamen hoc permissum.' And M. Renouard had a copy of the De Latinitate, etc., in which the author's name was erased wherever it occurred. In a copy of the Thesaurus in our possession, not only is the author's name pasted over, but where the name of Queen Elizabeth occurs in the dedication, it has been altered with a pen into 'Belsabeth.'

The number of new books devoted to Nietzsche is dizzying. What to do about it? Keep reading Nietzsche himself, I suspect.

The life of the printer, a life practical, industrious, real, if ever life was, has however collected its legend in passing down the current of biography. Nay, as in the case of other saints, the legend is more widely known than the facts. Such is the fiction, that he hung out his proofs at his street-door, offering a reward to any passer-by who could detect an error of the press. This apocryphal anecdote has even found its way into history. It may be found in other Histories of France besides that of Michelet¹, who is but too careless as to his authorities.

¹ VII.208.

I have corrected every error that alert readers detected in the second edition (as well as some mistakes that, alas, nobody noticed); and I have tried to avoid introducing new errors in the new material. However, I suppose some defects still remain, and I want to fix them as soon as possible. Therefore I will cheerfully pay $2.56 to the first finder of each technical, typographical, or historical error.

We have tried to produce a perfect book, but we are imperfect authors. Therefore we solicit help in correcting any mistakes that we've made. A reward of $2.56 will gratefully be paid to the first finder of any error, whether it is mathematical, historical, or typographical.

People who work in the fields are especially given to joyful shouting. Harvesters and grape-gatherers and other fruit-pickers are greatly cheered by a plentiful crop and rejoice over the fecundity and bounty of the earth. In their exultation they sing, and between the words of their songs they interject happy, wordless sounds that express the elation they feel. This is called jubilation, shouting for joy.

maxime iubilant qui aliquid in agris operantur; copia fructuum iucundati uel messores, uel uindemiatores, uel aliquos fructus metentes, et in ipsa fecunditate terrae et feracitate gaudentes, exsultando cantant et inter cantica quae uerbis enuntiant, inserunt uoces quasdam sine uerbis in elatione exsultantis animi, et haec uocatur iubilatio.

Addressing his own son Paul in 1585, Henri [Estienne] says:

    And as I am on the topic of speaking Latin, I will add another notable reminiscence of my father's family, by the which thou mayst understand the facilities I enjoyed as a boy for acquiring that tongue. There was a time when thy grandfather Robert entertained in his own household ten men employed by him as correctors on his press, or in other parts of his business. These ten persons were all of them men of education; some of them of considerable learning; as they were of different nations, so they were of different languages. This necessitated them to employ Latin as the common medium of communication, not at table only, but about the house, so that the very maidservants came to understand what was said, and even to speak it a little. As for your grandmother [Perrette,] except one made use of some very unusual word, she understood what was said in Latin with the same ease as if it had been French. As to myself and my brother Robert, we were allowed at home to use no other language whenever we had to address my father, or one of his ten journeymen.—
Dedication to Aulus Gellius, 1585.

• A Utopian Dream
• Motivation to Learn Latin

At every copying there is the possibility of human error. I say "the possibility", but it is nearer to certainty. Copying is usually a boring task; boredom breeds inattention; inattention breeds mistakes. Therefore the manuscripts of classical authors contain mistakes. The detection and correction of mistakes in texts is the function of textual criticism. Therefore textual criticism is necessary, Q.E.D.

The first of these inquiries involves what I have called the science of blunders — the name sphalmatology, jokingly invented by the late J.B.S. Haldane, has not achieved circulation, but the study deserves to be an -ology in its own right, and to endow a readership in it would be less waste of money than many things which I have seen done in the academic world

For what greater or better service can I render to the commonwealth than to instruct and train the youth—especially in view of the fact that our young men have gone so far astray because of the present moral laxity that the utmost effort will be needed to hold them in check and direct them in the right way? Of course, I have no assurance—it could not even be expected—that they will all turn to these studies. Would that a few may! Though few, their activity may yet have a wide influence in the state.

quod enim munus rei publicae afferre maius meliusve possumus, quam si docemus atque erudimus iuventutem, his praesertim moribus atque temporibus, quibus ita prolapsa est, ut omnium opibus refrenanda atque coërcenda sit? nec vero id effici posse confido, quod ne postulandum quidem est, ut omnes adulescentes se ad haec studia convertant. pauci utinam! quorum tamen in re publica late patere poterit industria.

If men were to persist in teaching nothing but the literature of the dead languages in a community where every one is habitually led to make vehement exertions to augment or to maintain his fortune, the result would be a very polished, but a very dangerous, set of citizens. For as their social and political condition would give them every day a sense of wants, which their education would never teach them to supply, they would perturb the state, in the name of the Greeks and Romans, instead of enriching it by their productive industry.

