Tag: Time

The People We Are Today

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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

The People We Are Today

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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

Selecting a Time for Death

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CW: Suicide, self-harm

Seneca, Moral Epistles 70.10-12

“Scribonia, a serious woman, was the aunt of Drusus Libo, a young man as dumb as he was noble, possessing greater ambition than anyone could hope for at the time or that a person like him could expect in any era. When Libo was taken away sick from the senate on a litter, he began to wonder if he should take his own life or wait for death, although he had a rather small group of followers since most of his relatives had abandoned him wrongly not as a criminal but as a corpse.

Scribonia responded to him, “What attraction is there for you to do somebody else’s work?” She didn’t convince him–he turned his hands on himself and not without reason. When someone is going to die after two or three days by their enemy’s choice, they are really doing someone else’s work if they live.

You can’t make a general statement, then, about the question of whether, should power beyond our agency threaten death,  we should rush to meet it or merely await it. There are really many details that work for both sides. If one death comes with torture and the other is simple and easy, ought not the latter be grabbed? Just as I pick a ship for a journey or I choose a house when I want to live somewhere, I should choose my death when it is time to leave life.”

Scribonia, gravis femina, amita Drusi Libonis fuit, adulescentis tam stolidi quam nobilis, maiora sperantis quam illo saeculo quisquam sperare poterat aut ipse ullo. Cum aeger a senatu in lectica relatus esset non sane frequentibus exequiis, omnes enim necessarii deseruerant impie iam non reum, sed funus; habere coepit consilium, utrum conscisceret mortem an expectaret. Cui Scribonia: “Quid te,” inquit, “delectat alienum negotium agere?” Non persuasit illi; manus sibi attulit nec sine causa. Nam post diem tertium aut quartum inimici moriturus arbitrio si vivit, alienum negotium agit.

Non possis itaque de re in universum pronuntiare, cum mortem vis externa denuntiat, occupanda sit an expectanda. Multa enim sunt, quae in utramque partem trahere possunt. Si altera mors cum tormento, altera simplex et facilis est, quidni huic inicienda sit manus? Quemadmodum navem eligam navigaturus et domum habitaturus, sic mortem exiturus e vita.

Image of an analog clock with writing on it. ON the top: the perfect time. On the bottom "for seneca to talk about death"

Hurry Up to Die!

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Seneca, Moral Epistle 32.2-4

“What is it? I don’t fear that people may change you. I do fear that they will slow you down. Someone who delays you causes a lot of harm, moreover, and especially given how fast life passes and how we make it even briefer by our inconsistency, always starting up something new and then immediately moving on to something else. We separate life into pieces and then squander it.

Hurry up, then, my dearest Lucilius, and think how fast you’d accelerate if an enemy were behind you or if you thought a horseman were overtaking you to run you down as you ran. This is happening! The enemy is at your back. You should step to it and flee, reach a place of safety, considering all along that it is noble to complete your life before death and then spend the rest of your time in peace, taking nothing for yourself because you already have  a lucky life, one made no luckier by being longer.

When will you reach the time when you understand that time is nothing to you, when you can be tranquil and calm, heedless of tomorrow, because you have made the most of your life!?”

Quid ergo est? Non timeo, ne mutent te, timeo, ne inpediant. Multum autem nocet etiam qui moratur, utique in tanta brevitate vitae, quam breviorem inconstantia facimus aliud eius subinde atque aliud facientes initium. Diducimus illam in particulas ac lancinamus.

Propera ergo, Lucili carissime, et cogita quantum additurus celeritati fueris, si a tergo hostis instaret, si equitem adventare suspicareris ac fugientium premere vestigia. Fit hoc, premeris; accelera et evade, perduc te in tutum et subinde considera, quam pulchra res sit consummare vitam ante mortem, deinde expectare securum reliquam temporis sui partem, nihil sibi, in possessione beatae vitae positum, quae beatior non fit, si longior. O quando illud videbis tempus, quo scies tempus ad te non pertinere, quo tranquillus placidusque eris et crastini neglegens ut1 in summa tui satietate!

