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Becoming a Person and the Search for Happiness – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Dio Chrysostom, Discourse 24, On Happiness “Most people don’t really think at all about what kinds of people they should be nor what is best for a person, what goal they should do everything else in pursuing. But individually, some work at becoming equestrians, leading armies, becoming athletes, or musicians, or farmers, or orators. Yet,…
Let Nothing External Spark Joy, the Stoic Way – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Seneca, Moral Epistles 23.1-2 "Do you think that I am going to write about how mild our winter has been, since it is over and was brief, or how terrible the spring is with its prolonged cold and all those foolish things people write when they're grasping for words? Nope. I will write you something else…
Distracted from Justice by Profit – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Plutarch, Life of Brutus 29 “Faith in his sense of principle provided was the foundation of his great good will and fame. For Pompey the Great was not expected—should he overcome Caesar—to put down his power in deference to the laws, but people thought he would keep his political control, smooth-talking the people with the…
A Good Shared by the State and the People – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Tyrtaeus 12 [= Stob. 4.10.1 (vv. 1–14) + 6 (vv. 15–44)] “I wouldn’t celebrate or even mention a man For the strength of his feet or his wrestling, Not even if he had a Cyclopean size and strength And could conquer the gods’ Thracian Northwind And not even if he were better looking than Tithonos…
Banning the Freedom of the Eyes: The Tale of the Tyrant of Troezen – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Aelian Varia Historia 14.22 “There’s a story of the tyrant of Troezen. Because he wanted to get rid of any plots and conspiracies against him, he ordered that no one could talk to anyone else in public or private. This was an impossible and harsh matter. But the people circumvented the tyrant’s command: they were nodding…
“An Equal Amount is Better than More” – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Diodorus Siculus, History 9.12 “There is also the story that when the people of Mitylene allowed Pittacus to have half the land over which he fought in single combat, he would not take it. Instead, he assigned an equal portion to each man, saying that an “equal amount is greater than more”. For, since he took…
A Tyranny is Our Fault Too – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Anonymous of Iamblichus 12-14 "Tyranny happens—even though it is so great an evil in scope and kind—from nothing else but lawlessness. All people who think incorrectly believe that tyranny develops from some other cause and that people lose their freedom without being responsible for it because they were forced by the tyrant who came to…
Tyranny, Terror, and Mutilation – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
CW: Violence, torture, killing Homer, Odyssey 22.474-477 “They took Melanthios out through the hall and into the courtyard. They cut off his nose and ears with pitiless bronze. Then they cut off his balls and fed them raw to the dogs; And they cut off his hands and feet with an enraged heart.” ἐκ δὲ…
A Failsafe for Democracy – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Lycurgus, Against Leocrates 124 “These examples are enough I think to understand the opinion your forefathers had against those who broke the laws. I still want to remind you of the monument in the Senate house which recalls traitors and those who destroy the democracy. For I make your judgement easy if I provide you…
Custom, Violence, and Law – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Pindar fr. 169a [=P. Oxy. 2450 (26, 1961), vv. 6–62; = Plato, Gorg. 484b] “Custom, the king of everything, Of mortals and immortal alike, Guides them with the final hand To the most violent kinds of justice. I’ll prove this With the deeds of Herakles Since he drove the cattle of Geryon To the Cyclopean…
The Allegory of the Ship of State – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Heraclitus the Commentator, in defending the application of allegorical readings to Homer, argues that allegory is of considerable antiquity—used clearly by Archilochus when he compares the troubles of a war (fr. 54) and Alcaeus, who “compares the troubles of a tyranny to the turmoil of a stormy sea.” (τὰς γὰρ τυραννικὰς ταραχὰς ἐξ ἴσου χειμερίῳ…
Don’t Give up On Being Good – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.47 “Always keep in mind that all sorts of people from all kinds of occupations and from every country on earth have died. And take this thought to Philistion and Phoibos and Origanion. Turn to the rest of the peoples on earth too. We have to cross over to the same place…
A Tyrant and A Plague – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
N.B This is a different Pythagoras from the one with the theorem. Suda, s.v. Pythagoras of Ephesos “Pythagoras of Ephesos. Once he overthrew the government called the reign of the Basilidai, Pythagoras became the harshest tyrant. He seemed and sometimes was very kind to the people and the masses, increasing their hopes, but under-delivering on…
The Wages of a Wicked Man, Plague, Broken Walls, Fallen Armies – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Hesiod, Works and Days, 101-105 “The land is full of evils; the sea is full of evils. Diseases come to humans at day and at night they come on their own bringing evils to mortals in silence Since devious Zeus took their voices away." πλείη μὲν γὰρ γαῖα κακῶν, πλείη δὲ θάλασσα· νοῦσοι δ' ἀνθρώποισιν…
