Our Bias Toward Shared Beliefs

May 30, 2023May 24, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistles 117.6-7

“We are accustomed to lean toward the assumptions of all people and treat as proof of truth that something seems likely to everyone. So, among other things, we gather that there are gods, that there is some opinion about gods implanted in us, that there is no nation anywhere so alien to law and custom that they don’t believe in gods.

When we talk about the immortality of our souls, the beliefs of people who worship or fear the underworld gods has no minor impact on us. I make use of public persuasion: you will find know one who doesn’t think that wisdom–and being wise–are good. I won’t act the way that defeated fighters do and beg the people for pardon: let’s start to fight with our own weapons.”

Multum dare solemus praesumptioni omnium hominum, et apud nos veritatis argumentum est aliquid omnibus videri. Tamquam deos esse inter alia hoc colligimus, quod omnibus insita de dis opinio est nec ulla gens usquam est adeo extra leges moresque proiecta, ut non aliquos deos credat.

Cum de animarum aeternitate disserimus, non leve momentum apud nos habet consensus hominum aut timentium inferos aut colentium. Utor hac publica persuasione: neminem invenies, qui non putet et sapientiam bonum et sapere. Non faciam, quod victi solent, ut provocem ad populum; nostris incipiamus armis confligere.

Little Machines that Won’t Try

May 29, 2023May 24, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistles 116.6-8

“As much as possible, let’s step back from the slippery slope. We stand too shakily on dry ground as it is! You will surely present me with that public complaint about Stoics: “You promise too many great things, your commands are too hard. We are only little machines, we can’t deny ourselves everything! We will grieve, but too little; we will desire, but temperately; we will get angry, but we will be appeased.”

You know why we can’t do these things? Because we don’t believe it is possible. Really, my god, there’s more in this, because we love our faults, we defend them and prefer to make excuses for them instead of addressing them. Nature has given us enough strength, if we use it, if we gather all our abilities together for us or at least we don’t let them work against us. Our unwillingness is the cause, inability is pretense. BYE.”

Quantum possumus, nos a lubrico recedamus; in sicco quoque parum fortiter stamus. Occurres hoc loco mihi illa publica contra Stoicos voce: “Nimis magna promittitis, nimis dura praecipitis. Nos homunciones sumus, omnia nobis negare non possumus. Dolebimus, sed parum; concupiscemus, sed temperate; irascemur, sed placabimur.” Scis, quare non possumus ista? Quia nos posse non credimus. Immo mehercules aliud est in re: vitia nostra quia amamus, defendimus et malumus excusare illa quam excutere. Satis natura homini dedit roboris, si illo utamur, si vires nostras colligamus ac totas pro nobis, certe non contra nos concitemus. Nolle in causa est, non posse praetenditur. Vale.

Escape Politics and Have Lunch on Your Own Time

May 28, 2023May 27, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Plutarch, On Exile 604d

“There’s that quote of Diogenes when he said, “Aristotle has lunch on Philip’s schedule, but Diogenes does when he wants to,” since there’s no political affair or officer, or leader to trouble the daily habits of his life.

For this reason, you will discover that few of the wisest and most thoughtful people have been buried in their own countries–and that most of them did this by choice, raising an anchor on their own and finding a new safe harbor for their lives, either leaving Athens or retreating there.”

τὸ τοῦ Διογένους “Ἀριστοτέλης ἀριστᾷ ὅταν δοκῇ Φιλίππῳ, Διογένης, ὅταν Διογένει,” μήτε πραγματείας, μήτε ἄρχοντος, μήτε ἡγεμόνος τὴν συνήθη δίαιταν περισπῶντος.

Διὰ τοῦτο τῶν φρονιμωτάτων καὶ σοφωτάτων ὀλίγους ἂν εὕροις ἐν ταῖς ἑαυτῶν πατρίσι κεκηδευμένους, οἱ δὲ πλεῖστοι, μηδενὸς ἀναγκάζοντος, αὐτοὶ τὸ ἀγκύριον5 ἀράμενοι, μεθωρμίσαντο τοὺς βίους καὶ μετέστησαν οἱ μὲν εἰς Ἀθήνας, οἱ δὲ ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν.

Bonaventura Peeters the Elder, “Dutch Ferry Boats in a Fresh Breeze”

Think Your Feelings, Write Your Thoughts

May 28, 2023May 28, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistles 115.1-3

“Oh, my Lucilius! I don’t want you to be too anxious about words and composition. I have more important things for you to care about! Seek what to write, not how to write it. And in this thing itself, seek not to write but to feel it, so you may turn what you feel more into your own, as if pressing your seal into it.