Plucke the fruite and tast the pleasure
    Youthfull Lordings of delight,
Whilst occasion gives you seasure,
    Feede your fancies and your sight:
        After death when you are gone,
        Joy and pleasure is there none.

Here on earth nothing is stable,
    Fortunes chaunges well are knowne,
Whil'st as youth doth then enable,
    Let your seedes of ioy be sowne:
        After death when you are gone,
        Ioy and pleasure is there none.

Feast it freely with your Louers,
    Blyth and wanton sweetes doo fade,
Whilst that lonely Cupid houers
    Round about this louely shade:
        Sport it freelie one to one,
        After death is pleasure none.

Now the pleasant spring allureth,
    And both place and time inuites:
But alas, what heart endureth
    To disclaime his sweete delightes?
        After death when we are gone,
        Joy and pleasure is there none.

Through these gods the Selinuntines are victorious. We are victorious through Zeus and through Phobos (Ares), through Heracles and through Apollo and through Poseidon and through the sons of Tyndareus (Castor and Pollux) and through Athene and through Malophorus (Demeter) and Pasikrateia (Persephone) and through the other gods but especially Zeus. Inscribing then the peace treaty in gold, appending these names, dedicate it in the temple of Apollo, making Zeus' version an inscription. And the gold shall weigh sixty talents.

[Δι]ὰ τὸς θεὸς τό[σ]δε νικοντι τοὶ Σελινον[τίοι. τὸν Δία νικομες καὶ διὰ τὸν Φόβον [καὶ] δ[ιὰ] Ηρακλέα καὶ δι' Ἀπόλλονα καὶ διὰ Π[οτ]ε[ιδά]να καὶ διὰ Τυνδαρίδας καὶ δι' Ἀθ[α]ναίαν καὶ διὰ Μαλοφόρον καὶ διὰ Πασικρά[τ]ειαν καὶ δι[ὰ] τὸς ἄλλος θεός, [δ]ιὰ δ[ὲ] Δία μάλιστ[α]. Φιλί[ας] δὲ γενομένας ἐν χρυσέο[ι] ἐλά[σα]τα[ς, τὰ δ'] ὀνύματα ταῦτα κολάψαντ[ας ἐς] τὸ ̓Α[π]ολ[λ]όνιον καθθέμεν, τὸ Διὸς προ]γρά[ψα]ντες· τὸ δὲ χρυσίον ἐξέκ[οντα τ]αλάντον ἔμεν.

As for that which comes from Zeus, no clear sign attends men, but all the same we embark on ambitious projects and yearn for many accomplishments, for our bodies are enthralled to shameless hope, and the streams of foreknowledge lie far off.

τὸ δ᾿ ἐκ Διὸς ἀνθρώποις σαφὲς οὐχ ἕπεται
τέκμαρ· ἀλλ᾿ ἔμπαν μεγαλανορίαις ἐμβαίνομεν,
ἔργα τε πολλὰ μενοινῶντες· δέδεται γὰρ ἀναιδεῖ        45
ἐλπίδι γυῖα· προμαθείας δ᾿ ἀπόκεινται ῥοαί.

God in his providence hides future events in murky darkness, and laughs if a mere mortal frets about what is beyond his control.

prudens futuri temporis exitum
caliginosa nocte premit deus,        30
ridetque si mortalis ultra
fas trepidat.

It is prophesied into Trophonios' [cave]. The proverb is applied to gloomy and unlaughing people. For those descending into Trophonios are said to spend the entire time unlaughing.

εἰς Τροφωνίου μεμάντευται. ἐπὶ τῶν σκυθρωπῶν καὶ ἀγελάστων ἡ παροιμία τάττεται. οἱ γὰρ καταβαίνοντες εἰς Τροφώνιον λέγονται τὸν ἑξῆς χρόνον ἀγέλαστοι εἶναι.

Afterwards, however, he will recover all his faculties, and the power to laugh will return to him.

ὕστερον μέντοι τά τε ἄλλα οὐδέν τι φρονήσει μεῖον ἢ πρότερον καὶ γέλως ἐπάνεισίν οἱ.

• Killjoy
• Heraclitus the Agelast
• No Tittering
• Against Monastic Laughter
• Now Hear About Laughter
• No More Laughing, No More Fun
• Stop Laughing
• Don't Laugh
• Crassus Agelastus
• Did Adam Laugh Before the Fall?
• Against Laughter
• Agelasts
• Did Christ Ever Laugh?

Therefore do not yoke your tongue to an ill-omened speech, nor let your lips give vent to evil forebodings.

                        μηδ᾽ ἐπιζευχθῇς στόμα
φήμῃ πονηρᾷ μηδ᾽ ἐπιγλωσσῶ κακά.        1045

In this part of the country is seen the tower of Timon, the only man to see that there is no way to be happy except to shun other men.

