“Is the governor positioning himself for a White House run in 2024?”–Politico, June 23, 2022
Theognis, 933-938
Excellence and beauty attend few men.
Blessed is the one to whom fate grants both.
Everybody honors him: Gen Y, his peers,
And old boomers all make way for him.
With age he becomes more distinguished
Among his countrymen, and none of them
Wants to disrespect or cost him his due.
In the dialogue “Protagoras,” Plato attributes the following poem to Simonides of Ceos, the itinerant and influential poet who lived between the late-6th century and mid-5th century BC.
The text is anything but pristine. Plato did not quote all of the verses and he interpolated verses of his own (I’ve excised the lines editors have found most doubtful).
I’ve done some violence of my own: to make the poem’s argument–and what an argument it is!–somewhat easier to follow (and it still isn’t easy), I’ve divided the poem into more stanzas than exist in the Greek.
Simonides Fr. 542 (PMG)
It’s hard for a man to be truly good
in hands, feet, and mind,
a square, as it were, drawn without blemish . . .
Yet Pittacus’ maxim does not suit me,
though it was spoken by a wise man:
it’s hard, he said, to be good,
an honor only a god could enjoy.
A man can’t help but be bad when misfortune,
before which he’s helpless, overtakes him.
When things are going well, all men are good,
but when things are going badly, men are bad . . .
So, I’d never waste my allotted life searching
in empty, vain hope for the impossible:
an altogether unblemished man
among us men who eat the broad earth’s fruits.
But if I find one, I’ll let you know.
I praise and I love every man
who, when he’s free to choose,
does nothing blameworthy.
Against compulsion though,
not even the gods can fight . . .
<Someone> who’s not too lazy,
who judges what profits the city,
this is a sound man.
Even I can’t fault him,
not when the race of fools is countless.
Truth be told, all things are beautiful
when base things aren’t intermixed.
“I’ve never seen hatred like this,” he said. “To me, they’re not even people. It’s so, so sad. Morality’s just gone, morals have flown out the window and we deserve so much better than this as a country.” — Eric Trump
1.231 (Achilles to Agamemnon)
“You are a people eating king who rules over nobodies”
δημοβόρος βασιλεὺς ἐπεὶ οὐτιδανοῖσιν ἀνάσσεις·
Suda, s.v. outidanos
“Outidanos: worth nothing”
Οὐτιδανός: οὐδενὸς ἄξιος.
Il. 1.294-5 (Achilles to Agamemnon)
“Really, may I be called both a coward and a nobody
If I yield every fact to you, whatever thing you ask”
“Outidanos: Worthy of no account, the least.”
Οὐτιδανός: Οὐδενὸς λόγου ἄξιος, ἐλάχιστος.
Od. 9.458-460 (Polyphemos, the Cyclops, to his favorite sheep)
“Then once he was murdered his brains would be spattered
All over the cave to the ground and my heart would be lightened
Of the evils which this worthless nobody brought me.”
“I’ve never seen hatred like this,” he said. “To me, they’re not even people. It’s so, so sad. Morality’s just gone, morals have flown out the window and we deserve so much better than this as a country.” — Eric Trump
1.231 (Achilles to Agamemnon)
“You are a people eating king who rules over nobodies”
δημοβόρος βασιλεὺς ἐπεὶ οὐτιδανοῖσιν ἀνάσσεις·
Suda, s.v. outidanos
“Outidanos: worth nothing”
Οὐτιδανός: οὐδενὸς ἄξιος.
Il. 1.294-5 (Achilles to Agamemnon)
“Really, may I be called both a coward and a nobody
If I yield every fact to you, whatever thing you ask”
“Outidanos: Worthy of no account, the least.”
Οὐτιδανός: Οὐδενὸς λόγου ἄξιος, ἐλάχιστος.
Od. 9.458-460 (Polyphemos, the Cyclops, to his favorite sheep)
“Then once he was murdered his brains would be spattered
All over the cave to the ground and my heart would be lightened
Of the evils which this worthless nobody brought me.”
“I’ve never seen hatred like this,” he said. “To me, they’re not even people. It’s so, so sad. Morality’s just gone, morals have flown out the window and we deserve so much better than this as a country.” — Eric Trump
1.231 (Achilles to Agamemnon)
“You are a people eating king who rules over nobodies”
δημοβόρος βασιλεὺς ἐπεὶ οὐτιδανοῖσιν ἀνάσσεις·
Suda, s.v. outidanos
“Outidanos: worth nothing”
Οὐτιδανός: οὐδενὸς ἄξιος.
Il. 1.294-5 (Achilles to Agamemnon)
“Really, may I be called both a coward and a nobody
If I yield every fact to you, whatever thing you ask”
“Outidanos: Worthy of no account, the least.”
Οὐτιδανός: Οὐδενὸς λόγου ἄξιος, ἐλάχιστος.
Od. 9.458-460 (Polyphemos, the Cyclops, to his favorite sheep)
“Then once he was murdered his brains would be spattered
All over the cave to the ground and my heart would be lightened
Of the evils which this worthless nobody brought me.”
