tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69359682024-03-28T14:46:52.637-05:00Laudator Temporis Acti"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere <i>olla podrida</i> of quaintness, a <i>pot pourri</i> of pleasant <i>delites</i>, a <i>florilegium</i> of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, <i>facetiae</i>, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, <i>Anatomy of Bibliomania</i>) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, <i>Ars Poetica</i> 173).Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comBlogger15055125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-45339500517909672572024-03-28T14:46:00.000-05:002024-03-28T14:46:17.103-05:00Diagnostic ConjecturesHugh Lloyd-Jones, "Paul Maas," <i>Blood for the Ghosts: Classical Influences in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries</i> (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), pp. 215-218 (at 217-218):
<blockquote>Maas held strongly that it was better to make a wrong conjecture than to ignore a difficulty;
he strongly upheld the value of the 'diagnostic conjecture' and the usefulness of the
crux; and he was the sworn enemy of the lazy acquiescence in the anomalous or the
excessive caution which many scholars dignify with the name of judgment.... His
principles were exemplified in numerous conjectures and supplements whose average
quality was very high indeed. At times his vigorous logic could carry him too far; but
even the suggestions to which this applies had usually the value of drawing attention
to a difficulty or of provoking curiosity as to why the author should have departed
from his usual norm.</blockquote>
Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-75521485096433585532024-03-28T14:10:00.000-05:002024-03-28T14:10:22.690-05:00No Good Came of Their LamentingHomer, <i>Odyssey</i> 10.566-568 (tr. A.T. Murray):
<blockquote>So I spoke, and their spirit was broken within them,<br>
and sitting down right where they were, they wept and tore their hair. <br>
But no good came of their lamenting.<br><br>
<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
ὣς ἐφάμην, τοῖσιν δὲ κατεκλάσθη φίλον ἦτορ,<br>
ἑζόμενοι δὲ κατ᾽ αὖθι γόων τίλλοντό τε χαίτας·<br>
ἀλλ᾽ οὐ γάρ τις πρῆξις ἐγίγνετο μυρομένοισιν.</span></blockquote>Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-25218382437632327752024-03-28T13:49:00.003-05:002024-03-28T13:49:46.674-05:00A Gentleman's BooksAustin Dobson (1840-1921), "A Gentleman of the Old School," <i>Collected Poems</i>, 9th ed. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd, 1914), pp. 9-13 (at 11-12):
<blockquote>We read—alas, how much we read!<br />
The jumbled strifes of creed and creed<br />
With endless controversies feed<br />
Our groaning tables;<br />
His books—and they sufficed him—were<br />
Cotton's "Montaigne," "The Grave" of Blair, <br />
A "Walton"—much the worse for wear—<br />
And "Æsop's Fables."
<br /><br />
One more,—"The Bible." Not that he<br />
Had searched its page as deep as we;<br />
No sophistries could make him see<br />
Its slender credit;<br />
It may be that he could not count<br />
The sires and sons to Jesse's fount,—<br />
He liked the "Sermon on the Mount,"—<br />
And more, he read it.</blockquote>Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-6327575116014859972024-03-27T17:55:00.003-05:002024-03-27T17:58:51.729-05:00A Misplaced Critical NoteSophocles, <i>Ajax, Electra, Oedipus Tyrannus</i>. Edited and Translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994 = <i>Loeb Classical Library</i>, 20), p. 345 (<i>Oedipus Tyrannus</i>):
<blockquote>221 <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">αὐτὸ</span> lG<sup>γρ</sup>p: <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">αὐτός</span> rpat<br />
post hunc v. lacunam statuit Groeneboom; ex. gr. <<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">πόλεως ἐπισπᾶν θανασίμους φόνου δίκας</span>> supplere possis</blockquote>
The note about the lacuna is misplaced—it belongs after line 227. The mistake persists in the <i>Digital Loeb Classical Library</i>.
Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-48138962151430380932024-03-27T12:13:00.003-05:002024-03-27T18:01:07.967-05:00SymposiumRed-figure krater by Euphronios, now in Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek 8935 (click once or twice to enlarge):
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6SuAFaURFntfW9uB9m02qA-h1KfK1S-pI4BifnYZuvUw5abvbWqI-Pzu_1pQvNGHl0l_IRHHeOD5Y877Q1kBgWexg5D8jDQvCd_Q5HoOh9gbkrC5Pr2k4X_MQF1UOusy2FZscM_LtmqTGBIbcuXltiVtJ7a3QNh_pId5Rw5uqzTsFvGHFRJFo9g/s935/Munich-Antikensammlungen-8935.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="921" data-original-width="935" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6SuAFaURFntfW9uB9m02qA-h1KfK1S-pI4BifnYZuvUw5abvbWqI-Pzu_1pQvNGHl0l_IRHHeOD5Y877Q1kBgWexg5D8jDQvCd_Q5HoOh9gbkrC5Pr2k4X_MQF1UOusy2FZscM_LtmqTGBIbcuXltiVtJ7a3QNh_pId5Rw5uqzTsFvGHFRJFo9g/s600/Munich-Antikensammlungen-8935.png" width="600" /></a></div>
The letters <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ΟΠΟΛΛΟΝΣΕΓΕΚΑΙΜΑΚΑΙ</span> (retrograde) come out of the mouth of the figure on the far right, whose name is Ekphantides.<br /><br />
See Emily Vermeule, "Fragments of a Symposion by Euphronios," <i>Antike Kunst</i> 8.1 (1965) 34-39 (at 38-39):
<blockquote>Sir John Beazley, who prefers the poem-fragment as a skolion, suggests filling in the first verse along these lines:
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
ὤπολλον σέ τε καὶ μάκαιραν αἰτῶ</span></blockquote>
with a mention of Artemis and Leto in the second verse<sup>22</sup>.