Reasons for Revolutions, Wanting To Be Equal Vs. Wanting Just More – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Aristotle, Politics 1302 a “We have already happened to discuss the reason why people are predisposed towards a revolution. People who desire equality rise up in strife when they believe that they have less even though they are allegedly equal to those they oppose. But those who want inequality or their own superiority imagine that…
Giving The Finger in Ancient Greek – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
In Aristophanes’ Peace a rude hand gesture is mentioned (549): Καὶ τὸν δορυξὸν οἷον ἐσκιμάλισεν. Perseus’ translation (“this sickle-maker is thumbing his nose at the spear-maker?” ) may not do justice to the gesture or its meaning. Ancient commentary glosses this in a slightly different way. (See this site for a reference to the digitus impudicus…
Byzantine Verse on Lycanthropy for Werewolf Week – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
There is a Byzantine didactic poem based on Greek medical treatises. Thankfully, it does not skip the good stuff. The poem is from a collection of didactic verses attributed to Michael Psellos of Constantinople who lived and worked in the 11th century CE. The text comes from the Teubner edition of his poems edited by L. G. Westernik…
Ritual Sacrifice and Lycanthropy: Pausanias for Werewolf Week – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
In the second century CE, Pausanias composed ten books on the sights and wonders of ancient Greece. His text provides some of the only accounts of architecture, art and culture that have been lost in intervening centuries. In his eighth book, he turns to Arcadia and starts by discussing the rituals performed in honor of Lykian Zeus.…
Werewolf Week, Religious Returns: St. Augustine on Lycanthropy – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
In discussing tales of Diomedes’ companions being turned into birds, Augustine in De Civitate Dei (City of God) discusses werewolves (18.17, the full text): “In order to make this seem more likely, Varro reports other fantastic tales concerning the infamous witch Circe, who transformed Odysseus’ companions into beasts, and concerning the Arcadians, who were by…
A Ghost Story from Petronius for Werewolf Week – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Earlier we saw how Plato makes being a tyrant equivalent to a type of lycanthropy. The Romans were also into that kind of thing. One of our oldest werewolf tales comes from Petronius' Satyricon (61-62): “Trimalchio turned to Niceros and said: “You used to be more pleasant company—I don’t know why you are now so quiet and…
Werewolf Week, JAMA Edition: Diagnosis and Therapy – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
This week in honor of Halloween we are returning to an obsession with lycanthropy. There is a trove of ancient Greek medical treatises on the diagnosing and treatment of the disease. Oribasius (Pergamum, c. 4th Century CE) Oribasius is said to have studied medicine in Alexandria; he later served as the court doctor to Julian the Apostate.…
Don’t Eat Brains: Zombie-Tydeus for Werewolf Week – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
In the spirit of the week before Halloween, below are the major accounts of Diomedes’ father, Tydeus, who was rejected by Athena after eating brains. Hom. Il. 5.801 “Tydeus was a little man, but a fighter.” Τυδεύς τοι μικρὸς μὲν ἔην δέμας, ἀλλὰ μαχητής· Schol. AbT ad Il. 5.126 “They say that when Tydeus was wounded by…
Politics is Horrifying: Plato on Lykanthropy – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Werewolf week continues From Plato’s Republic, Book 8 (565d) “What is the beginning of the change from guardian to tyrant? Isn’t clear when the guardian begins to do that very thing which myth says happened at the shrine of Lykaion Zeus in Arcadia? Which is? He said. That once someone tastes a bit of human innards mixed…
Dabbling in the Occult: Odysseus, Necromancer – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
It is the right time of the year for raising the dead. A student paper on the Elpenor Pelike at the MFA in Boston drew my attention to the following passage. Servius ad Aen. 6.107 "For this reason the place is named without joy since, as people claim, it would not have been there but…
Werewolf Week In Rome: Don’t Look a Wolf in the Eyes! – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Here is the rather famous account of Werewolves from Pliny the Elder's Natural History 8.34) (for the full text: see Perseus). The Latin text on Perseus is incorrect, but fortunately Lacus Curtius is there to save the day. Pliny, NH 8.34 80-83 "But in Italy they also believe that the gaze of a wolf is harmful—specifically that it will…
Halloween is Next Week: Time for Werewolves! – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Every year, before Halloween, we get all excited about ancient Werewolves. There's also some brain-eating in for good measure. therapeutic treatments for lycanthropy, the ritual origins of some Greek beliefs, and a Roman ghost story from Petronius. (We have already mixed in some vampires (Lamia and Empousa) and a few posts on ghosts and fear)…
The Child-Killing Lamia: What’s Really Scary on Halloween is Misogyny – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
This is the second post about ancient Greek Vampires. The first looked at the Empousa. Lucian, Lover of Lies 2 “…these are various and disturbing tales, able to rattle the minds of children who still fear Mormo and Lamia.” πάνυ ἀλλόκοτα καὶ τεράστια μυθίδια παίδων ψυχὰς κηλεῖν δυνάμενα ἔτι τὴν Μορμὼ καὶ τὴν Λάμιαν δεδιότων.…
