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  • All the boys and all the girls: κόρους τε ἅμα καὶ κόρας (kórous te áma kaì kóras), πάντ᾽ ἄνδρα καὶ γυναῖκα (pánt’ándra kaì gynaîka).

    One of the most important changes that has been originated in modern society, in Western society and worldwide is that of equality between men and women, full legal equality real and only partly in status or social function.

    This thankfully unstoppable trend is reflected on the language, which tries to avoid sexism or sexist connotation. In this attempt there is who uses both the article and other determinants in male and female forms  if the language has difference, as Spanish, or nouns in their own male and female forms if they had them (boys / girls, men / women ,…).

    We know that in the ancient world women play a limited role in society, usually secluded at home ((or part of the home, in the gynoecium, from Latin  gynaeceum  and this from Greek  γυναικεῖος and this from γυνή, gyné, which means woman) and limited their role to procreation and childcare and housekeeping. But this general idea should be qualified and well-known reality with some accuracy.

    Probably will surprise  modern readers some of the non-sexist linguistic formulas and many of the ideas  which Plato presents in his dialogues in them he designs his political system and a new ideal city, a new polis. He  does so it mainly in hisr dialogues Republc  and Laws.

    Among those ideas will not produce  the least astonishment  those related to education and the role that women should play in society. Let's read some of the things Plato says on Laws, (translated by Robert Gregg Bury):

    Athenian : …These examples it would well become the boys and girls  (…κόρους τε ἅμα καὶ κόρας…) to copy, and so cultivate the favor of the goddess, alike for service in war and for use at festivals. (Laws 796c)
         …………..
    Athenian:… and thus I say that every man and woman ought to pass through life in accordance with this character, playing at the noblest of pastimes, being otherwise minded than they now are. 

    Clinias:  How so?    (Laws 803c-803d)

       ………

    These formulas should not be surprised if what he is proposing is a based and equal education and function  for boys and girls. So says a little later:

    Athenian : …To pursue our subject,—we have described  buildings for public gymnasia as well as schools in three divisions within the city, and also in three divisions round about the City training-grounds and race-courses for horses, arranged for archery and other long-distance shooting, and for the teaching and practicing of the youth: if, however, our previous description of these was inadequate, let them now be described and legally regulated. In all these establishments there should reside teachers [804d] attracted by pay from abroad for each several subject, to instruct the pupils in all matters relating to war and to music; and no father shall either send his son as a pupil or keep him away from the training-school at his own sweet will, but every “man jack” of them all (as the saying goes) must, so far as possible, be compelled to be educated, inasmuch as they are children of the State even more than children of their parents. For females, too, my law will lay down the same regulations as for men, and training of an identical kind. [804e] I will unhesitatingly affirm that neither riding nor gymnastics, which are proper for men, are improper for women. I believe the old tales I have heard, and I know now of my own observation, that there are practically countless myriads of women called Sauromatides, in the district of  Pontus, upon whom equally with men is imposed the duty of handling bows and other weapons, [805a] as well as horses, and who practice it equally. In addition to this I allege the following argument. Since this state of things can exist, I affirm that the practice which at present prevails in our districts is a most irrational one—namely, that men and women should not all follow the same pursuits with one accord and with all their might. For thus from the same taxation and trouble there arises and exists half a State only instead of a whole one, in nearly every instance; yet surely this would be a surprising blunder [805b] for a lawgiver to commit.
    Clinias: So it would seem; yet truly a vast number of the things now mentioned, Stranger, are in conflict with our ordinary polities. ….
    Athenian: …but as it is, the man who rejects our law must try some other method, nor shall we be hereby precluded from asserting in our doctrine that the female sex [805d] must share with the male, to the greatest extent possible, both in education and in all else.     (Laws, 804c- 805d).

    Note how the argument that only fools, including rulers, would do without half of the population and  would build half town instead of two cities is absolute and highly topical.

    Anyone who is curious about proposals so old and modern should read Plato's cited dialogues. Striking passages in them, similar to that, are numerous. Unfortunately when Plato failed to realize his ideal city proposed in Sicily and it gave him some bitterness and a good dose of realism, as it is reflected in the Laws and in the Republic.