κατὰ τοῦτο τῆς χώρας φαίνεται πύργος Τίμωνος, ὃς μόνος εἶδε μηδένα τρόπον εὐδαίμονα εἶναι γενέσθαι πλὴν τοὺς ἄλλους φεύγοντα ἀνθρώπους.

The wavering crowd is torn into opposing factions.

scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus.

39 scinditur Cf. Luc. 10.416f. Latium sic scindere corpus / dis placitum, Tac. Hist. 1.13 hi discordes et rebus minoribus sibi quisque tendentes, circa consilium eligendi successoris in duas factiones scindebantur. But cf. already G. 4.419f. quo plurima uento cogitur / inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos; the abstract development was to be expected. Leumann, 14 remarks that PColt1 here (Cavenaile, CPL, p.34) marks not long syllables but those bearing the word-accent.

incertum Honest uncertainty perhaps seen as a first step towards noisy and unprofitable partisanship; not here alone, an expert (and commentary ultimately unsympathetic) view of crowd mentality. Cf. Ehlers, TLL 7.1.883.76f.; tacet EV.

studia in contraria Cf. Eur. Hec. 117ff. (a later occasion), Cic. Cael. 12 (of Catiline) neque ego umquam fuisse tale monstrum in terris ullum puto, tam ex contrariis diuersisque <atque> inter se pugnantibus naturae studiis cupiditatibusque conflatum, Suet. Aug. 81 (Aug. and the doctors) contrariam et ancipitem rationem medendi necessario subiit, Tac. Hist. 4.6 ea ultio, incertum maior an iustior, senatum in studia diduxerat. See TLL 4.770.42f. (Spelthahn), Hellegouarc'h, 176, n.12. Also used of the divided passions of a sporting crowd, 5.148, 228, 450; cf. EV 4, 1045.

uulgus With a little of the disapproval present at 1.148f. cum saepe coorta est / seditio saeuitque animis ignobile uulgus; cf. too 2.99, 119, 798, 11.451 (with n.), 12.223, Pomathios, 152, A. La Penna, EV 4, 911, and in Vergiliana (ed. H. Bardon and R. Verdière, Leiden 1971), 285.

Strangers, you have only to declare your need, for we have everything that suits this house: warm baths, beds to charm away fatigue, and the presence of honest faces.

ξένοι, λέγοιτ᾽ ἂν εἴ τι δεῖ· πάρεστι γὰρ
ὁποῖά περ δόμοισι τοῖσδ᾽ ἐπεικότα,
καὶ θερμὰ λουτρὰ καὶ πόνων θελκτηρία        670
στρωμνή, δικαίων τ᾽ ὀμμάτων παρουσία.

As an Oxford man, he struck me as a prig: he was always throwing his education about.

So true is it, evidently, that a base nature, when given great indulgence, generates public disasters.

οὕτως ὡς ἔοικε πονηρὰ φύσις, μεγάλης ἐξουσίας ἐπιλαβομένη, δημοσίας ἀπεργάζεται συμφοράς.

It's true that bookshops have disappeared from many places. New York, which was a city of bookshops, has endured a genuine extinction, although a few survive as relics of bygone times. This has an impact on a city's intellectual life, on conversations, and changes the way one thinks. In Madrid, Buenos Aires, or Paris, you see people holding books. In New York, people are always holding their iPhone, and I find that disturbing. Not that I think that virtual reading is evil, but it is quite different. The equivalent of that intellectual desert in the world of transport would be Los Angeles, where one never walks, and goes everywhere by car: a city where one never walks is a city of ghosts.

For in the end—to get back to Rabelais—we have to reread the words after taking off our modern eyeglasses, the ones of today; we have to read them with the eyes of another time.

Before I do that, I apologize to my readers lest by syllable or even letter I offend against grammatical usage, a matter in which I am far from being expert.

sed prius veniam legentibus praecor, si aut in litteris aut in sillabis grammaticam artem excessero, de qua adplene non sum inbutus.

Gentlemen, how nice it is to live happily, especially when there are no household expenses. A heap of goods has befallen our house, though we’ve done nothing bad! Yes, getting wealthy this way is mighty nice. Our grain tub’s filled with white barley, our casks with dark fragrant wine, and all our purses are full of gold and silver like you wouldn’t believe. Our well’s full of olive oil, our jars are brimming with perfume, and the attic with figs. Our saucers, dishes, and pots have turned to bronze, and those worn-out fish platters are silvery to behold. Our kitchen’s suddenly turned to ivory. We slaves pitch pennies with gold staters, and in our luxury we no longer use stones to wipe our bottoms, but cloves of garlic every time.

