Death Scenes for Your Favorite Tragedians

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Valerius Maximus, Memorable Words and Deeds 9.12

“Aeschylus did not meet a willing death, but it is worth mentioning because of its novelty. As he was leaving the walls where he was staying in Italy, he stopped in a sunny spot. An eagle who was flying above him carrying a tortoise was tricked by his shining skull—for he had no hair—and it dropped it on him as if he were a stone so that it might eat the flesh from the broken shell. By that strike, the origin and font of a better type of tragedy was extinct.”

[….]

“But Euripides’ death was a bit more savage. As he was returning from dinner with Archelaus to the place where he was staying in Macedonia, he died, lacerated by the bites of dogs. Such a genius did not merit this cruel fate.”

[…]

“When Sophocles was extremely old, and he had entered a tragedy competition, he was agitated for too long over the uncertain outcome of the vote, but when he was the winner by a single vote, his joy was the cause of his death.”

Aeschyli vero poetae excessus quem ad modum non voluntarius sic propter novitatem casus referendus. in Sicilia moenibus urbis, in qua morabatur, egressus aprico in loco resedit. super quem aquila testudinem ferens elusa splendore capitis—erat enim capillis vacuum—perinde atque lapidi eam illisit, ut fractae carne vesceretur, eoque ictu origo et principium <per>fectioris tragoediae exstinctum est.

Sed atrocius aliquanto Euripides finitus est: ab Archelai enim regis cena in Macedonia domum hospitalem repetens, canum morsibus laniatus obiit: crudelitas fati tanto ingenio non debita.

Sophocles ultimae iam senectutis, cum in certamen tragoediam demisisset, ancipiti sententiarum eventu diu sollicitus, aliquando tamen una sententia victor causam mortis gaudium habuit.

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On The Razor’s Edge

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Erasmus, Adagia 1.1.18:

 

“That old saying, which was taken from Homer and made into a famous adage by the greatest authors, is hardly dissimilar to the ones previously mentioned: Ἐπὶ ξυροῦ ἀκμῆς, that is, on the razor’s edge or on the point of the knife, which is to say, at the most decisive point. Thus Nestor puts it in the tenth book of the Iliad:

Νῦν γὰρ δὴ πάντεσσιν ἐπὶ ξυροῦ ἵσταται ἀκμῆς

Ἢ μάλα λυγρὸς ὄλεθρον Ἀχαιοῖς ἠὲ βιῶναι,

That is,

‘Now the matter stands on the edge of the knife:

Whether the Achaeans life, or whether they be consumed by a sad fate.’

Sophocles, in Antigone, writes:

‘Consider carefully, now that you have stepped upon the razor’s edge.’

There are also the words of the seer Tiresias as he warns Creon to be wise, since he is set amidst the greatest danger.

Again, in the Epigrams:

Εὐρώπης Ἀσίης τε δορυσθενέες βασιλῆες,

Ὑμῖν ἀμφοτέροισιν ἐπὶ ξυροῦ ἵσταται ἀκμή,

That is,

‘Kings of Europe and Asia, powerful in war, now both of your fortunes are set upon the razor’s edge.’

About Menelaus and Paris, fighting in single combat to determine which would take hold of Helen, Theocritus writes in his Dioscuri:

Ἀνθρώπων σωτῆρας ἐπὶ ξυροῦ ἤδη ἐόντων,

That is,

‘The certain salvation of humans standing on the point of the sword.’

This seems to be taken from the street swindlers, who walk upon the edges of swords, or from those who handle blades with their hands (as the published scholia suggest for this author).”

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In acie novaculae.xviii

Nec abhorret a superioribus illud, quod ab Homero sumptum maximisque celebratum auctoribus in adagionem abiit : Ἐπὶ ξυροῦ ἀκμῆς, id est In novaculae cuspide sive acie, pro eo, quod est : in summo discrimine. Sic enim in Iliadis decimo loquitur Nestor :

Νῦν γὰρ δὴ πάντεσσιν ἐπὶ ξυροῦ ἵσταται ἀκμῆς

Ἢ μάλα λυγρὸς ὄλεθρον Ἀχαιοῖς ἠὲ βιῶναι,

id est

Nunc etenim cunctis sita res in cuspide ferri est,

Vivantne an tristi exitio absumantur Achivi.