Meme from office space of Lemberg saying "if you could hurry up and get ready for death, that's be great

A Philosopher is Done with Doing

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Seneca, Moral Epistles 24.25-26

“The brave and wise person shouldn’t flee life, but merely leave. And that affect that plagues many–a lust for death–should be avoided. Just as with other things, Lucilius, the mind has an unconsidered inclination to death that often afflicts the kindest and most serious people as much as the ignorant and dissolute. The former hate life; the latter are annoyed by it.

Others are moved by being done with doing and seeing, not by a hatred of life but by boredom. We slide into this as philosophy itself pushes. So we say, “How long for the same things? Do I just keep on waking, sleeping, getting hungry, getting bored, growing cold, then warm again? There’s no end to things, but everything is tied up in a circle, fleeing and following.  Night presses upon day, day presses upon night, summer gives way to autumn, winter replaces fall and in turn melts into spring.

I do nothing new; I see nothing new. Eventually you get sick of this too.” There are many who don’t think being alive is a hardship, but that it is empty. Goodbye.”

Vir fortis ac sapiens non fugere debet e vita, sed exire. Et ante omnia ille quoque vitetur affectus, qui multos occupavit, libido moriendi. Est enim, mi Lucili, ut ad alia, sic etiam ad moriendum inconsulta animi inclinatio, quae saepe generosos atque acerrimae indolis viros corripit, saepe ignavos iacentesque; illi contemnunt vitam, hi gravantur.. Everything moves in this way to return.

Quosdam subit eadem faciendi videndique satietas et vitae non odium sed fastidium, in quod prolabimur ipsa inpellente philosophia, dum dicimus: “Quousque eadem? Nempe expergiscar dormiam, esuriam fastidiam, algebo aestuabo. Nullius rei finis est, sed in orbem nexa sunt omnia, fugiunt ac secuntur. Diem nox premit, dies noctem, aestas in autumnum desinit, autumno hiemps instat, quae vere conpescitur; omnia sic transeunt ut revertantur. Nihil novi facio, nihil novi video; fit aliquando et huius rei nausia.” Multi sunt, qui non acerbum iudicent vivere, sed supervacuum. Vale.

Meme of Matthew mcconaughey from True Detective with Latin meaning: there's no end to anything, everything is tied up in a circle

Debt and the Value of Time

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Seneca, Moral Epistle 1.3

“Everything is foreign to us, Lucilius, except for time alone. Nature gave us possession of this single thing, so light and slippery that anyone who wants can separate us from it.

But how great is mortal foolishness! We permit the smallest and commonest things which can be replaced with certainty to be charged against us when we already have them! No one believes they are in debt when they have received time, even though it is the one thing that even a thankful debtor can never repay.'”

Omnia, Lucili, aliena sunt, tempus tantum nostrum est. In huius rei unius fugacis ac lubricae possessionem natura nos misit, ex qua expellit quicumque vult. Et tanta stultitia mortalium est, ut quae minima et vilissima sunt, certe reparabilia, imputari sibi, cum impetravere, patiantur: nemo se iudicet quicquam debere, qui tempus accepit, cum interim hoc unum est, quod ne gratus quidem potest reddere.

Picture of oil painting with an old male figure cutting the wings of a cherubic child
Andries Cornelis Lens , “Time Clipping Cupid’s Wings”

Silly Mortals, Lifetimes Are Plenty Long!

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Seneca, De Brevitate Vitae I

“A great number of mortals, Paul, grumble about nature’s cruelty–that we are born to a short life and that this time rushes by so quickly and surprisingly through its granted span that, with the exception of only a few, life’s end comes just when we’re ready to truly live. And it isn’t just a complaint of the public and the uninformed masses: this feeling brings the same quarrel from famous people too–this prompted the shout from the most famous doctors, that “life is short, art is everlasting.”

