The Curriculum Vitae of Telephos of Pergamon

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Suda, s.v. Τήλεφος

Telephos the Pergamêne, a scholar. He also wrote […] in which he specifies all the things a scholar needs to know. In addition: On Homeric Figures of Speech (two books); On Attic Syntax (five books); On Rhetoric in Homer; On Agreement of Homer and Plato; On A Varied Love of Knowledge; The Lives of Tragic and Comic Poets; On Expert Knowledge of Books, three books in which he lists the books which are worth having. Only Homer of the Ancient Poets Speaks Greek, A Description of Pergamon; On the Sebasteion in Pergamon (two books); On the Courts of Athens; On Athenian Laws and Customs; On the Kings of Pergamon (five books); Concerning the Names or Use of Clothing and Other Items which We Use (an alphabetical catalogue); On the Wandering of Odysseus; Swift-Born (a collection of epithets prepared for use in the same situation as a treasure-trove for description), ten books.”

Περγαμηνός, γραμματικός. ἔγραψε καὶ αὐτὸς ** ἐν οἷς παρατίθεται πόσα χρὴ εἰδέναι τὸν γραμματικόν· Περὶ τῶν παρ᾽ ῾Ομήρωι σχημάτων ῥητορικῶν βιβλία β̄· Περὶ συντάξεως λόγου᾽Αττικοῦ βιβλία ε̄· Περὶ τῆς καθ᾽ ῞Ομηρον ῥητορικῆς· Περὶ τῆς ῾Ομήρου καὶ Πλάτωνος συμφωνίας· Ποικίλης φιλομαθείας βιβλία β̄· βίους τραγικῶν καὶ κωμικῶν· βιβλιακῆς ἐμπειρίας βιβλία γ̄, ἐν οἷς διδάσκει τὰ κτήσεως ἄξια βιβλία· ῞Οτι μόνος ῞Ομηρος τῶν ἀρχαίων ἑλληνίζει· Περιήγησιν Περγάμου· Περὶ τοῦ ἐν Περγάμωι Σεβαστίου βιβλία β̄· Περὶ τῶν᾽Αθήνησι δικαστηρίων· Περὶ τῶν᾽Αθήνησι νόμων καὶ ἐθῶν· Περὶ τῶν Περγάμου Βασιλέων βιβλία ε̄· Περὶ χρήσεως ἤτοι ὀνομάτων ἐσθῆτος καὶ τῶν ἄλλων οἷς χρώμεθα (ἔστι δὲ κατὰ στοιχεῖον)· Περὶ τῆς᾽Οδυσσέως πλάνης· ᾽Ωκυτόκιον (ἔστι δὲ συναγωγὴ ἐπιθέτων εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ πρᾶγμα ἁρμοζόντων πρὸς ἕτοιμον εὐπορίαν φράσεως) βιβλία ῑ.

byzantium libraries
From Medievalists.net

The Vanity of Human Achievement

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Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy 1.2.3:

“Of so many myriads of poets, rhetoricians, philosophers, sophisters, as Eusebius well observes, which have written in former ages, scarce one of a thousand’s works remains, nomina et libri simul cum corporibus interierunt, their books and bodies are perished together. It is not as they vainly think, they shall surely be admired and immortal, as one told Philip of Macedon insultingly, after a victory, that his shadow was no longer than before, we may say to them,

Nos demiramur, sed non cum deside vulgo,
Sed velut Harpyas, Gorgonas, et Furias.
We marvel too, not as the vulgar we,
But as we Gorgons, Harpies, or Furies see.

