... and thus Hesiod [fragment 322 Merkelbach-West], praising the custom of ancient sacrifices, quite rightly said,My watchword: νόμος δ' ἀρχαῖος ἄριστος.
howsoever the city performs sacrifice, ancient custom is the best.... καὶ τὸν Ἡσίοδον οὖν εἰκότως τὸν τῶν ἀρχαίων θυσιῶν νόμον ἐπαινοῦντα εἰπεῖν·
ὥς κε πόλις ῥέζῃσι, νόμος δ' ἀρχαῖος ἄριστος.
"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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Thursday, August 03, 2017
Ancient Custom is the Best
Porphyry, On Abstinence from Animal Food 2.18.3 (tr. Glenn W. Most):