Sophocles in Antigone :

Φρόνει, βεβὼς αὖ νῦν ἐπὶ ξυροῦ τύχης

Sunt etiam Tiresiae vatis verba Creontem admonentis, ut sapiat in tanto constitutus periculo. Rursus in Epigrammatibus :

Εὐρώπης Ἀσίης τε δορυσθενέες βασιλῆες,

Ὑμῖν ἀμφοτέροισιν ἐπὶ ξυροῦ ἵσταται ἀκμή,

id est

Europae atque Asiae reges Mavorte potentes,

Nunc vobis utrisque novaclae in acumine est.

De Menelao ac Paride singulari certamine decernentibus, uter Helena potiretur. Theocritus in Dioscuris :

Ἀνθρώπων σωτῆρας ἐπὶ ξυροῦ ἤδη ἐόντων,

id est

Certa salus hominum jam ferri in cuspide stantum.

Sumptum videtur a circulatoribus, qui in cuspide gladiorum ingrediuntur, aut ab iis, qui ferrum manu contrectant, ut admonent in hunc auctorem aedita scholia.

Birthday Parties in Greece and Rome

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Someone turns 40 today. Several years ago I posted an absurd speculation about how to say happy birthday in Ancient Greek. Evidence from the ancient world reveals that parents held birthday sacrifices and feasts for children, communities observed birthday feasts for gods and heroes, and people arranged for their own birthday feasts as well. In addition, poetic, political, and philosophical luminaries had their birthdays celebrated after death. And, strangely enough, some people provided for their own postmortem birthday celebrations in their wills.

Porphyry, Life of Plotinus, 2.35

“And he neither revealed to anyone the month in which he was born nor the day of his birth because he did not think it right for anyone to sacrifice or have a feast on his birthday even though he sacrificed and held meals for his friends on the birthdays conventionally dedicated to Plato and Socrates—when it was necessary that the friends who were capable read aloud some argument to those who had gathered.”

οὔτε δὲ τὸν μῆνα δεδήλωκέ τινι καθ᾿ ὃν γεγέννηται, οὔτε τὴν γενέθλιον ἡμέραν, ἐπεὶ οὐδὲ θύειν ἢ ἑστιᾶν τινα τοῖς αὐτου γενεθλίοις ἠξίου, καίπερ ἐν τοῖς Πλάτωνος καὶ Σωκράτους παραδεδομένοις γενεθλίοις θύων τε καὶ ἑστιῶν τοὺς ἑταίρους, ὅτε καὶ λόγον ἔδει τῶν ἑταίρων τοὺς δυνατοὺς ἐπὶ τῶν συνελθόντων ἀναγνῶναι.

Plautus, Pseudolus 165-6

“Today is my birthday, and you all should celebrate it with me.
Put the ham, pork rind, innards and sow’s teats in the water. Can you hear me?”

nam mi hodie natalis dies est, decet eum omnis uosconcelebrare.
pernam, callum, glandium, sumen facito in aquaiaceant. satin audis?

A fancy birthday pen…

Greek Anthology, 6.227 Crinagoras of Mytilene

Procles sends this, on your birthday,
This silver newly made pen tip in its holder
With two easily dividable ends,
It moves well over a flowing page
A small gift but one from a bigger heart
A close friend for your recent ease for learning.”

Ἀργύρεόν σοι τόνδε, γενέθλιον ἐς τεὸν ἦμαρ,
Πρόκλε, νεόσμηκτον †δουρατίην κάλαμον,
εὖ μὲν ἐϋσχίστοισι διάγλυπτον κεράεσσιν,
εὖ δὲ ταχυνομένην εὔροον εἰς σελίδα,
πέμπει Κριναγόρης, ὀλίγην δόσιν, ἀλλ᾿ ἀπὸ θυμοῦ
πλείονος, ἀρτιδαεῖ σύμπνοον εὐμαθίῃ.

A homemade gift….

6.326 Leonidas

“One sends you from nets, another from the air or sea,
Eupolis, these birthday gift,
But take from me a line from a Muses, which
Will remain with you always as a sign of friendship and learning.”

Ἄλλος ἀπὸ σταλίκων, ὁ δ᾿ ἀπ᾿ ἠέρος, ὃς δ᾿ ἀπὸ πόντου,
Εὔπολι, σοὶ πέμπει δῶρα γενεθλίδια·
ἀλλ᾿ ἐμέθεν δέξαι Μουσῶν στίχον, ὅστις ἐς αἰεὶ
μίμνει, καὶ φιλίης σῆμα καὶ εὐμαθίης

Birthdays ad infinitum

Select Papyri, Wills 84a (Roman Period)

“My wife, and after her death, my son Deios, will give to my slaves and freedmen [100 drachma] for a feats they will hold near my grave every year on my birthday.”