ὡς ἡδὺ πράττειν, ὦνδρές, ἐστ᾿ εὐδαιμόνως,
καὶ ταῦτα μηδὲν ἐξενεγκόντ᾿ οἴκοθεν.
ἡμῖν γὰρ ἀγαθῶν σωρὸς εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν
ἐπεισπέπαικεν οὐδὲν ἠδικηκόσιν.        805
οὕτω τὸ πλουτεῖν ἐστιν ἡδὺ πρᾶγμα δή.        805a
ἡ μὲν σιπύη μεστή ᾿στι λευκῶν ἀλφίτων,
οἱ δ᾿ ἀμφορῆς οἴνου μέλανος ἀνθοσμίου.
ἅπαντα δ᾿ ἡμῖν ἀργυρίου καὶ χρυσίου
τὰ σκευάρια πλήρη ᾿στίν, ὥστε θαυμάσαι.
τὸ φρέαρ δ᾿ ἐλαίου μεστόν· αἱ δὲ λήκυθοι        810
μύρου γέμουσι, τὸ δ᾿ ὑπερῷον ἰσχάδων.
ὀξὶς δὲ πᾶσα καὶ λοπάδιον καὶ χύτρα
χαλκῆ γέγονε· τοὺς δὲ πινακίσκους τοὺς σαπροὺς
τοὺς ἰχθυηροὺς ἀργυροῦς πάρεσθ᾿ ὁρᾶν.
ὁ δ᾿ ἱπνὸς γέγον᾿ ἡμῖν ἐξαπίνης ἐλεφάντινος.        815
στατῆρσι δ᾿ οἱ θεράποντες ἀρτιάζομεν
χρυσοῖς· ἀποψώμεσθα δ᾿ οὐ λίθοις ἔτι,
ἀλλὰ σκοροδίοις ὑπὸ τρυφῆς ἑκάστοτε.

And we the servants, play at odd-or-even
With golden staters; and to cleanse us, use
Not stones, but garlic-leaves, so nice we are.

• Ancient Tersive Materials
  
• Ancient Tersive Materials Again
  
• Sponge on a Stick
  
• Sponges, Moss, and Stones
• Sponge on a Stick
  
• Pebbles, Shards, and Grass Dry and Wet

Of this, at least, I feel assured, that there is no such thing as ultimate forgetting; traces once impressed upon the memory are indestructible; a thousand accidents may and will interpose a veil between our present consciousness and the secret inscriptions on the mind. Accidents of the same sort will also rend away this veil. But alike, whether veiled or unveiled, the inscription remains for ever; just as the stars seem to withdraw before the common light of day, whereas, in fact, we all know that it is the light which is drawn over them as a veil, and that they are waiting to be revealed whenever the obscuring daylight itself shall have withdrawn.

May Bacchus, giver of joy, be near ...

adsit laetitiae Bacchus dator ...

adsis 'alii' ap. Serv.

alii 'adsis' legunt, secundum quos Bacchus aut antiptosis est aut antiquus vocativus, ut (XII 192) socer arma Latinus habeto. bene autem addidit dator laetitiae, quia est et dator furoris.

"I have everywhere found, primarily, thieves and scalliwags arranging the nominations to offices, and sometimes filling the offices themselves. I have found the north just as full of bad stuff as the south. Of the holders of public office in the Nation or the States or their municipalities, I have found that not one in a hundred has been chosen by any spontaneous selection of the outsiders, the people, but all have been nominated and put through by little or large caucuses of the politicians, and have got in by corrupt rings and electioneering, not capacity or desert. I have noticed how the millions of sturdy farmers and mechanics are thus the helpless supple-jacks of comparatively few politicians. And I have noticed, more and more, the alarming spectacle of parties usurping the government, and openly and shamelessly wielding it for party purposes."

All mortals have by nature an insatiable appetite for success; and no one bans it and keeps it away from houses at which fingers are pointed, saying "Don't come in here any more!"

τὸ μὲν εὖ πράσσειν ἀκόρεστον ἔφυ
πᾶσι βροτοῖσιν· δακτυλοδείκτων δ᾽
οὔτις ἀπειπὼν εἴργει μελάθρων,
"μηκέτ᾿ ἐσέλθῃς", τάδε φωνῶν.

Dr. Druring and his wife sat in the library. The scientist was in rare good humor.

"I have just obtained, by exchange with another collector," he said, "a splendid specimen of the ophiophagus."

"And what may that be?" the lady inquired with a somewhat languid interest.

"Why, bless my soul, what profound ignorance! My dear, a man who ascertains after marriage that his wife does not know Greek, is entitled to a divorce. The ophiophagus is a snake which eats other snakes."

Lawrence of Arabia’s portraits have been given trigger warnings for the cultural appropriation of Arab clothing.