Or if we do applaud, honour and admire, quota pars, how small a part, in respect of the whole world, never so much as hears our names, how few take notice of us, how slender a tract, as scant as Alcibiades’ land in a map! And yet every man must and will be immortal, as he hopes, and extend his fame to our antipodes, when as half, no not a quarter of his own province or city, neither knows nor hears of him—but say they did, what’s a city to a kingdom, a kingdom to Europe, Europe to the world, the world itself that must have an end, if compared to the least visible star in the firmament, eighteen times bigger than it? and then if those stars be infinite, and every star there be a sun, as some will, and as this sun of ours hath his planets about him, all inhabited, what proportion bear we to them, and where’s our glory? Orbem terrarum victor Romanus habebat, as he cracked in Petronius, all the world was under Augustus: and so in Constantine’s time, Eusebius brags he governed all the world, universum mundum praeclare admodum administravit,—et omnes orbis gentes Imperatori subjecti: so of Alexander it is given out, the four monarchies, &c. when as neither Greeks nor Romans ever had the fifteenth part of the now known world, nor half of that which was then described. What braggadocios are they and we then? quam brevis hic de nobis sermo, as he said, pudebit aucti nominis, how short a time, how little a while doth this fame of ours continue?

Every private province, every small territory and city, when we have all done, will yield as generous spirits, as brave examples in all respects, as famous as ourselves, Cadwallader in Wales, Rollo in Normandy, Robin Hood and Little John, are as much renowned in Sherwood, as Caesar in Rome, Alexander in Greece, or his Hephestion, Omnis aetas omnisque populus in exemplum et admirationem veniet, every town, city, book, is full of brave soldiers, senators, scholars; and though Bracyclas was a worthy captain, a good man, and as they thought, not to be matched in Lacedaemon, yet as his mother truly said, plures habet Sparta Bracyda meliores, Sparta had many better men than ever he was; and howsoever thou admirest thyself, thy friend, many an obscure fellow the world never took notice of, had he been in place or action, would have done much better than he or he, or thou thyself.”

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Latin vs. Philology, Part XX

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Francesco Fielfo, Letter to Lorenzo Medici (Part 20):

“I would nevertheless not deny to you that my first wife, who was more dear to me than life itself, Theodora Chrysolorina, the granddaughter of that most eminent man Manuel Chrysoloras, whom I mentioned earlier, led me to knowledge of Greek. For my father in law, her father, Johannes Chrysoloras, that most splendid golden knight, taught me literature and the other disciplines of the Greeks.

My wife Theodora was endowed with an entirely temperate and sweet speech (and it was Attic in the highest degree), which had nothing of an admixture of foreign and bumbling speech. For, since those noble Byzantine women, always kept themselves at home in respect of the old custom, and never went anywhere during the day, but only at night, with veiled faces and accompanied by their domestics and the people most connected to them, when they either sought some temple on holiday or visited their close relations from a sense of duty, they preserved the antiquity of incorrupt speech because of their solitude.

I think that Constantine brought this custom from Rome along with the colony itself. For we hear that at one time, Roman women abstained entirely from the speech with many and were accustomed to keep themselves at home.

Thus it happened that Gaius Sulpicius Gallus divorced his wide, because he had recognized her out in the city with an unveiled head, and old Quintus Antistius repudiated his wide, because he had seen her in public speaking secretly with a common freedwoman.

‘For my part,’ said Crassus, ‘when I hear my mother in law Laellia – women indeed are able to maintain an uncorrupted and old fashioned speech more easily, because they keep themselves from speaking with the crowd and thus hold on to what they learned first – I seem to hear Plautus or Naevius speaking.’”

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Nec inficier tamen vobis ad graecam locutionem plurimum conduxisse primam illam uxorem meam, quae mihi vita ipsa carior fuit, Theodoram Chrysolorinam, summi illius viri Manuelis Chrysolorae neptem, cuius modo mentionem feci. Nam et litteraturam et caeteras Graecorum disciplinas splendidissimus eques auratus socer meus Ioannes Chrysoloras, huius pater, me docuit.

At uxor illa mea Theodora locutione erat admodum moderata ac suavi, et maxime attica, utpote quae nihil haberet peregrini ineptique sermonis admixtum. Nam quoniam nobiles illae mulieres constantinopolitanae, pro vetere quodam more, semper se domi continerent, neque interdiu unquam egrederentur, sed noctu quandoque duntaxat, dum et equites et facie velata et a domesticis, iisdemque coniunctissimis, comitatae, aut templum aliquod festis diebus peterent, aut officii gratia necessarios inviserent, ob huiusmodi solitudinem antiquitatem etiam illae observabant incorrupti sermonis.