When you see that someone’s work is super careful and polished, know well that the mind is no less obsessed with minor details. The great person speaks in a relaxed fashion and securely. Whatever they say, they say with more confidence than worry.

You know too well those young fashy folks, with their shining beards and hair. You never hope for anything strong or solid from them. Rhetoric is the clothing of the mind–if it is cut, dyed, or done up in some way, it implies that there is something insincere, that there’s some problem.

Nimis anxium esse te circa verba et compositionem, mi Lucili, nolo; habeo maiora, quae cures. Quaere, quid scribas, non quemadmodum; et hoc ipsum, non ut scribas, sed ut sentias, ut illa, quae senseris, magis adplices tibi et velut signes. Cuiuscumque orationem videris sollicitam et politam, scito animum quoque non minus esse pusillis occupatum. Magnus ille remissius loquitur et securius; quaecumque dicit, plus habent fiduciae quam curae.

Nosti comptulos iuvenes, barba et coma nitidos, de capsula totos; nihil ab illis speraveris forte, nihil solidum. Oratio cultus animi est: si circumtonsa est et fucata et manu facta, ostendit illum quoque non esse sincerum et habere aliquid fracti.

The Outstanding Virtue

May 28, 2023 ~ lawrencebenn ~ Leave a comment

Bacchylides 14. 1-18.

It’s best when men receive a good allotment from god.
But heavy fate comes, destroying the good man
And, when set right, even making the bad man shine bright.
There are different honors for different men.

Men’s virtues are countless,
But one stands out from them all:
That a man manages what comes with a just heart.

The lyre’s voice and the clear-sounding choruses
Are not meet for grief-sowing battles,
And neither is the clang of clashing bronze for celebrations.
No, for everything men do there’s a time that’s best.
When a man’s at his best, a god is guiding him too.

εὖ μὲν εἱμάρθαι παρὰ δαίμονος ἀν-
θρώποις ἄριστον:
συμφορὰ δ᾽ ἐσθλόν τ᾽ ἀμαλδύ-
νει βαρύτλατος μολοῦσα
κἀἰ τὸν κακὸν ὑψιφανῆ τεύ-
χει κατορθωθεῖσα: τιμὰν
δ᾽ ἄλλος ἀλλοίαν ἔχει:
μυρίαι δ᾽ ἀνδρῶν ἀρεταί, μία δ᾽ ἐκ
πασᾶν πρόκειται,
ὃς τὰ πὰρ χειρὸς κυβερνᾶ-
ται δικαίαισι φρένεσσιν.
οὔτ᾽ ἐν βαρυπενθέσιν ἁρμό-
ζει μάχαις φόρμιγγος ὀμφὰ
καὶ λιγυκλαγγεῖς χοροί,
οὔτ᾽ ἐν θαλίαις καναχὰ
χαλκόκτυπος: ἀλλ᾽ ἐφ᾽ ἑκάστῳ
καιρὸς ἀνδρῶν ἔργματι κάλ-
λιστος: εὖ ἔρδοντα δὲ καὶ θεὸς ὀρθοῖ.

Picture of street sign that originally said "Men Working" but has graffiti added to it saying" on healing". — A street sign in Brooklyn.

Larry Benn has a B.A. in English Literature from Harvard College, an M.Phil in English Literature from Oxford University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Making amends for a working life misspent in finance, he’s now a hobbyist in ancient languages and blogs at featsofgreek.blogspot.com.

The People We Are Today

May 27, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Homer, Iliad 1.271-272 [Nestor Speaking]

“And I was fighting among them on my own! No one alive
Of these mortals who live on the earth now could fight with them!”

καὶ μαχόμην κατ’ ἔμ’ αὐτὸν ἐγώ· κείνοισι δ’ ἂν οὔ τις
τῶν οἳ νῦν βροτοί εἰσιν ἐπιχθόνιοι μαχέοιτο·

Schol. T+bT ad Il. 1.271a ex

“With those guys”: Centaurs. He introduces all of those who were bested by them so that he will seem to be superior in advice even to those who were stronger. He also doesn’t mention that Peleus was a friend of Agamemnon in order to avoid seeming to criticize Achilles, if his father obeyed him [Agamemnon] in something but he [Achilles] did not.”