There are, of course, various possibilities to play with; one
might also consider
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
ὤπολλον σέ γε καὶ μάκαιραν ἁγνάν<br />
Λάτω τὰν δίτοκον κάσιν τε χρύσαν</span></blockquote>
using scraps of Anakreon which have no context; or, for a
glyconic hymn,
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
ὤπολλον σέ τε καὶ μάκαι-<br />
ραν κάσιν πότνι' Ἄρτεμι.</span></blockquote>
<sup>22</sup> Beazley ARV<sup>2</sup> 1619. Professor D.L. Page is quite sure that no line with this beginning is preserved in the literary tradition; see his <i>Poetae
Melici Graeci</i> (1962) 622. The line does read <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ΓE</span>, not <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">TE</span>.</blockquote> Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-24663694426755532562024-03-27T08:28:00.001-05:002024-03-27T08:40:32.870-05:00Think Thoughts of HomeHomer, <i>Odyssey</i> 10.472-474 (tr. Peter Green):
<blockquote>Are you out of your mind? High time to think of your homeland<br />
if it's truly your destiny to be saved and to return<br />
to your high-roofed house and to your own native country.<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
δαιμόνι᾽, ἤδη νῦν μιμνήσκεο πατρίδος αἴης,<br />
εἴ τοι θέσφατόν ἐστι σαωθῆναι καὶ ἱκέσθαι<br />
οἶκον ἐς ὑψόροφον καὶ σὴν ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν.</span></blockquote>
W.B. Stanford ad loc.:
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">δαιμόνιος</span> is used of a person who is doing something so abnormal or incomprehensible as to suggest supernatural influence: sometimes almost 'Are you mad?'</blockquote>
I don't have access to Elisabeth Brunius-Nilsson, <i><span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">Δαιμόνιε</span>: An Inquiry into a Mode of Apostrophe in Old Greek Literature</i> (Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1955).
See also H. Paul Brown, "A Pragmatic and Sociolinguistic Account of <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">δαιµόνιε</span> in Early Greek Epic," <i>Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies</i> 51 (2011) 498–528.
Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-88126792270080769442024-03-26T14:56:00.000-05:002024-03-26T14:56:36.855-05:00The Power of WineAristophanes, <i>Knights</i> 90-96 (tr. Benjamin Bickley Rogers):
<blockquote>And dare you rail at wine's inventiveness?<br>
I tell you nothing has such go as wine.<br>
Why, look you now; 'tis when men drink, they thrive,<br>
Grow wealthy, speed their business, win their suits,<br>
Make themselves happy, benefit their friends.<br>
Go, fetch me out a stoup of wine, and let me<br>
Moisten my wits, and utter something bright.<br><br>
<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
οἶνον σὺ τολμᾷς εἰς ἐπίνοιαν λοιδορεῖν; 90<br>
οἴνου γὰρ εὕροις ἄν τι πρακτικώτερον;<br>
ὁρᾷς, ὅταν πίνωσιν ἄνθρωποι τότε<br>
πλουτοῦσι διαπράττουσι νικῶσιν δίκας<br>
εὐδαιμονοῦσιν ὠφελοῦσι τοὺς φίλους.<br>
ἀλλ᾽ ἐξένεγκέ μοι ταχέως οἴνου χοᾶ, 95<br>
τὸν νοῦν ἵν᾽ ἄρδω καὶ λέγω τι δεξιόν.</span><br><br>
90 <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἐπίνοιαν</span> codd.: <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἀπόνοιαν</span> Sylburg</blockquote>
Related posts:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2006/08/some-effects-of-wine.html">Some Effects of Wine</a>
<li><a href="https://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2013/12/praise-of-dionysus.html">Praise of Dionysus</a>
<li><a href="https://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2016/08/wine.html">Wine</a>
</ul>
Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-9557253257950370132024-03-26T06:05:00.001-05:002024-03-26T06:07:12.159-05:00Abstract versus ConcreteKenneth Dover, ed., Plato, <i>Symposium</i> (1982; rpt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. viii:
<blockquote>His distinctive values, attitudes, assumptions, cravings and passions are not mine, and for that reason I do not find his philosophical arguments even marginally persuasive. Much that is written about him is marked, in my view, by an uncritical enthusiasm for the abstract and immutable, as if such an enthusiasm always and necessarily afforded better access to the truth about man, nature and divinity than is afforded by a love of the particular, material and perishable. One consequence of this is that Plato is sometimes welcomed as an ally by people who would not like what they found if they attended less selectively and more precisely to what he actually says. Another consequence is that the Platonic Socrates is taken, in all seriousness, as if he were a man with a genuinely open and enquiring mind, and the quality of other Greek intellectuals, some of whom are best known to us through Plato's portrayal of them, is underrated.
</blockquote>Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-74076051903543123892024-03-25T16:35:00.000-05:002024-03-25T16:35:32.258-05:00The Study of NatureVergil, <i>Georgics</i> 2.475-486 (tr. L.P. Wilkinson):
<blockquote>As for me, above all else I would that the sweet Muses<br>
whose devotee I am, smitten with a great desire,<br>
should accept me and show me the stars of the sky in their courses,<br>
the various eclipses of the sun and the travails of the moon,<br>
whence come earthquakes, what force makes the seas swell high<br>
to break their barriers and subside to their level again,<br>
why winter's suns make such haste to dip beneath the Ocean,<br>
or what it is that delays the lingering nights.<br>
But if some sluggishness of wit denies me access to this sphere of nature,<br>
may the countryside and the streams that water its valleys be my delight,<br>
let me love the rivers and woods, careless of fame ...
<br><br>
me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musae,
475<br>
quarum sacra fero ingenti percussus amore,<br>
accipiant caelique vias et sidera monstrent,<br>
defectus solis varios lunaeque labores;<br>
unde tremor terris, qua vi maria alta tumescant<br>
obicibus ruptis rursusque in se ipsa residant,
480<br>
quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere soles<br>
hiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet.<br>
sin has ne possim naturae accedere partis<br>
frigidus obstiterit circum praecordia sanguis,<br>
rura rnihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes,
485<br>
flurnina amem silvasque inglorius...