Quam ego consuetudinem puto Constantinum Augustum, una cum colonia, ex urbe Roma Constantinopolin transtulisse. Audimus enim romanas quondam mulieres a multorum sermone vehementer abstinuisse et sese domi continere solitas.

Quo factum est ut G. Sulpitius Gallus uxorem dimiserit, quoniam eam capite aperto foris versatam cognoverat, et Q. Antistium veterem iccirco repudiasse uxorem, quod eam in publico cum libertina vulgari quadam secreto loquentem viderat.

“Equidem” inquit Crassus “cum audio socrum meam Laelliam – facilius enim mulieres incorruptam antiquitatem observant, quod multorum sermonis expertes ea tenent semper quae prima didicerunt – sed eam sic audio ut Plautum mihi aut Naevium videar audire”.

Screaming and Intemperance of Words: A Cruel Reign

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Seneca, De Clementia, 7

“A cruel reign is churning and dark with shadows; meanwhile, people shudder and grow pale at the surprising sound, even as the one who causes the confusion trembles too. Someone is forgiven more easily in private affairs for seeking vengeance for themselves. For they can be wounded and the sorrow comes from the injury and they fear being scorned. It seems that it is weakness for the wounded not to return the favor rather than mercy.

But the one for whom vengeance is easy earns certain praise for clemency once vengeance is dismissed. It is for people in a humble place to use force, to feud, to rush into a battle and to give a free rein to wrath. When blows fall among equals, they are light; but for a king, screaming and intemperance of words are ill-fit to his majesty.”

Crudele regnum turbidum tenebrisque obscurum est, inter trementes et ad repentinum sonitum expavescentes ne eo quidem, qui omnia perturbat, inconcusso. Facilius privatis ignoscitur pertinaciter se vindicantibus; possunt enim laedi, dolorque eorum ab iniuria venit; timent praeterea contemptum, et non rettulisse laedentibus gratiam infirmitas videtur, non clementia; at cui ultio in facili est, is omissa ea certam laudem mansuetudinis consequitur. Humili loco positis exercere manum, litigare, in rixam procurrere ac morem irae suae gerere liberius est; leves inter paria ictus sunt; regi vociferatio quoque verborumque intemperantia non ex maiestate est.

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Liber Floridus

Barren Philology

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Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason:

“The apology that is sometimes made for continuing to teach the dead languages is, that they are taught at a time when a child is not capable of exerting any other mental faculty than that of memory. But this is altogether erroneous. The human mind has a natural disposition to scientific knowledge, and to the things connected with it. The first and favourite amusement of a child, even before it begins to play, is that of imitating the works of man. It builds houses with cards or sticks; it navigates the little ocean of a bowl of water with a paper boat; or dams the stream of a gutter, and contrives something which it calls a mill; and it interests itself in the fate of its works with a care that resembles affection. It afterwards goes to school, where its genius is killed by the barren study of a dead language, and the philosopher is lost in the linguist.

But the apology that is now made for continuing to teach the dead languages could not be the cause at first of cutting down learning to the narrow and humble sphere of linguistry; the cause, therefore, must be sought for elsewhere. In all researches of this kind, the best evidence that can be produced is the internal evidence the thing carries with itself, and the evidence of circumstances that unites with it, both of which, in this case, are not difficult to be discovered.”

Thomas Paine esqr. the spirit of the American Revolution

Better Not to Live Than See These Things!

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This is a real passage from Cicero, unlike some others.

Cicero to Titus, 46 BCE Letters to Friends 5.16

“If your own sorrow moves you or if you are weeping at the thought of your own affairs, then I believe that you cannot easily use up all your pain. If, however, the greater spirit of love tortures who and you grieve over the loss of those who have died, I will not repeat those things which I have most frequently read and heard—that there is nothing bad in death since if any sense of it exists then it should not be considered death but some immortality, while if there is no sense of it at all than what cannot be felt should not be considered pitiable.

