Simonides' advice is harmful, that we should play throughout our lives and take nothing quite seriously.Not harmful, but beneficial and wise, or so it seems to me.
βλαβερῶς παραινεῖ Σιμωνίδης παίζειν ἐν τῷ βίῳ καὶ περὶ μηδὲν ἁπλῶς σπουδάζειν.
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Simonides' Advice
Simonides, Poetae Melici Graeci, no. 646, from Theon, Progymnasmata 33 (tr. David A. Campbell):