3 posts tagged “greek”
This was my birthday book from J. - an anthology of sweet classical candy!
[Antisthenes] also shows an awareness of the important principle of context, or the need to consider the circumstances in which something is said, who says it and so on, which anticipates the later λύσις εκ προσώπου 'solution by reference to the character concerned.' For instance, in discussing the problem of the Cyclopes, who are called ὑπερφίαλοι (overbearing) and ἀθέμιστοι (lawless) (Od. 9.106) and are said by Polyphemus to pay no heed to the gods (275 f.), yet enjoy a kind of Golden Age life under divine protection (107 ff., cf. 1.70, 7.206), Antisthenes said that only Polyphemus was unjust, and the fact that the others did not have to cultivate the earth showed their justice (fr. 53. Schol. Od. 9.106). He probably argued here, as the Scholia do, that one should remember that it was Polyphemus who said that they were independent of the gods, and not the poet himself.
-N.J. Richardson, "Homeric Professors in the Age of Sophists"
In the first debate between Aper and Maternus, Aper argues that the poet gets little respect (9.1-10.2). He has a great deal of fun (9.3-4) describing how the harried poet, after sweating over his verses day and night for a year, is forced, when it comes time to give a recitation, to pressure friends into attending. At his own expense he fits out an auditorium, rents the seats, and gets the programs ready. His reward? At the recitation he is greeted with a scattering of applause and a few empty-headed bravos; within two days no one remembers a thing about it.
-T.J. Luce, "Reading and Response in Tacitus' Dialogus"
Who was it that distinguished the lyric from the dramatic? No plot here but grief. Some ways to grieve in ancient Greek:
aiai!
oa!
popoi!
totoi!
oi!
ēe!
pheu!
I needed something to help chill out and cheer up before my exam today. M.L. West sez: "A surly, conservative countryman, given to reflection, no lover of women or life, who felt the gods' presence heavy about him." None of that describes me (except the reflection and possibly the surliness), but I like the myths about Zeus and Kronos and Ouranos devouring and castrating each other, and I really like the advice on farming.
abouteō is the adjective for "having no oxen." It describes me, and probably you; so the crane vexes our hearts.Mark, when you hear the voice of the crane who cries year by year from the clouds above, for she gives the signal for ploughing and shows the season of rainy winter; but she vexes the heart of the man who has no oxen. Then is the time to feed up your horned oxen in the byre; for it is easy to say; "Give me a yoke of oxen and a waggon," and it is easy to refuse: "I have work for my oxen." The man who is rich in fancy thinks his waggon as good as built already -- the fool! he does not know that there are a hundred timbers to a waggon. Take care to lay these up beforehand at home.
(P.S. "Do not let a flaunting woman coax and cozen and deceive you: she is after your barn.")