This also caused Aristotle to express a charge ill fit to a wise person when he was hypothesizing about Nature that when it comes to lifespan she has granted so much to animals that they live five or ten lives when so little has been given to human beings who achieve so much more! We don’t have too little time, but we do waste much of it.

Life is long enough and it has been granted sufficiently for finishing great things as long as the whole time is dedicated to them. Yet when life is wasted in luxury and recklessness or when it is devoted to nothing good, we are forced by the last moment to understand that life has left us before we understood it was going. So it goes–we don’t get a short life, but make it so; and it isn’t limited, we just waste it.”

Maior pars mortalium, Pauline, de naturae malignitate conqueritur, quod in exiguum aevi gignamur, quod haec tam velociter, tam rapide dati nobis temporis spatia decurrant, adeo ut exceptis admodum paucis ceteros in ipso vitae apparatu vita destituat. Nec huic publico, ut opinantur, malo turba tantum et imprudens1 volgus ingemuit; clarorum quoque virorum hic affectus querellas evocavit. Inde illa maximi medicorum exclamatio est: ‘vitam brevem  esse, longam artem’; inde Aristotelis cum rerum natura exigentis minime conveniens sapienti viro lis: ‘aetatis illam animalibus tantum indulsisse, ut quina aut dena saecula educerent, homini in tam multa ac magna genito tanto citeriorem terminum  stare.’ 

Non exiguum temporis habemus, sed multum perdimus. Satis longa vita et in maximarum rerum consummationem large data est, si tota bene collocaretur; sed ubi per luxum ac neglegentiam diffluit, ubi nulli bonae rei impenditur, ultima demum necessitate cogente quam ire non intelleximus  transisse sentimus. Ita est: non accipimus brevem vitam, sed facimus, nec inopes eius sed prodigi sumus.

Tower clock at the south side of the Schwabentor with the painting “Kosmos” by Carl Roesch, Vorstadt 69, Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Time and the Death of Pain

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Pindar, Olympian 2.15-24

“When things are done
Justly or otherwise
Not even time, the father of everything,
Can render their results undone.

Yet with a lucky fate,
They may yet be forgotten.
Even pain dies
once the churn of feelings is subdued
Under the influence of noble joys.
Whenever the god’s Fate sends
Happiness reaching on high.

This claim fits well
The fair-throned daughters of Cadmus
Who suffered calamities–
But now their heavy grief fades
In the face of greater goods.”

τῶν δὲ πεπραγμένων
ἐν δίκᾳ τε καὶ παρὰ δίκαν ἀποίητον οὐδ᾿ ἄν
Χρόνος ὁ πάντων πατὴρ
δύναιτο θέμεν ἔργων τέλος·
λάθα δὲ πότμῳ σὺν εὐδαίμονι γένοιτ᾿ ἄν.
ἐσλῶν γὰρ ὑπὸ χαρμάτων πῆμα θνᾴσκει
παλίγκοτον δαμασθέν,
ὅταν θεοῦ Μοῖρα πέμπῃ
ἀνεκὰς ὄλβον ὑψηλόν. ἕπεται δὲ λόγος εὐθρόνοις
Κάδμοιο κούραις, ἔπαθον αἳ μεγάλα·
πένθος δὲ πίτνει βαρύ
κρεσσόνων πρὸς ἀγαθῶν.

Winged old figure in the clouds holding an hour glass in one hand and a scythe in the other. AN oil painting
Jan van Bronchorst . “Time” 1656

“When Will This Year Be Over”? Seneca on Speeding Life Along

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Seneca, De Brevitate Vitae 7

“The man who has hoped for the fasces longs to put them down once he gets them and says constantly, “When will this year be over?” This man sponsors games which he once valued as a great opportunity for him, yet he says “When can I get away from them?” A lawyer is raised up by the whole forum and with full crowd beyond where he can be heard, but he complains “When will we have a break?” Everyone speeds their own life along and suffers for a desire for the future and boredom with the present.