δώσει δὲ ἡ γυνή μου καὶ μετὰ τελευτὴν αὐτῆς ὁ υἱός μου Δεῖος τοῖς δούλοις μου καὶ ἀπελευθέρ[οι]ς εἰς εὐωχίαν αὐτῶν ἣν ποιήσονται πλησίον τοῦ τάφου μου κατ᾿ ἔτος τῇ γενεθλίᾳ μου

Cicero, De Finibus 2.102

“Therefore, no one has a true birthday. “But the day is observed.” And I take that as if I did not know it. But, is it right that this is still celebrated after death? And to put it in a will when he told us as if giving an oracle that nothing matters to us after death?”

Nullus est igitur cuiusquam dies natalis. ‘At habetur.’ Et ego id scilicet nesciebam! Sed ut sit, etiamne post mortem coletur? idque testamento cavebit is qui nobis quasi oraculum ediderit nihil post mortem ad nos pertinere?

Invitation to a rural birthday party

Alciphron, Letter 3.18

“When we have a feast for the birthday of my child, I invite you to come to the party, Pithakniôn—and not only you, but bring your wife, children, your worker. And, if you wish, bring your dog: she’s a good guard and she frightens away those who plot against the flocks with her loud barking.”

Τοὐμοῦ παιδίου γενέσια ἑορτάζων ἥκειν σε ἐπὶ τὴν πανδαισίαν, ὦ Πιθακνίων, παρακαλῶ, ἥκειν δὲ οὐ μόνον ἀλλ᾿ ἐπαγόμενον τὴν γυναῖκα καὶ τὰ παιδία καὶ τὸν συνέργαστρον· εἰ βούλοιο δέ, καὶ τὴν κύνα, ἀγαθὴν οὖσαν φύλακα καὶ τῷ βάρει τῆς ὑλακῆς ἀποσοβοῦσαν τοὺς ἐπιβουλεύοντας τοῖς ποιμνίοις.

Imperial Birthday appropriation

Ad. M. Caes III.9 Marcus Aurelius to Fronto

Dear best teacher,

I know that on everyone’s birthday friends make prayers for the person whose birthday it is. Nevertheless, because I love you as much as I love myself, I wish on this birthday of yours to make a prayer for myself.”

Salve mi magister optime.

Scio natali die quoiusque pro eo, quoius is dies natalis est, amicos vota suscipere; ego tamen, quia te iuxta a memet ipsum amo, volo hoc die tuo natali mihi bene precari.

Plautus, The Captives 175

“Since it is my birthday: I want to be asked to a dinner at your home.

quia mi est natalis dies;
propterea te uocari ad te ad cenam uolo.

Birthday Sorrow

Sulpicia, 14.1-3

“The hated birthday is here, the sad day which
Must be celebrated in annoying hicksville without Cerinthus.”

Invisvs natalis adest, qui rure molesto
et sine Cerintho tristis agendus erit.

Cicero, Letters to Atticus 3 Jan 47

“I write these things to you on my birthday, a day which I wish had never seen me or that no one else had been born from my mother afterwards. I am kept from writing more by weeping”

Haec ad te die natali meo scripsi; quo utinam susceptus non essem, aut ne quid ex eadem matre postea natum esset! plura scribere fletu prohibeor.

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Some Pictures of Athens Near Dawn

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I like to run in unfamiliar cities and to get thoroughly lost in them. Now, when we travel with children who aren’t up to touring a town for 8-10 hours a day, this is also a good way to see some things which it might take 2 hours to get to with the young ones in tow.

(And don’t worry that I am spending all my time in Greece blogging. I am skimping on the sleep and enjoying Greek coffee while the kids recover from two days in Santorini.)

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Panathenaic Stadium

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Hadrian’s Arch

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Temple of Olympian Zeus

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Acropolis from Behind Theater of Dionysus

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Another shot of the same, a bit farther west

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Sanctuary of Pan, South of Akropolis

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Mt. Lycabettus (Lykavittos) at dawn

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Graffiti I cannot disagree with

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The Academy of Athens

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The National Archaeologlical Museum with Mt. Lycabettus in the Background

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A sculpture not too far from my hotel (Great School of the Nation Square)

This route started near the sculpture and then went down past the Temple of Olympian Zeus and south of the Akropolis. From there I went around the north side of Mt. Lycabettus via the Akademia, National Museum and Areos Pedion (Field/Plain of Ares).