But I can still assert this without a second thought: whoever has departed from the current events which have been whipped up and prepared and are hanging over our country has been robbed of nothing. What room is there left any more for shame, honor, virtue, honest pursuits, the noble arts, any kind of liberty or even place of safety?”

Quod si tuum te desiderium movet aut si tuarum rerum cogitatione maeres, non facile exhauriri tibi istum dolorem posse universum puto; sin illa te res cruciat quae magis amoris est, ut eorum qui occiderunt miserias lugeas, ut ea non dicam quae saepissime et legi et audivi, nihil mali esse in morte, ex qua si resideat sensus immortalitas illa potius quam mors ducenda sit, sin sit amissus nulla videri miseria debeat quae non sentiatur, hoc tamen non dubitans confirmare possum, ea misceri, parari, impendere rei publicae quae qui reliquerit nullo modo mihi quidem deceptus esse videatur. quid est enim iam non modo pudori, probitati, virtuti, rectis studiis, bonis artibus sed omnino libertati ac saluti loci?

Death of Cicero

Latin vs. Philology, Part XIX:

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Francesco Filelfo, Letter to Lorenzo Medici (Part 19)

“One who wishes to seem and to be an eloquent man whether among the Greeks or the Romans should study with all his care that he hold onto the language that is most elegant in either tongue.

In this matter, I may toot my own horn, because I employed the assistance of no Latin person, but learned by my own industry and diligence both Greek and Latin (first the simple language and then the language of literature), so that I see that I pursued a thing which happened to no one else from all of human memory up to this time, namely, that no less in verse than in prose, in both Greek and in Latin, in common and in literary speech (as they call it now), I labored over and published so many volumes that now it is easier in some way to write in Greek than in Latin or Italian.”

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“Let me raise a glass to myself.”

Qui virum se eloquentem et haberi et esse voluerit, sive apud Graecos, sive apud Latinos, huic omni cura studendum est, ut in utrisque eam teneat linguam, quae sit elegantissima.

Quibus in rebus illud mihi gloriari licet, quod nullius latini hominis usus adminiculis, sed industria solum diligentiaque mea, ita et graecam et latinam tum linguam tum litteraturam didicerim, ut me videam consecutum quod nemini unquam ex omni hominum memoria in haec tempora contigerit, ut non minus versu quam soluta oratione, et graece et latine, tam vulgari quam litterali eloquio, quod hoc tempore appellant, quam plurima volumina elucubrarim atque aediderim, ut iam mihi facilius sit quodammodo graeco sermone scribere quam latino ac nostro.

Cosmopolitanism and Hate

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Democritus, fr. 247

“The whole earth is open to the wise person, for the entire universe is the country of a good soul.”

ἀνδρὶ σοφῷ πᾶσα γῆ βατή, ψυχῆς γὰρ ἀγαθῆς πατρὶς ὁ ξύμπας κόσμος.

Philostratus, Heroicus 8

“Hate is fear’s kin.”

συγγενὲς γὰρ φόβῳ μῖσος

Dicta Catonis 21

“High things fall because of hate; but minor things are raised up by love.”

Alta cadunt odiis, parva extolluntur amore

Diogenes Laertius, 6.63, on Diogenes the Cynic (4th Century BCE)

“When asked where he was from, he said “I am a world-citizen.”

ἐρωτηθεὶς πόθεν εἴη, “κοσμοπολίτης,” ἔφη.

Tacitus, Agricola 42

“It is central to human nature to hate someone you have harmed.”

proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem laeseris

Epictetus, Dissertationes 1.9.1

“If what is said about the kinship of humans and god by the philosopher is true, what is left for all people other than that advice of Socrates never to say when someone asks where you are from that you are Athenian or Corinthian but that you are a citizen of the world?”