    I delve into another time in these proposals of Plato, to which little attention indeed was done in ancient times, Middle Ages  and even sometimes in the Contemporary Ages.

  • is very difficult to refute the errors

    It is very difficult to combat the rumors, especially if malicious. So today, but also in antiquity. We discuss a case that historians and the ancient chronicles collected because it affect Julius Caesar.

    Julius Caesar won the award of four military triumphs for his campaigns in Europe, Asia and Africa. He  celebrated them so grand in the range of 12 days, from 21 September to 2 October in the year 46 BC. In the triumphal procession, in which the General walks through the streets of Rome dressed as the god Jupiter, his soldiers allowed some licenses because that day discipline is relaxed somewhat. Caesar had a reputation for great womanizer and his legionaries  sing in the parade, as Suetonius  says  on Caesar, 51.1:

    That he did not refrain from intrigues in the provinces is shown in particular by this couplet, which was also shouted by the soldiers in his Gallic triumph:

    "Men of Rome, keep close to your consorts, here's a bald adulterer.
    Gold in Gaul you spent in dalliance, which you borrowed here in Rome."

    Ne prouincialibus quidem matrimoniis abstinuisse uel hoc disticho apparet iactato aeque a militibus per Gallicum triumphum:
                   urbani, seruate uxores: moechum caluom adducimus.
                  aurum in Gallia effutuisti, hic sumpsisti mutuum.
                                                             (Published in the Loeb Classical Library, 1913)

    But there was another older rumor about César. In the year 80 BC, being thus very young,  was in the court of King Nicomedes in Bithynia. It was said that, succumbed to the charms or the pressure of the king, impressed by its beauty, was invited to their rooms and participated in a banquet as his butler. The rumor spread quickly when he returned a few days later to Bithynia, according to him to demand money owed. In the context of the ancient world, especially in the East, these practices are perfectly credible. In Rome however passive homosexuality was ill-considered. Suetonius refers to this in several passages of his life of Caesar, especially in Chapter 49. It may be the quote a bit long, but it is a good example of historical gossip that seems like the contemporary people of historian.

    There was no stain on his reputation for chastity except his intimacy with King Nicomedes, but that was a deep and lasting reproach, which laid him open to insults from every quarter. I say nothing of the notorious lines of Licinius Calvus:

    "Whate'er Bithynia had, and Caesar's paramour."

    I pass over, too, the invectives of Dolabella and the elder Curio, in which Dolabella calls him "the queen's rival, the inner partner of the royal couch," and Curio, "the brothel of Nicomedes and the stew of Bithynia."  I take no account of the edicts of Bibulus, in which he posted his colleague as "the queen of Bithynia," saying that "of yore he was enamoured of a king, but now of a king's estate." At this same time, so Marcus Brutus declares, one Octavius, a man whose disordered mind made him somewhat free with his tongue, after saluting Pompey as "king" in a crowded assembly, greeted Caesar as "queen." But Gaius Memmius makes the direct charge that he acted as cup-bearer to Nicomedes with the rest of his wantons at a large dinner-party, and that among the guests were some merchants from Rome, whose names Memmius gives.  Cicero, indeed, is not content with having written in sundry letters that Caesar was led by the king's attendants to the royal apartments, that he lay on a golden couch arrayed in purple, and that the virginity of this son of Venus was lost in Bithynia; but when Caesar was once addressing the senate in defence of Nysa, daughter of Nicomedes, and was enumerating his obligations to the king, Cicero cried: "No more of that, pray, for it is well known what he gave you, and what you gave him in turn."  Finally, in his Gallic triumph his soldiers, among the bantering songs which are usually sung by those who followed the chariot, shouted these lines, which became a by-word:

    "All the Gauls did Caesar vanquish, Nicomedes vanquished him;
    Lo! now Caesar rides in triumph, victor over all the Gauls,
    Nicomedes does not triumph, who subdued the conqueror."
    (The English translation is by J. C. Rolfe). Loeb Classical Library edition, 1913 1914.