The Renaissance Was Not THAT Greek

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Samuel Lee Wolff, The Greek Gift to Civilization:

“The literature of the Renaissance, both in and out of Italy, is four-fifths of it Latinistic — Virgilian, Ciceronian, Senecan, occasionally Horatian, very heavily Ovidian. It springs not immediately, often not mediately, from Homer, Demosthenes, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles, or even Euripides. The other fifth, which does draw nourishment from Greek literature, draws it from the Greek literature, not of the golden, but of the silver and the pinch-beck ages. Boccaccio, Professor Mahaffy points out, is indebted to Greek prose fiction ; but what he does not point out is that Boccaccio ‘s debt runs mostly to very late Byzantine romances now lost. Lyly draws from Plutarch On Education. Sannazaro breaks from the Virgilian pastoral tradition to return to Theocritus. Tasso’s Aminta, as is well known, gets what is probably its most famous passage from the late prose romance of Achilles Tatius. As is not so well known, the Jerusalem Delivered, too, professedly a restoration of the classical — that is, the Virgilian — epic, in reprobation of the composite romance-epic of Pulci, Boiardo, and Ariosto, is itself full of the conceits of late Greek rhetoric. The Pastor Fido is based upon a story in Pausanias. It seems well within the truth to say that where Renaissance literature is Greek at all, it is almost certain to be in the Alexandrianized, Romanized, Byzantinized, and Orientalized vein that we call Greek only because we have no better name for it.”

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Sorry, Chrysoloras!

Athens: Sometimes You Want to Go Where Nobody Knows Your Name

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Valerius Maximus, 8 ext 5: Democritus Unknown in Athens

“Democritus could have been esteemed for his wealth which was so immense that his father was able to provide a feast to all of Xerxes’ army with ease. In order that he might focus a free mind on the study of literature, he donated his wealth to his country keeping only a very small part for himself.

Even though he stayed in Athens for many years and dedicated himself to gathering and using knowledge, he lived unknown in the city, which he attests too in a certain book. My mind is awestruck with admiration of such a work ethic. And now it moves to something else.”

Democritus, cum divitiis censeri posset, quae tantae fuerunt ut pater eius Xerxis exercitui epulum dare ex facili potuerit, quo magis vacuo animo studiis litterarum esset operatus, parva admodum summa retenta patrimonium suum patriae donavit. Athenis autem compluribus annis moratus, omnia temporum momenta ad percipiendam et exercendam doctrinam conferens, ignotus illi urbi vixit, quod ipse quodam volumine testatur. stupet mens admiratione tantae industriae et iam transit alio.

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Master of Pleasure and Master of Pain: Three Anecdotes about Sophokles and Euripides

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These are from the Gnomologium Vaticanum

404

“When Menander was asked what the difference was between Sophokles and Euripides he said that Sophokles makes people feel pleasure while Euripides makes his audience feel anger.”

Μένανδρος ἐρωτηθεὶς τί διαφέρουσιν ἀλλήλων Σοφοκλῆς καὶ Εὐριπίδης εἶπεν ὅτι Σοφοκλῆς μὲν τέρπεσθαι ποιεῖ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, Εὐριπίδης δὲ σκυθρωπάζειν τοὺς ἀκροατάς.

 

518

“Sophokles the tragic poet, after he heard that Euripides died in Macedonia, said “The whetstone of my poems is gone.”

Σοφοκλῆς, ὁ τῶν τραγῳδιῶν ποιητής, ἀκούσας Εὐριπίδην ἐν Μακεδονίᾳ τεθνηκέναι εἶπεν· „ἀπώλετο ἡ τῶν ἐμῶν ποιημάτων ἀκόνη.”

 

519

“When he was asked why he made people with noble characters and Euripides made those of base ones, Sophokles answered “Because I make people how they should be and he makes people as they are.”

῾Ο αὐτὸς ἐρωτηθεὶς διὰ τί αὐτὸς μὲν ποιεῖ τὰ ἤθη τῶν ἀνθρώπων χρηστά, Εὐριπίδης δὲ φαῦλα „ὅτι” ἔφη „ἐγὼ μέν, οἵους ἔδει εἶναι, τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ποιῶ, ἐκεῖνος δέ, ὁποῖοί εἰσιν.”