The National Portrait Gallery has flagged as “sensitive” artworks depicting the First World War hero in tribal dress.

Portraits of TE Lawrence in his thobe and keffiyeh now come with a warning stating that the images may clash with “today’s attitudes”.

The caution was put in place despite the fact that Lawrence, who fought alongside the Arabs against the Ottoman Empire, was presented with the robes as a gift by the Arab ruler Emir Faisal.

Reading this triggered a reaction:

Acts 2:40: Σώθητε ἀπὸ τῆς γενεᾶς τῆς σκολιᾶς ταύτης.

Save yourselves from this untoward/crooked/perverse/eldritch generation (I threw in ‘eldritch’ for good measure. A bit of copia verborum never killed anyone).

slang (originally U.S.). Trivial, foolish, or empty words; nonsense, blather.

• 2.203-204 payback / will never come (οὐδέ ποτ᾽ ἶσα / ἔσσεται)
• 3.311 rambunctious Menelaus (βοὴν ἀγαθὸς Μενέλαος)
• 4.55-56 a humble / slave girl brought bread and many canapés (σῖτον δ᾽ αἰδοίη ταμίη παρέθηκε φέρουσα, / εἴδατα πόλλ᾽ ἐπιθεῖσα)
• 7.48 Mr. Foreigner (ξεῖνε πάτερ)
• 10.53 bite my lip, be stoical (καλυψάμενος)
• 10.279 the cutest age (χαριεστάτη ἥβη)
• 11.39 teenagers (νύμφαι τ᾽ ἠίθεοί τε)
• 16.375 he is wise to us (αὐτὸς μὲν γὰρ ἐπιστήμων βουλῇ τε νόῳ τε)
• 17.24-25 the morning frost / may do me in (μή με δαμάσσῃ / στίβη ὑπηοίη)
• 17.406 little show-off (ὑψαγόρη)
• 18.29 this greedy pig yaks on (ὁ μολοβρὸς ἐπιτροχάδην ἀγορεύει)
• 18.79 you big show-off (βουγάϊε)
• 18.94 in case / the suitors cottoned on (ἵνα μή μιν ἐπιφρασσαίατ᾽ Ἀχαιοί)
• 18.389 you nasty hobo (ἆ δείλ᾽)
• 22 5 playtime is over (οὗτος μὲν δὴ ἄεθλος ἀάατος ἐκτετέλεσται)
• 22.165 that little sneak (κεῖνος δ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ἀΐδηλος ἀνήρ)
• 22.334-335 of mighty Zeus, the god of home owners (Διὸς μεγάλου ... / ἑρκείου)
• 24.119 a whole damned month (μηνὶ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ οὔλῳ)

That the province of Quebec should be extended to include all the territory which the French had been supposed to lay claim to under the name of Canada, i.e., on the east to Labrador, on the west to the boundaries of Louisiana and the Hudson Bay Company's territory, and on the south to the boundaries of the other provinces and the Ohio; including therefore to the southwest and west the regions which now form the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota.

An Indiana bill, written by a conservative think tank based in Florida, would deny grants and scholarships administered by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to college degree programs that don't provide a sufficient return on investment for graduates, just less than a year after lawmakers forced colleges to eliminate or merge hundreds of degrees.

Senate Bill 161 is based off of a similar provision in President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which blocks federal student loans and other aid from "low earning" degrees.

Under the bill, a degree is determined to be "low earning" if the median wage of a program's cohort falls below the median wage of someone between 24 and 35 with only a high school degree, said Foundation for Government Accountability senior fellow Christian Barnard, who drafted the bill's language.

He that doeth good to the baser sort suffereth two ills — deprivation of goods and no thanks.

δειλοὺς εὖ ἔρδοντι δύω κακά· τῶν τε γὰρ αὐτοῦ
    χηρώσει πολλῶν, καὶ χάρις οὐδεμία.

What if the dead whom still you hate
    Were wrong? Are you so surely right?
    We know the issues of the fight —
The sword is but an advocate.

What most we censure, men as wise
   Have reverently practiced; nor
    Will future wisdom fail to war
On principles we dearly prize.

The wretch, whate'er his life and lot,
   Who does not love the harmless dead
   With all his heart and all his head —
May God forgive him, I shall not.

Few men have it in their nature to honour a friend who is enjoying good fortune, without being jealous of him.

παύροις γὰρ ἀνδρῶν ἐστι συγγενὲς τόδε,
φίλον τὸν εὐτυχοῦντ᾿ ἄνευ φθόνων σέβειν.

Where whining mendeth nothing, wherefore whine?

For various streams bearing
pleasures and pains come at various times upon men.

ῥοαὶ δ᾿ ἄλλοτ᾿ ἄλλαι
εὐθυμιᾶν τε μέτα καὶ πόνων ἐς ἄνδρας ἔβαν.

