Archilochus, fr. 15= Stob. 4.56.30
“Perikles, no citizen will find fault with our painful mourning
Not even when the whole state is celebrating its feasts.
That’s the kind of people the wave of the resounding sea
Took from us, and our lungs are swollen with pain.
Well, the gods have given us strong resilience
For medicine: different people have pain at different times,
And now it is ours: we recoil from a bloody wound but
Later it will belong to others. Come, hold fast,
Push off weakening grief.”*
κήδεα μὲν στονόεντα, Περίκλεες, οὔτε τις ἀστῶν
μεμφόμενος θαλίῃς τέρψεται οὐδὲ πόλις·
τοίους γὰρ κατὰ κῦμα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης
ἔκλυσεν, οἰδαλέους δ᾿ ἀμφ᾿ ὀδύνῃς ἔχομεν
πνεύμονας. ἀλλὰ θεοὶ γὰρ ἀνηκέστοισι κακοῖσιν,
ὦ φίλ᾿, ἐπὶ κρατερὴν τλημοσύνην ἔθεσαν
φάρμακον. ἄλλοτε ἄλλος ἔχει τόδε· νῦν μὲν ἐς ἡμέας
ἐτράπεθ᾿, αἱματόεν δ᾿ ἕλκος ἀναστένομεν,
ἐξαῦτις δ᾿ ἑτέρους ἐπαμείψεται. ἀλλὰ τάχιστα
τλῆτε, γυναικεῖον πένθος ἀπωσάμενοι.
*I decided to leave the misogyny out of this translation, but it is still there! The adjective here in Greek is gunaikeion, or,” womanly”
there’s no misogyny here: we all come from a bloody wound, and that’s it.
disagree, based on the words.
it was heroic act of a woman on childbirth, now let us do the same..
womanly is not a “dirty” word.
🙏
did not say it was. In this context, it is compared negatively to being manly and used as a pejorative with grief.
he is saying that it is not shame to cry. as some women cry when delivering. babies from a bloody wound 🙏
and there is only air in our lungs…
misanthropy, maybe?
it was heroic act of a woman on childbirth, now let us do the same..
womanly is not a dirty word.
🙏