εἰ ταῦτά ἐστιν ἀληθῆ τὰ περὶ τῆς συγγενείας τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων λεγόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν φιλοσόφων, τί ἄλλο ἀπολείπεται τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἢ τὸ τοῦ Σωκράτους, μηδέποτε πρὸς τὸν πυθόμενον ποδαπός ἐστιν εἰπεῖν ὅτι Ἀθηναῖος ἢ Κορίνθιος, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι κόσμιος;

Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.108

“Socrates, when he was asked what state was his, used to say “the world”. For he judged himself an inhabitant and citizen of the whole world.”

Socrates cum rogaretur, cuiatem se esse diceret, Mundanum, inquit. Totius enim mundi se incolam et civem arbitrabatur.”

Seneca, De vita beata, 20.5

“I know that my country is the world and that the gods are guardians, those judges of my deeds and words above and beyond me.”

Patriam meam esse mundum sciam et praesides deos, hos supra circaque me stare factorum dictorumque censores.

Plutarch, De Exilio 600e7-601b5

“This is the character of your current exile from your customary country. For we have no country by nature, just as we have neither home, nor field, nor blacksmith’s, nor doctor’s office, as Aristôn said. But each of these things develops or, rather, is named and called so by the man inhabiting or using it.

For a human being, as Plato says, “is not earthly born and immovable but comes from heaven” just as if the head raises the body up straight from its root stretching towards the sky. So Herakles said well “Am I Argive or Theban? I do not claim / one—every citadel in Greece is my homeland”. But Socrates put it better saying “I am neither Athenian nor Greek, but a citizen of the world,” as someone might claim to be Rhodian or Korinthian, because he did not lock himself within Sounion, Tainaros, or the Keraunian mountains.

As [Euripides] puts it: “Do you see the boundless light above / and the earth opening below with damp embrace?” These are the boundaries of our countries and no man is an exile, foreigner or stranger where there is fire, water, air; where we find the same rulers, overseers, and presidents: the same sun, moon, and star at day’s break; where the same laws exist for all under one order and single government: the summer and winter solstices, the Pleiades and Arcturus, the seasons of planting and harvesting that rise and set for us all; and where there is one king and ruler, god, who knows the beginning, middle and end of everything; who travels through all, guiding it with a straight force. Justice is his attendant as an avenger for those who transgress divine law. We all by nature follow this law in treating all people as our fellow citizens.”

Οἷόν ἐστιν ἡ νῦν σοι παροῦσα μετάστασις ἐκ τῆς νομιζομένης πατρίδος. φύσει γὰρ οὐκ ἔστι πατρίς, ὥσπερ οὐδ’ οἶκος οὐδ’ ἀγρὸς οὐδὲ χαλκεῖον, ὡς ᾿Αρίστων (St. V.

Fr. I 371) ἔλεγεν, οὐδ’ ἰατρεῖον· ἀλλὰ γίνεται μᾶλλον δ’ ὀνομάζεται καὶ καλεῖται τούτων ἕκαστον ἀεὶ πρὸς τὸν οἰκοῦντα καὶ χρώμενον. ὁ γὰρ ἄνθρωπος, ᾗ φησιν ὁ

Πλάτων (Tim. 90a), ‘φυτὸν οὐκ ἔγγειον’ οὐδ’ ἀκίνητον  ‘ἀλλ’ οὐράνιόν’ ἐστιν, ὥσπερ ἐκ ῥίζης τὸ σῶμα τῆς κεφαλῆς ὀρθὸν ἱστάσης πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνεστραμμένον. ὅθεν εὖ μὲν ὁ ῾Ηρακλῆς εἶπεν (Trag. adesp. 392)

‘᾿Αργεῖος ἢ Θηβαῖος· οὐ γὰρ εὔχομαι
μιᾶς· ἅπας μοι πύργος ῾Ελλήνων πατρίς.’

ὁ δὲ Σωκράτης βέλτιον, οὐκ ᾿Αθηναῖος οὐδ’ ῞Ελλην ἀλλὰ κόσμιος εἶναι φήσας, ὡς ἄν τις ῾Ρόδιος εἶπεν ἢ Κορίν-θιος, | ὅτι μηδὲ Σουνίῳ μηδὲ Ταινάρῳ μηδὲ τοῖς Κεραυνίοις ἐνέκλεισεν ἑαυτόν.