<br><br>
476 percussus MPRrγ: perculsus M<sup>2</sup>ωγ<sup>1</sup></blockquote>Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-29320206135616186752024-03-25T14:22:00.004-05:002024-03-25T14:31:15.707-05:00Prayer to PallasAristophanes, <i>Knights</i> 581-594 (tr. Alan H. Sommerstein):
<blockquote>Pallas, Guardian of the city,<br />
Lady of the most sacred<br />
of all lands, which excels<br />
in war, in poetry<br />
and in power:<br />
come hither, bringing her<br />
who in expeditions and battles<br />
is our helper,<br />
Victory, the companion of our choral songs,<br />
who strives with us against our foes.<br />
Come hither now and show thy face;<br />
for on us must thou<br />
at all costs bestow<br />
victory, now if ever.<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
Ὦ πολιοῦχε Παλλάς, ὦ<br />
τῆς ἱερωτάτης ἁπα-<br />
σῶν πολέμῳ τε καὶ ποιη-<br />
ταῖς δυνάμει θʼ ὑπερφερού-<br />
σης μεδέουσα χώρας, 585<br />
δεῦρʼ ἀφικοῦ λαβοῦσα τὴν<br />
ἐν στρατιαῖς τε καὶ μάχαις<br />
ἡμετέραν ξυνεργὸν<br />
Νίκην, ἣ χορικῶν ἐστιν ἑταίρα<br />
τοῖς τʼ ἐχθροῖσι μεθʼ ἡμῶν στασιάζει. 590<br />
νῦν οὖν δεῦρο φάνηθι· δεῖ<br />
γὰρ τοῖς ἀνδράσι τοῖσδε πά-<br />
σῃ τέχνῃ πορίσαι σε νί-<br />
κην, εἴπερ ποτέ, καὶ νῦν.</span><br /><br />
583 <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ποιηταῖς</span> codd.: <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">πολίταις</span> Bentley: <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">πόροισιν</span> van Herwerden<br />
589 <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">χορικῶν</span> codd.: <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">Χαρίτων</span> Wilamowitz</blockquote>
In line 592 Sommerstein's "us" is more literally "these men".
<br /><br />
Robert Alexander Neil ad loc.:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVvYL9E4hY41YkGHcu6ozxLhQk6TjK3LizvA7LR1bzNbNUv7OCSX29r1i0DGsLl3_I6Pud0Z2w27aaNRisbk10rkPy-f67S1LtfWICQ8Xfaf-zfxNuitqd6OEuE7M9LnyyD7hsSiCjnbEVRyUL99yzNGYuVLZB3riV0omYYj0NPNsy0Gffevd6Og/s1026/neil-ar-eq-581-594.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1026" data-original-width="549" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVvYL9E4hY41YkGHcu6ozxLhQk6TjK3LizvA7LR1bzNbNUv7OCSX29r1i0DGsLl3_I6Pud0Z2w27aaNRisbk10rkPy-f67S1LtfWICQ8Xfaf-zfxNuitqd6OEuE7M9LnyyD7hsSiCjnbEVRyUL99yzNGYuVLZB3riV0omYYj0NPNsy0Gffevd6Og/s16000/neil-ar-eq-581-594.jpg" /></a></div>Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-75118522542927731352024-03-24T11:31:00.000-05:002024-03-24T11:31:26.110-05:00Nothing BetterEuripides, <i>Orestes</i> 1155-1156 (tr. Edward P. Coleridge):
<blockquote>Ah! there is nothing better than a trusty friend,
neither wealth nor monarchy; a crowd of people is of no account in exchange for a noble friend.
<br><br>
<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
φεῦ·<br>
οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδὲν κρεῖσσον ἢ φίλος σαφής,<br>
οὐ πλοῦτος, οὐ τυραννίς· ἀλόγιστον δέ τι<br>
τὸ πλῆθος ἀντάλλαγμα γενναίου φίλου.</span></blockquote>
M.L. West ad loc.
<blockquote>cf. <i>HF</i> 11125 with Bond's n., Soph. <i>Phil.</i> 672 f., Men. <i>Dysc</i>. 81 f. Denial of wealth and monarchy
as the highest goods goes back to Archil. 19, cf. Sol. 24, 33, Eur. <i>Med.</i> 599 f., <i>Hipp.</i> 1013 ff.,
<i>Ion</i> 621-32, <i>Phoen.</i> 549 ff., etc.</blockquote>
Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-11546136168820046832024-03-24T11:01:00.000-05:002024-03-24T11:01:16.883-05:00Proof Against EnchantmentHomer, <i>Odyssey</i> 10.329 (Circe to Odysseus; tr. A.T. Murray):
<blockquote>Nay, but the mind in thy breast is one not to be beguiled.
<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
σοὶ δέ τις ἐν στήθεσσιν ἀκήλητος νόος ἐστίν.</span></blockquote>
Alfred Heubeck ad loc.:
<blockquote>The line is modelled on <i>Il.</i> iii 63. Its authenticity has been disputed,
both by Aristarchus and by modern critics, but there is no contradiction
with 240, as often supposed. <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">κηλέω</span> is almost synonymous with <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">θέλγω</span> (cf.
213 n.; Odysseus' <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">νόος</span> remains <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἀκήλητος</span> in spite of the <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">φάρμακα</span> (318),
unlike his companions', which Circe was able to bewitch (<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">θέλγειν, κηλεῖν</span>)
but not destroy (it remains <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἔμπεδος</span> (240); cf. 235-42 n.).</blockquote>
Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-1992456335481549982024-03-24T10:19:00.000-05:002024-03-24T10:19:03.726-05:00Obscure Yet IntelligibleAugustine, <i>Sermons</i> 156.1 (<i>Patrologia Latina</i>, vol. 38, col. 849; tr. Edmund Hill):
<blockquote>The depths of meaning in the word of God are there to excite our eagerness to study, not to prevent us from understanding. If everything was locked up in riddles, there would be no clue to the opening up of obscure passages. Again, if everything was hidden, there would be nothing for the soul to derive nourishment from, and so gain the strength which would enable it to knock at the closed doors.
<br><br>
Verbi Dei altitudo exercet studium, non denegat intellectum. Si enim omnia clausa essent, nihil esset unde revelarentur obscura. Rursus si omnia tecta essent, non esset unde alimentum perciperet anima, et haberet vires quibus posset ad clausa pulsare.</blockquote>
Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-12887261976384831892024-03-24T03:33:00.000-05:002024-03-24T03:33:07.736-05:00Form of AddressGilbert Highet (1906-1978), <i>Explorations</i> (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 9 (on Lord Acton):
<blockquote>It is touching to see him beginning his inaugural
lecture, not with the conventional 'Gentlemen,' but with the
more modest and friendly 'Fellow students.'