But the person who portions out every moment to his own use, who schedules out every day like it is the last, neither hopes for nor fears tomorrows. For what kind of new pleasure is any hour alone capable of bringing? Everything is known and has been enjoyed fully. Fortune may by chance bring out something else, but life is already safe. Something can be added; nothing can be subtracted, and they will accept anything which is added like someone who is already satisfied and full will take some food they do not desire.

Therefore, it is not right to think that anyone has lived long because of grey hair or wrinkles. They have not lived a while, but they have existed for a time. Certainly, what if you thought that the person had traveled far whom a terrible storm grabbed in the harbor and dragged here and there in turns of winds raging from different directions  over the same space in a circle? They did not travel far, but were tossed around a lot.”

Adsecutus ille quos optaverat fasces cupit ponere et subinde dicit: “Quando hic annus praeteribit?” Facit ille ludos, quorum sortem sibi optingere magno aestimavit: “Quando,” inquit, “istos effugiam?” Diripitur ille toto foro patronus et magno concursu omnia ultra, quam audiri potest, complet: “Quando,” inquit, “res proferentur?” Praecipitat quisque vitam suam et futuri desiderio laborat, praesentium taedio.

At ille qui nullum non tempus in usus suos confert, qui omnem diem tamquam ultimum ordinat, nec optat crastinum nec timet. Quid enim est, quod iam ulla hora novae voluptatis possit adferre? Omnia nota, omnia ad satietatem percepta sunt. De cetero fors fortuna, ut volet, ordinet; vita iam in tuto est. Huic adici potest, detrahi nihil, et adici sic, quemadmodum saturo iam ac pleno aliquid cibi, quod nec desiderat et capit.

Non est itaque quod quemquam propter canos aut rugas putes diu vixisse; non ille diu vixit, sed diu fuit. Quid enim si illum multum putes navigasse, quem saeva tempestas a portu exceptum huc et illuc tulit ac vicibus ventorum ex diverso furentium per eadem spatia in orbem egit? Non ille multum navigavit, sed multum iactatus est.

Image result for medieval manuscript calendar
Johannes von Gmunden: Calendar, [Nuremberg], 1496

Philosophy Amid Neverending Business

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Seneca, Moral Epistles 72.3-4

“Something needs to be done even on days like today that are completely filled with business. There’s never a time when new tasks won’t come up—the way many arise from just one. And then we keep giving ourselves excuses, ‘when I have finished this, I will focus with my whole mind’ and ‘if I complete this annoying matter, I will commit myself to studying.’

But philosophy can’t be put off until you have spare time! Everything else should be ignored so we need to pay attention to the very thing for which no amount of time is sufficient, even if we had the longest human life possible from childhood on. There’s no difference whether you ignore philosophy or return to it only intermittently. It does not stay where it was when you left it. It returns to where it was before just like things that break apart when they are stretched too tight.

We should push back against those tasks that take up our time–they can’t be disentangled; instead they need to be rejected. Truly, there is no time that isn’t good for studying. But many people don’t even bother thinking during the conditions that require us to study!”

Nihilominus his quoque occupatis diebus agatur aliquid et quidem totis. Numquam enim non succedent occupationes novae; serimus illas, itaque ex una exeunt plures. Deinde ipsi nobis dilationem damus: “cum hoc peregero, toto animo incumbam “et” si hanc rem molestam composuero, studio me dabo.”

Non cum vacaveris, philosophandum est; omnia alia neglegenda, ut huic adsideamus, cui nullum tempus satis magnum est, etiam si a pueritia usque ad longissimos humani aevi terminos vita producitur. Non multum refert, utrum omittas philosophiam an intermittas; non enim ubi interrupta est, manet, sed eorum more, quae intenta dissiliunt, usque ad initia sua recurrit, quod a continuatione discessit. Resistendum est occupationibus, nec explicandae, sed submovendae sunt. Tempus quidem nullum parum est idoneum studio salutari; atqui multi inter illa non student, propter quae studendum est.