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Romans Disagree on Athens — Lucretius and Sallust

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Athens Week:

From Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura:

“Athens, that famous name, first gave to sickly man
Fruit bearing crops long ago and with them
Created life anew and called for laws
And first offered the sweet comforts of life
When she produced a man with such a soul
That he once divulged everything from his truth-telling tongue.
Though his life has ended, thanks to his divine discoveries,
His glory has been carried abroad and now nears the heavens.
For he saw then that everything which is needed for life
Has already been set aside for mortal man and that
As far as they were able, their life was already safe…”

Primae frugiparos fetus mortalibus aegris
dididerunt quondam praeclaro nomine Athenae
et recreaverunt vitam legesque rogarunt
et primae dederunt solacia dulcia vitae,
cum genuere virum tali cum corde repertum,
omnia veridico qui quondam ex ore profudit;
cuius et extincti propter divina reperta
divolgata vetus iam ad caelum gloria fertur.
nam cum vidit hic ad victum quae flagitat usus
omnia iam ferme mortalibus esse parata
et, pro quam possent, vitam consistere tutam…
The man at Athens? Epicurus, of course.

Sallust, Bellum Catilinae 8

“The achievements of the Athenians were, as I see it, great and magnificent enough, but perhaps a little less so than is commonly believed. But, because the most talented writers happened to go there, the achievements of the Athenians are celebrated throughout the world as the greatest ever.”

Atheniensium res gestae, sicuti ego aestumo, satis amplae magnificaeque fuere, verum aliquanto minores tamen, quam fama feruntur.  Sed quia provenere ibi scriptorum magna ingenia, per terrarum orbem Atheniensium facta pro maxumis celebrantur.

Athens

Velleius Paterculus has his own take on this:

“My wonder passes from clustering in certain times to cities. A solitary Attic city bloomed with more works of every kind of eloquence than the rest of Greece together, to the point that you might believe that the bodies of that race were separated into different cities, but that the geniuses were enclosed only within the walls of Athens. I find this no more surprising than the fact that no Argive, Theban or Spartan was considered worthy of note while he was alive or after he died. These cities, though preeminent for other things, were intellectually infertile, except for Pindar’s single voice which graced Thebes—for the Laconians mark Alcman as their own wrongly.”

[18] Transit admiratio ab conditione temporum et ad urbium. Una urbs Attica pluribus omnis eloquentiae quam universa Graecia operibus usque floruit adeo ut corpora gentis illius separata sint in alias civitates, ingenia vero solis Atheniensium muris clausa existimes. 2 Neque hoc ego magis miratus sim quam neminem Argivum Thebanum Lacedaemonium oratorem aut dum vixit auctoritate aut post mortem memoria dignum existimatum. 3 Quae urbes eximiae alias talium studiorum fuere steriles, nisi Thebas unum os Pindari inluminaret: nam Alcmana Lacones falso sibi vindicant.

Here Velleius moves from the clustering of intellects in time to their clustering in space. Although, to be fair, it seems that one would be impossible without the other…

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Saturdays Are No Longer for the Boys

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Rufinus, Epigrams VI (Greek Anthology 5.19)

“No longer am I crazy for boys, as once I was – Now I am crazy for women, and the discus has yielded to the castanet. I am now pleased by the colors of makeup and the superadded charm of rouge, instead of the guileless skin of boys. Surely, tree-tressed Erymanthus will give a watery pasture to the dolphins, and the swift deer will find their food on the old gray waves of the sea.”

 

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Οὐκέτι παιδομανὴς ὡς πρίν ποτε, νῦν δὲ καλοῦμαι

     θηλυμανής, καὶ νῦν δίσκος ἐμοὶ κρόταλον,

ἀντὶ δέ μοι παίδων ἀδόλου χροὸς ἤρεσε γύψου

     χρώματα καὶ φύκους ἄνθος ἐπεισόδιον·

βοσκήσει δελφῖνας ὁ δενδροκόμης ᾿Ερύμανθος

     καὶ πολιὸν πόντου κῦμα θοὰς ἐλάφους.

Driven to a Narrow Pass

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Erasmus, Adagia 1.1.17:

“Now my forces are driven to a narrow pass.”

Terence, in his Self-Punisher, signifies the same thing with a separate allegory when he writes, ‘my forces are now wholly driven into a narrow strait.’ The metaphor is taken from the army, which struggles when enclosed in an unfavorable position and surrounded by enemies in such a way that it is difficult to escape.”

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Nunc meae in artum coguntur copiae. xvii

Rem eandem diversa significat allegoria Terentius in Heautontimorumeno, cum ait : In angustum oppido nunc meae coguntur copiae. Metaphora sumpta ab exercitu, qui laborat iniquo conclusus loco et undique obsidetur ab hostibus, ut difficile sit effugere.