κείνοισι: Κενταύροις. | παρεισάγει τοὺς πάντας ἡσσωμένους αὐτοῖς, ἵνα τῇ συμβουλῇ δοκοῖεν καὶ τῶν κρεισσόνων περιγεγενῆσθαι. Πηλέως δὲ οὐκ ἐμνήσθη ὡς ᾿Αγαμέμνονος φίλος, ἵνα μὴ δοκῇ ἐλέγχειν ᾿Αχιλλέα, εἴ γε ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ τι πέπεισται, ὁ δὲ οὔ.

5.302-304 (cf. 20.285-287)

“…and Tydeus’ son grabbed a stone with his hand—
A great effort which two men couldn’t replicate,
The kinds of men mortals are today. Well, he lifted it easily, even by himself”

σμερδαλέα ἰάχων· ὃ δὲ χερμάδιον λάβε χειρὶ
Τυδεΐδης μέγα ἔργον ὃ οὐ δύο γ’ ἄνδρε φέροιεν,
οἷοι νῦν βροτοί εἰσ’· ὃ δέ μιν ῥέα πάλλε καὶ οἶος.

Schol. bT Ad Hom. Il 5.304

“The kinds of people mortals are today.” This means that they are much lower than the men of the heroic age. This distance of time makes the excesses of the heroes more believable.”

ex. οἷοι νῦν βροτοί εἰσι: πολλῷ κατωτέρω τῶν ἡρωϊκῶν ἐστι· διὸ τῷ διαστήματι τοῦ χρόνου πιστοῦται τὰς ὑπεροχὰς τῶν ἡρώων

Il. 12.447-449

“…a rock not even two of the best men of the people
Could heft easily onto a cart from the ground,
The kinds of men mortals are today. He lifted it easily even by himself.”

….· τὸν δ’ οὔ κε δύ’ ἀνέρε δήμου ἀρίστω
ῥηϊδίως ἐπ’ ἄμαξαν ἀπ’ οὔδεος ὀχλίσσειαν,
οἷοι νῦν βροτοί εἰσ’· ὃ δέ μιν ῥέα πάλλε καὶ οἶος.

Important People, oil with pencil on canvas, 134.7 x 170.3 cm, by George Washington Lambert

Better When Things Break?

May 27, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, De Beneficiis 7.3

“Look at those crystal objects, whose very fragility increases their value!”

ideo istic crystallina, quorum accendit fragilitas pretium

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 13.65

“It is tested by its whiteness and its color, its fragility and whether it catches fire as soon as it nears a coal, and then it should not take the imprint of a tooth but break apart into pieces instead.”

Probatur candore ac pinguedine, fragilitate, carbone ut statim ardeat, item ne dentem recipiat potiusque in micas frietur.

Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy 2.7

“I want to tell you something amazing and I am barely capable of putting the idea into words. I believe that bad luck is better for people than good. Luck always deceives when seeming to grin with the appearance of happiness–yet fortune is always faithful in showing itself to be unstable by ever changing.

Good luck deceives while bad luck instructs. The first ties up the minds of people who enjoy things that only seem good, while the other frees us with an understanding of the fragility of happiness.”

Mirum est quod dicere gestio, eoque sententiam verbis explicare vix queo. Etenim plus hominibus reor adversam quam prosperam prodesse fortunam. Illa enim semper specie felicitatis cum videtur blanda, mentitur; haec semper vera est, cum se instabilem mutatione demonstrat. Illa fallit, haec instruit, illa mendacium specie bonorum mentes fruentium ligat, haec cognitione fragilis felicitatis absolvit.

Corrupt Ages and the Character of Speech

May 27, 2023May 23, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistles 114.1-2

“You ask my why public speech of a corrupt kind dominates in certain periods of time and how the decline of people’s intelligence slides into certain vices so that sometimes speech swells with a kind of strength and at others it becomes broken up and refined like song. You ask as well why sometimes bold notions–even beyond belief–delight people and at other times statements are curt and coded so that more must be understood in them than can be heard? Or, why there have been generations that rely on the use of shameless metaphor.

You can hear the answer in common speech, one that is proverbial among the Greeks: “People’s lives are like the quality of their speech.” Just as the action of an individual is similar to their speech, so too does the culture of speech imitate public character, if civic order has weakened and surrendered to self-indulgence.”