</blockquote>Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-53392740655576683792024-03-23T09:23:00.003-05:002024-03-23T09:23:37.621-05:00A Useful German WordClive James (1939-2019), "Marcel Reich-Ranicki," <i>Cultural Amnesia</i> (2007; rpt. London: Picador, 2012), pp. 591-599 (at 597):
<blockquote>In a culture where the sublime has always seductively beckoned, his has been a useful corrective emphasis: a shift of direction towards talking turkey and away from <i>Mumpitz</i>, that useful German word for exalted twaddle.</blockquote>
Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-16664816086706463162024-03-23T06:03:00.002-05:002024-03-23T07:05:23.962-05:00WatermelonEdward Kennard Rand (1871-1945), <i>In Quest of Virgil's Birthplace</i> (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930), pp. 20-22, with notes on p. 157:
<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyGTqRNzkOAgu-c__qYc5q8HhFvOEWcvlYNj8jmRnbtLqqV1mh0UjCOKBbUCFSyHLyqgkcklC7CaEkh_YDyRhiuaS9hQb1VOUzc0hnDfy_GspbRy32V1oK2n6dkPYh-ECX7KXqKf-E7o5NWdE7r0xRBI9cp2qDwXfyMeim60FCa-PxgipM_vBGEw/s646/rand-market-at-cremona.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="646" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyGTqRNzkOAgu-c__qYc5q8HhFvOEWcvlYNj8jmRnbtLqqV1mh0UjCOKBbUCFSyHLyqgkcklC7CaEkh_YDyRhiuaS9hQb1VOUzc0hnDfy_GspbRy32V1oK2n6dkPYh-ECX7KXqKf-E7o5NWdE7r0xRBI9cp2qDwXfyMeim60FCa-PxgipM_vBGEw/s600/rand-market-at-cremona.png" width="600" /></a></div>
Moreover, we find a fruit market. A strange gleam comes into Pietro's eye
as he steers towards a certain vender. Watermelons, yes, American
watermelons! Not quite American, since they are not oblong, but
round as a ball. The taste is identical, and most grateful after the
journey of the day. The reader may not make them out in the view
of the market here given, but if any doubt their existence, I can obtain a written certificate from Pietro. Watermelon is his favorite fruit. He knows when he wants it, which is always, and when and
where he has had it.<br /><br />
As we crunch the cool and crimson liquidity, a sudden revelation
occurs to me. Pietro's joy is not exceeded by my own. For I can
correct all the commentators in the interpretation of a line of Virgil.
In the preface to his description of that marvellous garden kept by
an old man of Corycia on the banks of the Galaesus, the poet speaks
of the <i>cucumis</i> that
<blockquote> Winding through the grass<br />
Grows to a belly —<sup>22</sup></blockquote>
the comfortable <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">τέλος</span> of that vegetable's activity. Following some
interpreters, I had always translated <i>cucumis</i> by 'cucumber.' Others
call it 'gourd.' Much better is Benoist, who declares, "Ce mot désigne ici toutes plantes du même genre, de melon aussi bien que la
courge." But this definition is too inclusive. Who will deny that the
word means specifically 'watermelon'?<sup>23</sup> The truth came to me
when Pietro gave us the Italian for 'watermelon,' namely <i>cocomero</i>.
'Cucumber' in Italian is <i>cetriolo</i>, quite a different affair. The watermelon is a native of Africa.<sup>23</sup> The learned Naudin remarks that the
culture of the melon in Asia is probably as ancient as that of all other
alimentary vegetables and that the Greeks and the Romans were
doubtless familiar with it, though some forms may have been described as cucumbers.<sup>25</sup> Rather, let us say, <i>cucumis</i> in ancient as in
modern Italy has never meant anything but watermelon, while in
the Dark and Middle Ages, when the luscious fruit, like so many
Pagan luxuries, probably disappeared, the barbarians of the North
ludicrously misapplied the original name to an ignominious vegetable. The modern Italian for 'cucumber' doubtless comes from a vulgar Latin word, a degrading diminutive, <i>citriolum</i>,
to which Classical authors like Cicero and Virgil did not condescend. The
truth has been hidden all these years because no Northern editor of
Virgil has ever visited the land of the poet's birth in the month when
watermelons are ripe. But now a great light shines on an obscurity,
a pleasant line of Virgil has acquired the dignity of epic, and American small boys, particularly those of African origin, like the watermelon itself, can now read the <i>Georgics</i> with some sympathy, knowing that their author, when very young, may well have put arms
about the best of fruits, abstracted from his father's, or a neighbor's,
garden, and have retired for a luscious revel under the shelter of a
spreading beech. All this I endeavored to make clear to Pietro, now
at work on his third slice, and was gratified to hear him mumble,
"Si, Signore, senza dubbio."
<br /><br />
22(21). <i>Georgics</i>, IV, 121:
<blockquote> tortusque per herbam<br />
cresceret in ventrem cucumis.</blockquote>
23 (21). If <i>tortus</i> refers to the shape of the melon, it may be the <i>cocomero
serpentino</i> as Tenore supposes. See Conington on the passage (after
Keightley). I agree, however, with those, like Conington, who understand <i>tortus</i> to describe the vine's meandering through the grass.
<br /><br />
24 (21). See L.H. Bailey, <i>Cyclopaedia of American Horticulture</i>, New York, VI, (1906) 1967.
<br /><br />
25 (21). Quoted in the <i>Encyclopaedia Britannica</i>, 11th edition (1911), XVIII, 98. The most recent discussion is that of R. Billiard, in <i>L'Agriculture dans l'Antiquité d'après les Gêorgiques de Virgile</i> (Paris, Boccard, 1928), p. 477. He inclines to believe, on grounds that appear to me inconclusive, that the melon came to Italy somewhat after Virgil's time.</blockquote>
There is no mention of Rand's interpretation in R.A.B. Mynors' commentary on <i>Georgics</i>. I don't see Vergil cited in the <i>Oxford Latin Dictionary</i> s.v. cucumis, a strange omission. See Charles Anthon, <i>Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil</i> (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1850), p. 408:
<blockquote>The melon is meant here, not the cucumber.