‘ὁρᾷς τὸν ὑψοῦ τόνδ’ ἄπειρον αἰθέρα,
καὶ γῆν πέριξ ἔχονθ’ ὑγραῖς <ἐν> ἀγκάλαις;’ (Eur. fr. 941, 1. 2)

οὗτοι τῆς πατρίδος ἡμῶν ὅροι [εἰσί], καὶ οὐδεὶς οὔτε φυγὰς ἐν τούτοις οὔτε ξένος οὔτ’ ἀλλοδαπός, ὅπου τὸ αὐτὸ πῦρ ὕδωρ ἀήρ, ἄρχοντες οἱ αὐτοὶ καὶ διοικηταὶ καὶπρυτάνεις ἥλιος σελήνη φωσφόρος· οἱ αὐτοὶ νόμοι πᾶσι, ὑφ’ ἑνὸς προστάγματος καὶ μιᾶς ἡγεμονίας τροπαὶ βόρειοι τροπαὶ νότιοι ἰσημερίαι Πλειὰς ᾿Αρκτοῦρος ὧραι σπόρων ὧραι φυτειῶν· εἷς δὲ βασιλεὺς καὶ ἄρχων· ‘θεὸς ἀρχήν τε καὶ μέσα καὶ τελευτὴν ἔχων τοῦ παντὸς εὐθείᾳ περαίνει κατὰ φύσιν περιπορευόμενος· τῷ δ’ ἕπεται Δίκη τῶν ἀπολειπομένων τοῦ θείου νόμου τιμωρός’ (Plat. Legg. 716a),ᾗ χρώμεθα πάντες ἄνθρωποι φύσει πρὸς πάντας ἀνθρώπους ὥσπερ πολίτας.

Proclus Life of Homer, 99.14

“Because of that, some people say Homer is from Kolophon, others say Smyrna, while there are those who say he is from Iêtê or Kumê. Generally, every city is fashioned as his, his is why he may be truly called a citizen of the world.”

μετὰ πολλῆς ἀδείας ἕκαστος οἷς ἠβούλετο ἐχαρίσατο. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο οἱ μὲν Κολοφώνιον αὐτὸν ἀνηγόρευσαν, οἱ δὲ Χῖον, οἱ δὲ Σμυρναῖον, οἱ δὲ ᾿Ιήτην, ἄλλοι δὲ Κυμαῖον· καὶ καθόλου πᾶσα πόλις ἀντιποιεῖται τἀνδρός, ὅθεν εἰκότως ἂν κοσμοπολίτης λέγοιτο.

Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.25-6

“All these diseases of the soul develop from a special fear of those things which people fear and then hate. They define a disease of the soul, moreover, as a vehement belief about a thing which is not desired even though it is anticipated powerfully, a belief which is constant and deeply held.”

quae omnes aegrotationes animi ex quodam metu nascuntur earum rerum, quas fugiunt et oderunt. Definiunt autem animi aegrotationem opinationem vehementem de re non expetenda, tamquam valde expetenda sit, inhaerentem et penitus insitam.

Velleius Paterculus, History of Rome 2.16.4

“Gradually, then, by granting citizenship to those who had not carried arms or had put them down rather late, the population was rebuilt as Pompeius, Sulla and Marius restored the flagging and sputtering power of the Roman people.”

Paulatim deinde recipiendo in civitatem, qui arma aut non ceperant aut deposuerant maturius, vires refectae sunt, Pompeio Sullaque et Mano fluentem procumbentemque rem populi Romani restituentibus.

Aristotle, Rhetoric 1395a 33

“[I do not] commend the saying “nothing in excess” because one must hate evil men to the extreme”

“οὐδὲ τὸ μηδὲν ἄγαν· δεῖ γὰρ τούς γε κακοὺς ἄγαν μισεῖν”.