Fear of Ghosts in Imperial Rome – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Pliny, Natural History 27.98 “For treatment against night terrors and fear of ghosts it is suggested that a string of big teeth will help” contra nocturnos pavores umbrarumque terrorem unus e magnis dentibus lino alligatus succurrere narratur. Seneca, Moral Epistle 82.16 “Death should be hated more than it is customarily. For we believe many things…
Ancient Greek Vampires 1: Empousa – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
The classic Transylvanian-style vampire—male, nocturnal, fanged—is really a product of folklore and gothic horror after the middle ages (with garlic, mirrors, crosses and stakes coming at various times from various places). But human blood-eating creatures of pleasure were present in ancient folktales as well. They are not prominent, but the Lamia and the Empousa, both…
On Socrates’ Jokes and Homer’s Lions – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Dio Chrysostom, Oration 55.10 On Homer and Socrates “Dear Friend, if we compare the fox with [Homer’s] lions and leopards and we claim that it either not at all or a just a little different. But, perhaps, you approve of those kinds of things in Homer, when he brings up starlings, or jackdaws, or ashes,…
Suetonius and His Defamatory Words – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Antiquity has bequeathed to us On Defamatory Words and Where they Come from (ΠΕΡΙ ΒΛΑΣΦΗΜΙΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΠΟΘΕΝ ΕΚΑΣΤΗ) attributed to Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. (Yes, that Suetonius.) It seems rather fragmentary, but it produces some gems. A large section include insults about women, but here’s a nice one for a man: “nôthouros: I guess is one…
Baby Dionysus VS Evil King – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Homer Iliad 6. 130-140 [For more on this passage, go here] For not even the son of Dryas, mighty Lykourgos, Lasted long once he began to strive with the heavenly gods. He;’ the one who chased the nurses of maddening Dionysus Down the Nysian hill–all of them were dropping Their wands to the ground because they…
Let the Oldest Citizen Speak First! – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
In the following speech check out the extreme distance between the μὲν clause and the δὲ clause. Also note Aeschines’ assertions about the rules for speaking in court (descending from oldest to youngest) traced back to Solon. Aeschines, Against Ctesiphon 1-5 “Athenian men: you see the preparations and plans, how many there are, and the…
Drinking Songs for Harmodios and Aristogeiton – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
The Athenian democracy had a fraught history that included sometimes attractive ideas like ostracism and frighteningly volatile features that led them to vote for the destruction of Mytilene one day only to rescind the order the next. One of their founding narratives also included the near-beatification of the killers of the tyrant Hipparchus, Harmodios and…
Aphrodite’s Mom Knows What’s Going On – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Hom. Iliad 5.370-4 Then divine Aphrodite fell to the knees of Diône Her own mother. She took her own daughter into her arms. She touched her with her hand, named her, and spoke: “Dear child, who of the Olympians has done these kinds of things to you, Pointlessly, as if you were doing something wicked…
Bring Home Hektor’s Bones – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
The Iliad ends with the burial of Hektor, but the mythographical tradition would not let him lie in peace. There is a tradition for the exhumation and the reburial of his remains. Aristodemos BNJ383 F7 ["Brill's New Jacoby"=Schol. AB ad Il. 13.1] “the Trojans and Hektor”: He has separated Hektor in particular from the rest of the…
The Rise and Fall of Republican Rome as Stages in a Life – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Seneca the Elder, Historical Fragments, 1 [=Lactant. Inst. Div. 7.15.14] “Seneca outlined the periods of Roman history in “life-stages”. The first was her infancy under the king Romulus, who parented Rome and educated her. Then there followed a childhood under various kings thanks to whom the city grew and was shaped by many practices and…
Injustice: A Greater Portion of Good; A Lesser Share of Evils – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Demosthenes, Against Olympiodorus 46 “This is the greatest sign of all, jurors, by which you will know that this man is an unjust and selfish person.” ὃ δὲ πάντων μέγιστόν ἐστιν, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, ᾧ καὶ γνώσεσθε ταυτονὶ ὅτι ἄδικός ἐστιν καὶ πλεονέκτης ἄνθρωπος· Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1129b (Book 5) “Let us consider now how…
The Wonder of Fantastic Lies – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
Isocrates, Helen 1-3 "There are some people who get puffed up if they manage to talk about something tolerably after they have themselves selected a strange and impossible subject. Men have also grown old claiming that it is impossible to say or disprove a lie or to speak two ways about the same matters. Others claim…
A Pirate Orator! A Late-Arriving Orphan! – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
IPseudo-Sallust, Against Cicero “I would have a hard time enduring your attacks with a level mind, Marcus Tullius, if I believed that this petulance of yours came from good judgment rather than a sick mind. But, since I discover in you neither balance nor modesty, I will answer you just so you may lose the…