</blockquote>Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-82624715612462474082024-03-22T15:58:00.004-05:002024-03-22T16:33:44.680-05:00God-ForsakenHomer, <i>Odyssey</i> 10.72-75 (Aeolus to Odysseus; tr. A.T. Murray):
<blockquote>Begone from our island with speed, thou vilest of all that live.<br />
In no wise may I help or send upon his way<br />
that man who is hated of the blessed gods.<br />
Begone, for thou comest hither as one hated of the immortals.<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
ἔρρ᾽ ἐκ νήσου θᾶσσον, ἐλέγχιστε ζωόντων·<br />
οὐ γάρ μοι θέμις ἐστὶ κομιζέμεν οὐδ᾽ ἀποπέμπειν<br />
ἄνδρα τόν, ὅς κε θεοῖσιν ἀπέχθηται μακάρεσσιν·<br />
ἔρρε, ἐπεὶ ἄρα θεοῖσιν ἀπεχθόμενος τόδ᾽ ἱκάνεις.</span></blockquote>
In line 75 Murray prints <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἄρα θεοῖσιν</span> but translates the variant <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἀθανάτοισιν</span>, a rare slip. The mistake persists in George E. Dimock's revision of Murray.<br /><br />
<hr /><br />
According to Google, George E. Dimock died in Pindale, Myanmar (click once or twice to enlarge):
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjgTpT5n4q-B2_xxT3mRtABm5_W9Soa5NaJly4Jl37Yfqbz3kX6Gq_jiBapThdZM9nPKtMzb5Rxu5rnP4lAXeuD9M6juctonwPqJo7zpJkj5OlROtN59F2_3IZDp-EAAqY1dK8Fu5OjNaDALZIL57iEkC7GqgIJZI_f_9XyxKEB4v_-3iPUd3LFw/s1117/dimock.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="1117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjgTpT5n4q-B2_xxT3mRtABm5_W9Soa5NaJly4Jl37Yfqbz3kX6Gq_jiBapThdZM9nPKtMzb5Rxu5rnP4lAXeuD9M6juctonwPqJo7zpJkj5OlROtN59F2_3IZDp-EAAqY1dK8Fu5OjNaDALZIL57iEkC7GqgIJZI_f_9XyxKEB4v_-3iPUd3LFw/s600/dimock.png" width="600" /></a></div>
Actually he died in Pinedale, Wyoming.
Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-91298348316904703612024-03-22T11:17:00.002-05:002024-03-22T11:24:40.199-05:00A Greek Word of Uncertain MeaningR.D. Dawe on Sophocles, <i>Oedipus Rex</i> 177 (LSJ definitions in square brackets added by me):
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
ἀμαιμάκετος</span> is a Homeric word, of uncertain meaning, used again at <i>Oed. Col.</i> 127. It has been linked with words as diverse as <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">αἷμα</span> [blood], <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">μάχη</span> [battle], <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">μῆκος</span> [length] and <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">μαιμάω</span> [be very eager, quiver with eagerness], and when used of the Chimaera or her<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;"> πῦρ</span> [fire] was glossed by <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">φοβερός</span> [fearful],<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;"> χαλεπός</span> [difficult], <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἀκαταπόνητος</span> [inexhaustible] and <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἀπροσπέλαστον</span> [unapproachable]. Chantraine calls it 'terme poétique traditionnel et expressif dont le sens originel est ignoré de ceux qui l'utilisent'.</blockquote>
<i>Cambridge Greek Lexicon</i>:
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;"><b>ἀμαιμάκετος η ov</b></span> (also <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ος ov</span>) <i>ep.adj.</i> [pop.etym.:
intensv.prfx., <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">μαιμάω</span>; also privatv.prfx., <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">μάχομαι</span>] (of the
Chimaira, Nemean lion, Erinyes) app. <b>formidable,
awesome, irresistible</b> Il. S. Theoc.; (of Poseidon’s trident, a
spear) Pi. AR.; (of fire) Hes. S.; (of the sea) Hes. Pi.; (of the
motion of the Clashing Rocks) Pi.; (of a goddess's might) Pi.;
(of strife) B.; (of a ship's mast) perh. <b>mighty</b> or <b>solid</b> Od.</blockquote>
Franco Montanari, <i>The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek</i>:
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἀμαιμάκετος -η -οv</span> [see <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">μαιμάω</span>?] irresistible,
invincible IL. 6.179 (<i>Chimera</i>) PIND. <i>P.</i> 1.14
(<i>sea</i>) SOPH. <i>O.T.</i> 177 (<i>fire</i>), <i>O.C.</i> 127 (<i>Furies</i>) etc.;
<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">νεΐκος ἀ.</span> persistent strife BACCHYL. <i>Epin.</i> 11.641 ||
strong, firm: <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἱστόν ἀμαιμάκετον νηός</span> the solid
mast of the ship OD. 14.311.</blockquote>
Liddell-Scott-Jones:
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἀμαιμάκετος , η, ον</span>, also <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ος, ον</span> Hes.<i>Sc.</i>207:— <i>irresistible</i>, old Ep. word, also in Lyr. and Trag. (lyr.); of Chimaera, <i>Il.</i>6.179, 16.329; of fire vomited by her, Hes.<i>Th.</i>319; of fire generally, S.<i>OT</i>177; <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">θάλασσα, πόντος</span>, Hes.<i>Sc.</i>207, Pi.<i>P.</i>1.14; of ship's mast, proof against any strain, <i>Od.</i>14.311; of the trident, Pi.<i>I.</i>8(7).37; <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἀ. μένος, κινηθμός</span>, <i>P</i>.3.33, 4.208; <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">νεῖκος</span> <i>stubborn</i>, B.10.64; of the Furies, S.<i>OC</i>127; <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἀ. βυθοῖς</span> in <i>unfathomable</i> depths, <i>IG</i>3.900. [Usu. derived fr. <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἀ-</span> intens.,<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;"> μαιμάω</span>, i.e. <i>furious</i>; but apptly. connected with <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">ἄμαχος</span> by Poets.]</blockquote>