μισητής: misêtês, “hater”

μισογυνής: misogunês, “woman-hating”

μισοβάβαρος: misobarbaros, “hatred of foreigners”

μισοβασιλεύς: misobasileus, “king-hating”

μισόκοσμος: misokosmos, “universe-hating”

μισόνυμφος: misonumphos, “marriage-hating”

μισόπαις: misopais, “child-hating”

μισοπόλεμος: misopolemos, “war-hating”

μισόπτωχος: misoptôkhos, “hating-the-poor”

μισόσοφος: misosophos, “wisdom-hating”

μισοσώματος: misosômatos, “body-hating”

μισόφιλος: misophilos, “friend-hating”

μισοφιλόλογος: misophilologos, “literature-hating”

μισοπώγων: misopôgôn, “beard-hating”

Hate

I Hate You for Hating Philology

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John Adams, 

Letter to Benjamin Rush September 16th, 1810:

“I deceived you a little by an Inference of my own from what The Edinborough Reviewers had written. I know not that they have mentioned you by Name or your Works by their Titles: but I read in them “If every Thing which has ever been written in America (if you except perhaps the Works of Franklin) were annihilated the Sum total of human Knowledge would in no degree be lessened.” I draw the Inference, for Dr Rush’s Works have been written and printed in America. I have felt as well as you The Odium Theologicum; the Odium Politicum, and The Odium Mercatorium. Happily I have escaped as far as I know The Odium Philologium, The Odium Medicum and The Odium Sanguiphobium. I have escaped these Hatreds because I never knew enough about any of them to excite any other Mans Jealousy or Envy.

But now I must tell you a great and grave Truth. I am one among your most Serious haters of the Philological Species. I do most cordially hate you for writing against Latin Greek and Hebrew. I never will forgive you untill you repent, retract and reform. No Never! It is impossible.”

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Wandering Souls and Empty Bodies

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These tales are popular among the paradoxographers. Apollonios also tells of Epimenides and Aristeas, and Hermotimus.

 Pliny the Elder 7. 174-5 

“This is the mortal condition—we are born to face these chance occurrences and others like them so that we ought not even trust death when it comes to a human. We find, among other examples, so soul of Hermotimos the Clazomenian which was in the habit of wandering with his body left behind and after a long journey to announce what they could not know unless they were present. Meanwhile, the body remained half-alive until it was cremated by some enemies called the Cantharidae who, ultimately, stole from the returning body as if taking away a sheath.

We also know of Aristeas of Procennesus whose soul was seen alighting from his mouth in the image of a crow—along with the excessive fiction that accompanies this tale. I also approach the story of Epimenides of Knossos in a similar way: when he was a boy and tired out by heat and a journey he went to sleep in a cave and slumbered for 57 years. Upon waking, he wondering and the shape of things and the change as if it were just the next day. Even though old age overcame him in the same number of days as years slept, he still lived to 157 years old.

The gender of women seems to be especially susceptible to this ill because of the disruption of the womb—which, if corrected can restore proper breathing. That work famous among the Greeks of Heraclides pertains to this subject as well—he tells the story of a woman returned to life after being dead for seven days.”

haec est conditio mortalium: ad has et eiusmodi occasiones fortunae gignimur, ut de homine ne morti quidem debeat credi. reperimus inter exempla Hermotimi Clazomenii animam relicto corpore errare solitam vagamque e longinquo multa adnuntiare quae nisi a praesente nosci non possent, corpore interim semianimi, donec cremato eo inimici qui Cantharidae vocabantur remeanti animae veluti vaginam ademerint; Aristeae etiam visam evolantem ex ore in Proconneso corvi effigie, cum magna quae sequitur hanc fabulositate. quam equidem et in Gnosio Epimenide simili modo accipio, puerum aestu et itinere fessum in specu septem et quinquaginta dormisse annis, rerum faciem mutationemque mirantem velut postero die experrectum, hinc pari numero dierum senio ingruente, ut tamen in septimum et quinquagesimum atque centesimum vitae duraret annum. feminarum sexus huic malo videtur maxime opportunus conversione volvae, quae si corrigatur, spiritus restituitur. huc pertinet nobile illud apud Graecos volumen Hexaclidis septem diebus feminae exanimis ad vitam revocatae.

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