Earlier in the week we posted a passage from Xenophon’s Memorabilia about the rich and the poor (focusing more on having or not having…)
Here’s a fragment from Euripides:
“Wealth and too much luxury
Are the wrong lessons for manly men.
Poverty is wretched but at least it raises up
Children better at working and getting things done.”
κακόν τι παίδευμ’ ἦν ἄρ’ εἰς εὐανδρίαν
ὁ πλοῦτος ἀνθρώποισιν αἵ τ’ ἄγαν τρυφαί·
πενία δὲ δύστηνον μέν, ἀλλ’ ὅμως τρέφει
μοχθεῖν τ’ ἀμείνω τέκνα καὶ δραστήρια.
This is from a play named Alexander, probably about how Paris (of Trojan War fame) grew up outside his household. I guess that the argument made here is that such an upbringing is better for “manliness” (εἰς εὐανδρίαν). But I am not sure Hektor would agree…