Hans Christian Albertz in <i>Lexikon des frühgriechischen Epos</i>:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzR3TI-H2lrdvRv4nWB9hvb9Cp8AqNXerFbPUgnhpUxALEiqryVCsZXNcDYIhoeGYQhPAvWsHMYGxUuwIhXjkxYkQ-ynRJ2ZREH-KYluHnkJaI2nb_Ze61BJdq20HaT78mHdjei8PHBVAscwpRhCQf-okHQeZXwRT0kALFOtCRagvLlYyuolmiRQ/s530/amaimaketos-lfgr.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="377" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzR3TI-H2lrdvRv4nWB9hvb9Cp8AqNXerFbPUgnhpUxALEiqryVCsZXNcDYIhoeGYQhPAvWsHMYGxUuwIhXjkxYkQ-ynRJ2ZREH-KYluHnkJaI2nb_Ze61BJdq20HaT78mHdjei8PHBVAscwpRhCQf-okHQeZXwRT0kALFOtCRagvLlYyuolmiRQ/s600/amaimaketos-lfgr.png" /></a></div>
<i>Diccionario Griego–Español</i>:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH_NC9aD4U5XTi_n0-Ob1hRCywJeNWWI0M2AH2Dj7vl1rTP2HysshPQIGBxlZSdn6_OPuzlVdUQr9rIy6OD60qoBy9GwENiFXOSXYUXf77VRJce0egYv817sSb9U6FYi7bt5ZTy1uJRGQTiHb3FqvxMaHaUrJ8KB_xDSt3HRZVFfCeq_LWhOpDZQ/s340/amaimaketos-dge.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="332" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH_NC9aD4U5XTi_n0-Ob1hRCywJeNWWI0M2AH2Dj7vl1rTP2HysshPQIGBxlZSdn6_OPuzlVdUQr9rIy6OD60qoBy9GwENiFXOSXYUXf77VRJce0egYv817sSb9U6FYi7bt5ZTy1uJRGQTiHb3FqvxMaHaUrJ8KB_xDSt3HRZVFfCeq_LWhOpDZQ/s600/amaimaketos-dge.png" /></a></div>Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-13394920308003157132024-03-21T09:43:00.001-05:002024-03-21T09:43:54.572-05:00On Calling a Slave a SlaveS. Douglas Olson, "Philological Notes on the Letter Lambda in a New Greek-English Dictionary: II. <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">λασιόκωφος - λημψαπόδοσις</span>," <i>Hyperboreus</i> 29.2 (2023) 299-325 (pp. 301-302, n. 3, discussing <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">λάτρις</span>):
<blockquote>It is disturbing to find words such as this still glossed "servant", suggesting voluntary paid service by free persons; cf. <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">δοῦλος</span>, glossed "servant, slave", in that order. For all their talk of freedom and the like, the Greeks had slaves, and large
numbers of them, and they often did not treat them well. This is a conspicuous black
mark on their record as a civilization — which is not to say that our own is likely to win
any prizes — and lexicographic white-washing of this sort does no service to anyone.</blockquote>Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-60076628702613258852024-03-21T07:05:00.000-05:002024-03-21T07:05:44.374-05:00The Happiness of LearningGilbert Highet (1906-1978), <i>The Immortal Profession: The Joys of Teaching and Learning</i> (New York: Weybright and Talley, 1976), p. 19:
<blockquote>The pleasures of learning are indeed pleasures. But in fact the word should be changed. The true name is happiness. There are three other types of happiness, superior to that of learning: the happiness of love fulfilled; the happiness of serving mankind; and the happiness of creation. Though it is beneath these, learning is still a great happiness, and can be a help toward the attainment of those others; and it is an essential part of a complete life. No learner has ever found that he ran short of subjects to explore. But many people who avoided learning, or abandoned it, find that life is drained dry. They spend thirty years in a club chair looking glumly out at the sand and the ocean; in a hotel lounge gossiping about the other inmates; in a porch swing waiting for somebody to drive down the road. But that is not how to live. The chief aim of education is to show you, <i>after</i> you make a livelihood, how to enjoy living; and you can live longest and best and most rewardingly by attaining and preserving the happiness of learning.</blockquote>Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-45306235342261995972024-03-21T06:05:00.000-05:002024-03-21T06:05:36.755-05:00ExpulsionWith the help of the gods, the Syracusans under Hiero II prepare to drive the Carthaginians out of Sicily (Theocritus, <i>Idylls</i> 16.76-97, tr. A.S.F. Gow):
<blockquote>Even now beneath the setting sun the Phoenicians<br />
that dwell in the outmost skirts of Libya tremble for fear;<br />
even now Syracusans grip their spears by the middle<br />
and charge their arms with shields of wicker,<br />
while Hiero, in their midst, girds himself like the heroes of old<br />
with crest of horsehair shadowing his helm.<br />
Ah Zeus, our father far renowned, and Lady Athena,<br />
and thou, Maiden, to whom, with thy mother, has fallen<br />
the mighty city of the rich Ephyraeans by the waters of Lysimeleia,<br />
grant that ill constraints may drive our enemies from the island over the<br />
Sardinian sea with tidings of the death of dear ones<br />
to children and wives, messengers easy to number from out that host.<br />
Grant that towns which the hands of foes have wasted utterly<br />
be peopled again by their ancient masters.<br />
May these till fertile fields, while sheep in countless<br />
thousands grow fat upon the pastures<br />
and bleat over the plain, and cattle gathering<br />
in their herds to the homestead speed the twilight traveller on his way.<br />
May the fallows be worked for seed-time while the cicada<br />
overhead, watching the shepherds in the sun, makes music<br />
in the foliage of the trees. May spiders spin their<br />
delicate webs over armour, and the cry of onset be no more even named.