ῥοαὶ codd.: πνοαὶ Robert Parker

But when some deed has been done, right or wrong,
not even Time the father of all things can undo its outcome.

                             τῶν δὲ πεπραγμένων
ἐν δίκᾳ τε καὶ παρὰ δίκαν ἀποίητον οὐδ᾿ ἄν
Χρόνος ὁ πάντων πατὴρ
δύναιτο θέμεν ἔργων τέλος.

15. τῶν δὲ κτλ.: construe τέλος ἔργων τῶν ἐν δίκᾳ τε καὶ παρὰ δίκαν πεπραγμένων. This is periphrastic for τὰ ἐν δίκᾳ κτλ. πεπραγμένα.

16. ἐν δίκᾳ κτλ.: cf. Terence, Adelphi V 9:33 iusta, iniusta, prorsus omnia. — The emphasis is on παρὰ δίκαν as is shown by v. 18 λάθα δὲ πότμῳ, κτλ.

17. χρόνος: time produces all things (ὁ πάντων πατήρ) yet it can destroy nothing. The Greeks often refer to the immutability of the past. Hom. Ι 249 οὐδέ τι μῆχος | ῥεχθέντος κακοῦ ἔστ ̓ ἄκος ἔσσεται. Simonides fr. 69 τὸ γὰρ γεγενημένον οὐκέτ ̓ ἄρεκτον ἔσται. Agatho fr. 5 μόνου γὰρ αὐτοῦ καὶ θεὸς στερίσκεται, | ἀγένητα ποιεῖν ἅσσ ̓ ἂν ᾖ πεπραγμένα. Time is often personified. See on Ol. I 33; Pyth. I 46. So also in Shakespeare Two Gent. of Verona, III 1 Time is the nurse and breeder of all good. Soph. Εl. 179 χρόνος γὰρ εὐμαρὴς θεός.

• πεπραγμένων ... ἔργων (15 words intervening)
• ἀποίητον ... τέλος (9 words intervening)

METROPOLIS, n. A stronghold of provincialism.

As the greatest cities are most provincial, so the self-complacency of aristocracies is most frankly plebeian.

After Aeschylus it was imagined how Apollo himself had purified Orestes at Delphi with a pig sacrifice. Vase paintings give an idea of the procedure, similar to that used for the purification of the Proitides: the piglet is held over the head of the person to be purified and the blood must flow directly onto the head and hands.⁶⁰

60 Esp. the bell-krater Louvre K. 710, Harrison (1) 228, JHS 89 (1969) Pl.2.1. The purification of the Proitides: krater from Canicattini AK 13 (1970) Pl.30.2. That the purification in Delphi does not rest on local cult practice, but only on Aesch. Eum. 282 f. is emphasized by R.R. Dyer, JHS 89 (1969) 38–56.

The eternal gods invented—
great work of immortal minds—
the worst of all afflictions:
old age, in which desire is unfulfilled
and hope extinguished,
the fonts of pleasure withered,
pain ever greater, and with no more joy.

D'intelletti immortali
Degno trovato, estremo        45
Di tutti i mali, ritrovàr gli eterni
La vecchiezza, ove fosse
Incolume il desio, la speme estinta,
Secche le fonti del piacer, le pene
Maggiori sempre, e non più dato il bene.        50

The eternals Gods designed—
Of immortal intellect
A worthy find—the extremest of all woes,
Old age, that still unchecked
Desire might linger on, when hope had died,
The springs of joy be dried, sorrow not less
But more, and still no hint of happiness.

Among recent Italians to stare the worst of afflictions in the face is Norberto Bobbio, here in a speech he gave on receiving an honorary degree in 1994, when he was 83 (Old Age and Other Essays (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001) p. 8, endnotes omitted):

[O]ur literature has a long rhetorical tradition of treatises exalting the virtues and pleasures of old age, stretching from Cicero's De senectute, written in 44 BC when the author was 62, to Elogio della vecchiaia by Paolo Mantegazza, which appeared at the end of the nineteenth century when he was 64. These works are nothing less than a literary genre that provides both an apologia for old age and a belittlement of death. Cicero discusses the subject in accordance with the classical model of contempt for death. Youth itself is no stranger to death. Besides, what is there to worry about when my soul will survive my body? 'Nature has given us this dwelling-place in which to stop for shelter, not to live in forever. Magnificent will be the day when I will depart for that divine meeting-place and assembly of souls, leaving behind this disorderly throng.' The positivist and Darwinian Mantegazza dispensed with troubled thoughts of death more briskly and prosaically: 'There is simply no need to think about it.' Why torment yourself with thoughts of death? Besides, death is nothing more than a return to nature into which all things come together. It goes without saying that I find this eulogistic genre nauseating.

