Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts

Tuesday, 2 June 2015

A Greek word known from the Greek of a Latin speaker

Marcus Aurelius has κοινονοημοσύνη (1.16[.2]), which is a hapax in the TLG. Several Latin authors use ἀκοινονητος, which is not found in any Greek text in the TLG. LSJ translates aptly through the medium of French lacking in 'savoir-faire' (Lat. sensus communis).

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

Cleanthes and the use of 'ostraca': Diogenes Laertius VII.5 [174]

ὀνειδίσαντος αὐτῷ τινος εἰς τὸ γῆρας, “Κἀγώ,” ἔφη, “ἀπιέναι βούλομαι· ὅταν δὲ πανταχόθεν ἐμαυτὸν ὑγιαίνοντα περινοῶ καὶ γράφοντα καὶ ἀναγινώσκοντα, πάλιν μένω.” τοῦτόν φασιν εἰς ὄστρακα καὶ βοῶν ὠμοπλάτας γράφειν ἅπερ ἤκουε παρὰ τοῦ Ζήνωνος, ἀπορίᾳ κερμάτων ὥστε ὠνήσασθαι χαρτία. τοιοῦτος δ’ ὢν ἐξίσχυσε, πολλῶν καὶ ἄλλων ὄντων ἀξιολόγων Ζήνωνος μαθητῶν, αὐτὸς διαδέξασθαι τὴν σχολήν.
 
When some one twitted him on his old age, his reply was, "I too am ready to depart ; but when again I consider that I am in all points in good health and that I can still write and read, I am content to wait." We are told that he wrote down Zeno's lectures on oyster-shells [! cf. LSJ s.v. ὄστρακον II 1] and the blade-bones of oxen through lack of money to buy paper. Such was he; and yet, although Zeno had many other eminent disciples, he was able to succeed him in the headship of the school. (Loeb)

On the assumption, pace the Loeb, that Cleanthes used potsherds, not shucks, it is worth noting that T.C. Skeat does not mention this anecdote about 'ostraca'  in his article 'Was papyrus regarded as "cheap" or "expensive" in the Ancient World', Aegyptus 75.1/2 (1995) 75-93.

Cleanthes, it seems, was not based in Egypt. H.C. Youtie remarked in ZPE 67 (1987) 267-281 that papyrus was more expensive outside Egypt, i.e. wherever it was imported. See especially l.c. p. 274. He mentions Cleanthes using ostraca not papyri for economic reasons on p. 271 (without a citation).

Tuesday, 29 April 2008

Vintage Sibyl: Lent I 1980

Now then, O Sibyl, let me ask you a question. Is there, or is there not, such a thing as the Third Man, would you say? You see I've been having horrible nightly visions of him, and each time he is accompanied by at least two others and sometimes by an infinite stream of them, and I can't seem to tell which are real and which are only reflections and images and likenesses--they seem to roll around between being and not-being. And last night, to cap it all, he'd brought his own third bed and settled down for the night. It's all too much...
Yours formally, Plato

Dear Plato,
You seem to be suffering from a NON-IDENTITY crisis. Are you sure that this idea is not just a product of your own self-predication?