<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
ἤδη νῦν Φοίνικες ὑπ᾽ ἠελίῳ δύνοντι<br />
οἰκεῦντες Λιβύας ἄκρον σφυρὸν ἐρρίγασιν.<br />
ἤδη βαστάζουσι Συρακόσιοι μέσα δοῦρα<br />
ἀχθόμενοι σακέεσσι βραχίονας ἰτεΐνοισιν·<br />
ἐν δ᾽ αὐτοῖς ῾Ιέρων προτέροις ἴσος ἡρώεσσι
80<br />
ζώννυται, ἵππειαι δὲ κόρυν σκεπάουσιν ἔθειραι.<br />
αἰ γὰρ Ζεῦ κύδιστε πάτερ καὶ πότνι᾽ ᾿Αθάνα<br />
κούρη θ᾽, ἣ σὺν ματρὶ πολυκλήρων ᾿Εφυραίων<br />
εἴληχας μέγα ἄστυ παρ᾽ ὕδασι Λυσιμελείας,<br />
ἐχθροὺς ἐκ νάσοιο κακὰ πέμψειεν ἀνάγκα
85<br />
Σαρδόνιον κατὰ κῦμα, φίλων μόρον ἀγγέλλοντας<br />
τέκνοις ἠδ᾽ ἀλόχοισιν, ἀριθμητοὺς ἀπὸ πολλῶν·<br />
ἄστεά τε προτέροισι πάλιν ναίοιτο πολίταις,<br />
δυσμενέων ὅσα χεῖρες ἐλωβήσαντο κατάκρας·<br />
ἀγροὺς δ᾽ ἐργάζοιντο τεθαλότας: αἱ δ᾽ ἀνάριθμοι
90<br />
μήλων χιλιάδες βοτάνᾳ διαπιανθεῖσαι<br />
ἀμπεδίον βληχοῖντο, βόες δ᾽ ἀγελαδὸν ἐς αὖλιν<br />
ἐρχόμεναι σκνιφαῖον ἐπισπεύδοιεν ὁδίταν·<br />
νειοὶ δ᾽ ἐκπονέοιντο ποτὶ σπόρον, ἁνίκα τέττιξ<br />
ποιμένας ἐνδίους πεφυλαγμένος ἔνδοθι δένδρων
95<br />
ἀχεῖ ἐν ἀκρεμόνεσσιν: ἀράχνια δ᾽ εἰς ὅπλ᾽ ἀράχναι<br />
λεπτὰ διαστήσαιντο, βοᾶς δ᾽ ἔτι μηδ᾽ ὄνομ᾽ εἴη.</span></blockquote>
83 <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">κούρη θ᾽, ἣ σὺν ματρὶ</span> (the Maiden with her mother) = Persephone and Demeter
Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-69779962772641502102024-03-20T12:04:00.000-05:002024-03-20T12:04:08.223-05:00Two HabitsKenneth Dover (1920-2010), <i>Marginal Comment</i>, edd. Stephen Halliwell and Christopher Stray (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023), p. 96 (chapter 9, footnotes omitted):
<blockquote>My tutor in ancient history was Russell Meiggs,
who made no allowance at all for the fact that we had all been away from academic
work for several years. In that he was right, for once excuses are allowed they begin
to breed. His comments on our essays were always penetrating, sometimes brutal;
it was several weeks before I wrung a word of praise from him, and the end of term
before I discovered that he regarded me highly.
This would have been a pleasing
recompense for working a seventy-hour week, if recompense had been needed, but
the intellectual excitement of immersion in the history of fifth-century Athens —
the first volume of Gomme's <i>Historical Commentary on Thucydides</i> had just been
published — was its own reward. Meiggs combined an expertise in documentary
inscriptions with a down-to-earth curiosity about how things really worked, and
how people really felt, in the ancient world. He had no time for the kind of solution
of historical problems which shuffles the ingredients of a problem into an ingenious
pattern and turns history into an intellectual game. The seed of two habits was
planted in me by Meiggs more firmly than either of us realised at the time. One
was: on any question in Greek history or the Greek language, go first to inscriptions
and only after that to literature. The general practice among ancient historians in
the English-speaking world had been to treat Herodotus, Thucydides and
Xenophon as 'authorities' and inscriptions as an optional side-dish. I preferred to
begin with the inscriptions, construct historical hypotheses to account for <i>this</i>
stone, bearing <i>these</i> words, found <i>here</i>, and then to see how the historiography of
the time fitted. Students of the Greek language mostly ignored the existence of
inscriptions, and even in my own time good scholars have made untrue statements
through failure to look in the right places. The second thing I learned from Meiggs
was never for a moment to forget that the people whose activities I was studying
were <i>real</i>, and that I must make every possible effort to put myself into their place.</blockquote>Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-51030169799601406212024-03-20T07:30:00.000-05:002024-03-20T07:30:08.858-05:00A Swollen HeadAugustine, <i>Sermons</i> 142.5 (<i>Patrologia Latina</i>, vol. 38, cols. 780-781; tr. Edmund Hill):
<blockquote>However, your head was swollen with pride, and the very swelling made it impossible for you to come back through the narrow gate. The one who became the way cries out, Enter by the narrow door (Mt 7:13). You make an effort to enter, your swollen head prevents you; and your efforts are all the more damaging, the more your swollen condition gets in the way. The door's narrowness irritates your swollen head, and the irritation makes it swell all the more. If you go on swelling up, when will you ever get in? So you must get the swelling down, if you are keen to enter.
<br /><br />
But how are you to get your head unswollen? You must accept the medicine of humility. To counter the swelling, you must drink a bitter, but wholesome draft; you must drink the draft of humility. Why should you constrict yourself? Your bulk doesn't let you through, a bulk that's swollen, not just big; if it's big, it's solid; if it's swollen it's just so much hot air.
<br /><br />
Tumuerat autem superbia, et ipso tumore per angustum redire non poterat. Clamat ille, qui factus est via: Intrate per angustam portam. Conatur ingredi, impedit tumor; et tanto magis perniciose conatur, quanto magis impedit tumor. Tumidum enim vexat angustia; vexatus autem amplius tumebit. Amplius tumens, quando intrabit? Ergo detumescat, si cupit ingredi.