Quare quibusdam temporibus provenerit corrupti generis oratio quaeris, et quomodo in quaedam vitia inclinatio ingeniorum facta sit, ut aliquando inflata explicatio vigeret, aliquando infracta et in morem cantici ducta? Quare alias sensus audaces et fidem egressi placuerint, alias abruptae sententiae et suspiciosae, in quibus plus intellegendum esset quam audiendum? Quare aliqua aetas fuerit, quae translationis iure uteretur inverecunde? Hoc quod audire vulgo soles, quod apud Graecos in proverbium cessit: talis hominibus fuit oratio qualis vita. Quemadmodum autem uniuscuiusque actio dicenti similis est, sic genus dicendi aliquando imitatur publicos mores, si disciplina civitatis laboravit et se in delicias dedit.

The Countless Lives Within Us

May 26, 2023May 22, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistle 113.2-3

People agree that the soul is alive since it has the ability to make us alive and because “living things” have their name from it [anima, animal]. Virtue, moreover, is little more than a soul keeping itself a certain way. So, virtue is alive. In turn, virtue does something and nothing can do a thing without impetus. So, if a thing has impetus, then it has to be alive, since nothing has impetus unless it is alive.

A response might be that “if virtue is alive, then virtue itself has virtue.” Well, why wouldn’t it!? Just as a wise person does everything through virtue, so to does virtue accomplish its goals through itself. “Therefore, ” people continue, “all the arts are also alive and our thoughts and everything the mind contains with it. So it follows that thousands of living things make their home in the narrows of a person’s heart and that each one of are made up many creatures or have many within us

Animum constat animal esse, cum ipse efficiat, ut simus animalia, cum ab illo animalia nomen hoc traxerint. Virtus autem nihil aliud est quam animus quodammodo se habens; ergo animal est. Deinde virtus agit aliquid; agi autem nihil sine impetu potest. Si impetum habet, qui nulli est nisi animali, animal est. “Si animal est,” inquit, “virtus, habet ipsa virtutem.” Quidni habeat se ipsam? Quomodo 3sapiens omnia per virtutem gerit, sic virtus per se. “Ergo,” inquit, “et omnes artes animalia sunt et omnia, quae cogitamus quaeque mente conplectimur. Sequitur, ut multa millia animalium habitent in his angustiis pectoris, et singuli multa simus animalia aut multa habeamus animalia.”

Your Friend, The Slender Vine

May 25, 2023May 27, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistle 112

“By god, I do want your friend to be shaped and trained as you want, but he has been taken up already hardened, or, really–and this is worse–soft and ground down by constant bad habits.

I want to provide you an example from my own technique. Not every vine will submit to grafting–if it is old and starting to rot or too thin and weak, the fine won’t take a shoot or it will refuse to feed it and integrate and it will not accept the quality and the nature of the transplant. So, we typically sever the vine above the ground, so if it does not respond at first, a second attempt is possible. Then the second graft is made below the ground.

This person you are writing and worried about,has no strength and indulges their weaknesses. They have somehow become fat and hard at once. They can neither accept reason nor feed it. You say, “But they want to”. I am not saying that they are lying to you, they want to desire this. But excess has ruined their stomach. Soon they’ll turn back again.

“Yet, they claim their own life offends them!” I don’t deny this. Who is not upset with their own life? People love and hate their own faults at the same time. We will form an opinion about them when they have shown us some proof that they truly hate luxury. Now? They’re just in an argument. BYE.”

Cupio mehercules amicum tuum formari, ut desideras, et institui; sed valde durus capitur, immo, quod est molestius, valde mollis capitur et consuetudine mala ac diutina fractus.

Volo tibi ex nostro artificio exemplum referre. Non quaelibet insitionem vitis patitur; si vetus et exesa est, si infirma gracilisque, aut non recipiet surculum aut non alet nec adplicabit sibi nec in qualitatem eius naturamque transibit. Itaque solemus supra terram praecidere, ut si non respondit, temptari possit secunda fortuna, et iterum repetita infra terram inseratur.

Hic, de quo scribis et mandas, non habet vires; indulsit vitiis. Simul et emarcuit et induruit. Non potest recipere rationem, non potest nutrire. “At cupit ipse.” Noli credere. Non dico illum mentiri tibi; putat se cupere. Stomachum illi fecit luxuria; cito cum illa redibit in gratiam. “Sed dicit se offendi vita sua.“Non negaverim. Quis enim non offenditur? Homines vitia sua et amant simul et oderunt. Tunc itaque de illo feremus sententiam, cum fidem nobis fecerit invisam iam sibi esse luxuriam; nunc illis male convenit. Vale.