To do this, let us begin by translating it. It is in French, of course, magnificent French. Let us put it into words that are much less beautiful but more immediately accessible to our minds. An excellent practice, by the way; one should never omit availing oneself of it every time it is a matter of interpreting an old document whose message is hard to grasp.

Lit. 'bewailing the beacons concerning you that were ever neglected', i.e. lamenting that the beacons remained so long unlit. αγπτ ηρουχίας: 'holdings of lamps', probably abstract for concrete...

Labels: typographical and other errors

Scipio. Why are you here so early, Tubero? For these holidays would certainly have provided you with an excellent opportunity for pursuing your literary studies.

Tubero. My books are at home to me at any time, for they are never busy, but it is a very great privilege to find you at leisure, especially at this time of political unrest.

quid tu, inquit [sc. Scipio], tam mane, Tubero? dabant enim hae feriae tibi oportunam sane facultatem ad explicandas tuas litteras.

tum ille: mihi vero omne tempus est ad meos libros vacuum; numquam enim sunt illi occupati; te autem permagnum est nancisci otiosum, hoc praesertim motu rei publicae.

What's more, the Rabelaisian device of enumeration, that incredible numerical precision, comes from Maillard. For Maillard knew the number of drops of divine blood that fell on the ground—precisely 47,000. Maillard knew the number of wounds that covered the body of the Man-God—just about 5,475. Maillard knew that the Lord had taken 1,300 steps along the Via Dolorosa and that 190,000 persons went up to Calvary.⁴¹

41. Abbé Alexandre Samouillan, O. Maillard, $a prédication et son temps (Paris, 1891), pp. 156-157.

One sharp-eyed witness outranks ten keen-eared.
Hearers tell of what they hear, observers really know.

pluris est oculatus testis unus quam auriti decem;
qui audiunt audita dicunt, qui vident plane sciunt.        490

• Believe Your Own Eyes
• Unreliability of Eyewitnesses
• Trust Your Senses
• Believing One's Own Eyes

Good husband and huswife now chiefly be glad,
things handsome to have, as they ought to be had.
They both do provide, against Christmas do coom,
to welcome their neighbor, good chere to have soom.
Good bread and good drinke, a good fier in the hall,
brawne, pudding and souse, and good mustard withall.
Biefe, mutton, and porke, shred pies of the best,
pig, veale, goose and capon, and Turkey well drest:
Chese, apples and nuttes, iolly Caroles to here,
as then, in the countrey is counted good chere.

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building and lyre-players by playing the lyre.

ἃ γὰρ δεῖ μαθόντας ποιεῖν, ταῦτα ποιοῦντες μανθάνομεν, οἷον οἰκοδομοῦντες οἰκοδόμοι γίνονται καὶ κιθαρίζοντες κιθαρισταί.

Hence it seems impossible that a man can be a builder if he has never built, or a harpist if he has never played a harp; because he who learns to play the harp learns by playing it, and similarly in all other cases.

διὸ καὶ δοκεῖ ἀδύνατον εἶναι οἰκοδόμον εἶναι μὴ οἰκοδομήσαντα μηδέν, ἢ κιθαριστὴν μηθὲν κιθαρίσαντα· ὁ γὰρ μανθάνων κιθαρίζειν κιθαρίζων μανθάνει κιθαρίζειν, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι.

The peculiar form of the Greek sacrificial ritual is of very great antiquity and post-Mycenaean at one and the same time, and not without connection to the East: the communal meat meal of men combined with a burnt offering to the gods, primarily of the inedible parts and the bones. For this reason the fire altar which stands open to the sky⁶² is the most essential part of the sanctuary. This is not an exchange of gifts celebrated by a hierarchical society of gods, king, priests, and commoners: together on the same level, men and women stand here about the altar, experience and bring death, honour the immortals, and in eating affirm life in its conditionality: it is the solidarity of mortals in the face of the immortals. This amounts to a negation of the Mycenaean organization: no king stands higher than all others, no priest can appropriate the sacral portions for himself. From the corporate beginning of the equality of men in contrast to the divine, the path could lead on through aristocracy to democracy and humanity. Nourished by numerous currents of tradition, the Greek experience here found its particular path into the future.

62 Sanctuaries for the sacrifice of oxen in the open air are found as early as Myrtou-Pighades and Ayia Irini on Cyprus (see nn. 7 and 21), and Ayia Triada on Crete (n. 17), then on Samos (n. 56) and on Lindos (E. Dyggve, Lindos III, 1960, 457–66); characteristic of these open-air altars are wheel-made terracotta votive bulls, cf. Nicholls, n. 22.

Our sad decay in church and state
    Surpasses my descriving...

The Church is in ruins, the State is in jars...