<br /><br />
Unde autem detumescat? Accipiat humilitatis medicamentum. Bibat contra tumorem poculum amarum, sed salubre; bibat poculum humilitatis. Quid se artat? Non sinit moles, non magna, sed tumida; magnitudo enim soliditatem habet, tumor inflationem.</blockquote>
Hill changed the third person to the second.Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-69500310428879788232024-03-20T06:13:00.002-05:002024-03-20T06:30:16.958-05:00The Seikilos InscriptionInscription from Tralles (1st century AD), now in Copenhagen, National Museum of Denmark
(Inv. 14897), Greek text from Josef Stauber, <i>Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten, Bd. I: Die Westküste Kleinasiens von Knidos bis Ilion</i> (Stuttgart; B.G. Teubner, 1998), pp. 207-208 (number 02/02/07) =
Werner Peek, <i>Griechische Vers-Inschriften</i>, Vol. I: <i>Grab-Epigramme</i> (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1955), p. 609 (number 1955), tr. Robert A. Rohland, <i>Carpe Diem: The Poetics of Presence in Greek and Latin Literature</i> (Cambridge University Press, 2023), p. 2:
<blockquote>I, the stone, am an image. Seikilos placed me here as<br />
long-lasting sign of immortal remembrance.<br /><br />
As long as you're alive, shine (?), don't be sad at all;<br />
life is short, time asks for its due.<br /><br />
Seikilos, son of Euterpes; during his lifetime.
<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
εἰκὼν ἡ λίθος | εἰμί· τίθησι μὲ | Σείκιλος ἔνθα<br />
μνήμης ἀθανάτου | σῆμα πολυχρόνιον.
<br /><br />
ὅσον ζῇς, φαίνου· |<br />
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ | λυποῦ·<br />
πρὸς ὀλί|γον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν, |<br />
τὸ τέλος ὁ χρό|νος ἀπαιτεῖ. |
<br /><br />
Σείκιλος Εὐτέρ(που)· | ζῇ.</span></blockquote>
Translation of the song portion by M.L. West, <i>Ancient Greek Music</i> (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), p. 301:
<blockquote>While you're alive, shine, man,<br />
don't be the least bit blue.<br />
Life's for a little span;<br />
Time demands its due.</blockquote>
Image of the stone from Stauber, p. 207 (I can't find an image at <a href="https://natmus.dk/">https://natmus.dk/</a>):
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV5KLl7jJAoJepIUYV5pCDvnm-yZbCMkHSrmFyhzHe017R3sRfz2QaD9KnZc6S10Q4Py9g9KeJP0sN22ut3BIhZxMLUmDKwZ6lnXdUEjs__IQ_V-pWjxbgcwE3yF8xkrLX2nxJ5tI-NPdAYiSnoMgsBYNavtfElBpN0ILi-bELEYPNYHdVdTN7Ig/s612/seikilos-inscription.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="209" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV5KLl7jJAoJepIUYV5pCDvnm-yZbCMkHSrmFyhzHe017R3sRfz2QaD9KnZc6S10Q4Py9g9KeJP0sN22ut3BIhZxMLUmDKwZ6lnXdUEjs__IQ_V-pWjxbgcwE3yF8xkrLX2nxJ5tI-NPdAYiSnoMgsBYNavtfElBpN0ILi-bELEYPNYHdVdTN7Ig/s600/seikilos-inscription.png" /></a></div>
Modern musical notation by Armand D'Angour, in Tom Phillips and Armand D'Angour, edd.,
<i>Music, Text, and Culture in Ancient Greece</i> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), p. 69:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKen6m42einASya5epWxyYITZS5SPpVnsruVsdBY1mwzh-ZqielJsKj8L6s0yIn5Yq8doTqtG9mVLSFYu6GJPGvDV3_IDE60RfJ8a4y2vXQBBUkTaWI0sCdlrYLEqfWJHD1wkE1FhtI5c3Sq8ytkVn7n_gEHwGI4F4Nf6VV5F-6oOf7BzZ13-cww/s780/seikilos-music.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="112" data-original-width="780" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKen6m42einASya5epWxyYITZS5SPpVnsruVsdBY1mwzh-ZqielJsKj8L6s0yIn5Yq8doTqtG9mVLSFYu6GJPGvDV3_IDE60RfJ8a4y2vXQBBUkTaWI0sCdlrYLEqfWJHD1wkE1FhtI5c3Sq8ytkVn7n_gEHwGI4F4Nf6VV5F-6oOf7BzZ13-cww/s600/seikilos-music.png" width="600" /></a></div>
Performance by David Creese at <a href="https://soundcloud.com/info-1488/david-creese-sings-seikilos">https://soundcloud.com/info-1488/david-creese-sings-seikilos</a>.Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935968.post-49612742400680230632024-03-19T09:55:00.000-05:002024-03-19T09:55:27.107-05:00No Greater GoodHegesippus, fragment 2 Kassel and Austin (<i>Poetae Comici Graeci</i>, vol. V, p. 551; tr. S. Douglas Olson):
<blockquote>When someone demanded that the wise Epicurus<br>
tell him what "the Good" they're<br>
constantly looking for is, he said it was pleasure.<br>
Well done, best and wisest!<br>
There's no greater good than chewing;<br>
the Good's an attribute of pleasure.
<br><br>
<span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">
Ἐπίκουρος ὁ σοφὸς ἀξιώσαντός τινος<br>
εἰπεῖν πρὸς αὐτὸν ὅ τι ποτ᾿ ἐστὶ τἀγαθόν,<br>
ὃ διὰ τέλους ζητοῦσιν, εἶπεν ἡδονήν.<br>
εὖ γ᾿, ὦ κράτιστ᾿ ἄνθρωπε καὶ σοφώτατε·<br>
τοῦ γὰρ μασᾶσθαι κρεῖττον οὐκ ἔστ᾿ οὐδὲ ἓν
5<br>
ἀγαθόν· πρόσεστιν ἡδονῇ γὰρ τἀγαθόν.</span>
<br><br>
3 <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">εἶπεν</span> Casaubon: <span style="font-family: Gentium, Palatino Linotype, Arial Unicode MS;">εἰπεῖν</span> codd.</blockquote>
Cf. Epicurus, fragment 409 Usener (<i>Epicurea</i>, pp. 278-279).Michael Gillelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.com