But Justice shines out
in smoky hovels,
and honours the righteous man:
gold-spangled abodes
where hands are not clean
she quits with eyes
averted, and goes to pious ones,
not revering with praise
the might of wealth if it is counterfeit.
She directs all things to their end.

Δίκα δὲ λάμπει μὲν ἐν
δυσκάπνοις δώμασιν,
τὸν δ᾿ ἐναίσιμον τίει·        775
τὰ χρυσόπαστα δ᾿ ἔδεθλα σὺν
πίνῳ χερῶν παλιντρόποις
ὄμμασι λιποῦσ᾿ ὄσια †προσέβα
τοῦ† δύναμιν οὐ σέβουσα πλού-        780
του παράσημον αἴνῳ·
πᾶν δ᾿ ἐπὶ τέρμα νωμᾷ.

775 τίει H.L. Ahrens: τίει βίον f
776 ἔδεθλα Auratus: ἐσθλὰ f
779-780 προσέβα τοῦ f: προσέβατο Verrall: προσέμολε Thiersch

Labels: typographical and other errors

There was an Old Person of Sestri,
Who sate himself down in the vestry;
When they said, 'You are wrong!' — he merely said 'Bong!'
That repulsive Old Person of Sestri.

But Facts are chiels that winna ding,
    And downa be disputed.

We must talk about these things on the basis of firm knowledge. Guesswork is one thing, firm knowledge is another.

σάφ᾿ εἰδότας χρὴ τῶνδε μυθεῖσθαι πέρι·
τὸ γὰρ τοπάζειν τοῦ σάφ᾿ εἰδέναι δίχα.

They feel the facts; but they wish to disguise them, because they know that they have been one great cause of the country being in its present impoverished and dilapidated state. They know that the people look at them with an accusing eye: and they wish to put as fair a face as they can upon the state of things.

Nor is this the only reference to Baal and excrement in ancient literature. Marvin Pope¹¹ has called attention to the rabbinic description of ceremonial defecation in the cult of Baal Peor (see b. ᶜAbod. Zar. 44b; b. Sanh. 60b; m. Sanh. 7:6 [cited by Pope], as well as Sipre 131; y. Sanh. 10:2,28d). Pope's caution on whether this detail stems "from direct knowledge of the pagan cult" or "from play on one of the meanings of the word pᶜr" is admirable. Now, however, recognition of the allusion to excrement in 1 Kgs 18:27 may tilt the scales in favor of Pope's former suggestion (notwithstanding the assumption that Baal worship took on different manifestations in different locales, that is to say, that the worship of Baal on Mt. Carmel need not a priori have been the same as the worship of Baal at Baal Peor in Transjordan). We may even reverse the thinking of Pope's latter suggestion and propose that 1he name Baal Peor is to be derived from (pᶜr) "excrete."<sup>12

11</sup> M.H. Pope, "A Divine Banquet at Ugarit," The Use of the Old Testament in the New and Other Essays. Studies in Honor of William Franklin Stinespring (ed. J.M. Efird; Durham, NC: Duke University, 1972) 196-97.

¹² For this meaning see F. Brown, S.R. Driver, and C.A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1906) 822.

Labels: noctes scatologicae

The people seem to have been constantly well off. A pig in almost every cottage sty; and that is the infallible mark of a happy people.

Ah, if only some fate could swiftly come—not a painful one, nor one that left us long bedridden—that would bring us eternal, unending sleep...

φεῦ, τίς ἂν ἐν τάχει μὴ περιώδυνος
μηδὲ δεμνιοτήρης
μόλοι τὸν αἰεὶ φέρουσ᾿ ἂν ἡμῖν        1450
μοῖρ᾿ ἀτέλευτον ὕπνον...

Literally τίς is an interrogative adjective, modifying, as you say, μοῖρα, the whole thing being a question with a potential optative—"What fate might/ could come....?" But the upshot is that it is a wishful thought, and so the translators opt to translate τίς as indefinite, though it is accented and not enclitic, and they render the optative as one of wish. I see that Smyth cites this passage as an example of a potential optative used to express a wish at § 1832.

Great risk does not take hold of a cowardly man. But since men must die, why would anyone sit in darkness and coddle a nameless old age to no use, deprived of all noble deeds?

ὁ μέγας δὲ κίν-
δυνος ἄναλκιν οὐ φῶτα λαμβάνει·
θανεῖν δ᾽ οἷσιν ἀνάγκα, τί κέ τις ἀνώνυμον
γῆρας ἐν σκότῳ καθήμενος ἕψοι μάταν,
ἁπάντων καλῶν ἄμμορος;

...for Athene, the dread goddess, did not allow it...

                                          ... οὐ γὰρ Ἀθήνη
εἴα ἐυπλόκαμος, δεινὴ θεός...

.. for fair-tressed Athene, the dread goddess, would not suffer it...

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