    Pudicitiae eius famam nihil quidem praeter Nicomedis contubernium laesit, graui tamen et perenni obprobrio et ad omnium conuicia exposito. omitto Calui Licini notissimos uersus:
                   Bithynia quicquid    et pedicator Caesaris umquam habuit.
    praetereo actiones Dolabellae et Curionis patris, in quibus eum Dolabella 'paelicem reginae, spondam interiorem regiae lecticae,' at Curio 'stabulum Nicomedis et Bithynicum fornicem' dicunt. missa etiam facio edicta Bibuli, quibus proscripsit collegam suum Bithynicam reginam, eique antea regem fuisse cordi, nunc esse regnum. quo tempore, ut Marcus Brutus refert, Octauius etiam quidam ualitudine mentis liberius dicax conuentu maximo, cum Pompeium regem appellasset, ipsum reginam salutauit. sed C. Memmius etiam ad cyathum + et ui + Nicomedi stetisse obicit, cum reliquis exoletis, pleno conuiuio, accubantibus nonnullis urbicis negotiatoribus, quorum refert nomina. Cicero uero non contentus in quibusdam epistulis scripsisse a satellitibus eum in cubiculum regium eductum in aureo lecto ueste purpurea decubuisse floremque aetatis a Venere orti in Bithynia contaminatum, quondam etiam in senatu defendenti ei Nysae causam, filiae Nicomedis, beneficiaque regis in se commemoranti: 'remoue,' inquit, 'istaec, oro te, quando notum est, et quid ille tibi et quid illi tute dederis.' Gallico denique triumpho milites eius inter cetera carmina, qualia currum prosequentes ioculariter canunt, etiam illud uulgatissimum pronuntiauerunt:

    Gallias Caesar subegit, Nicomedes Caesarem:
    ecce Caesar nunc triumphat qui subegit Gallias,
    Nicomedes non triumphat qui subegit Caesarem.

    The same Suetonius on Life of Julius Caesar, 52.3 continues now quoting again Curio, father:

    But to remove all doubt that he had an evil reputation both for shameless vice and for adultery, I have only to add that the elder Curio in one of his speeches calls him "every woman's man and every man's woman."

    at ne cui dubium omnino sit et impudicitiae et adulteriorum flagrasse infamia, Curio pater quadam eum oratione omnium mulierum uirum et omnium uirorum mulierem appellat.

    It seems that on one occasion he took these comments with a sense of humor, if we believe what the same Suetonius tells us in chapter 22.2 where to brag about his complete victories in Gaul, told a senator that does not would be easy for a woman; Caesar quipped that:

    he replied in the same vein that Semiramis too had been queen in Syria and the Amazons in days of old had held sway over a great part of Asia.

    in Suria quoque regnasse Sameramin magnamque Asiae partem Amazonas tenuisse quondam.

    But generally these comments referred to the issue of Nicomedes annoyed greatly Caesar and put out of their boxes and made the "mistake" to deny publicly sworing it was not true, thereby expanding and making fools hoax. Dio tells us in Roman History, 43, 20.4:

    As for him, however, he was not displeased at their saying this, but was quite delighted that by such frankness toward him they showed their confidence that he would never be angry at it — except in so far as their abuse concerned his intercourse with Nicomedes. At this he was greatly vexed and manifestly pained; he attempted to defend himself, denying the affair upon oath, whereupon he incurred all the more ridicule. (Translation by Earnest Cary. Loeb Classical Library edition, 1916).

    In his attempt to explain actually gave more publicity to the issue. And so it continues today. Or do we still haunts the question that really the great Caesar, when it was not so great, was really the lover of king of Bithynia?

  • Decameter and decimeter

    Following the acquisition of the abstract concept of number and its graphical representation, man needed to create a numbering or numeral system that would allow him to comfortably work with large quantities. To do this man needed to create a hierarchical system of multiple orders or levels, so that a certain number of units of a level were to become higher-level unit and so on. The criterion for organizing such a system is called “base”. So between us ten units are a set of ten and ten tens are one hundred or a century and ten hundreds are a thousand.

    The more widespread numeral system in the world is the  base 10 system, we just instantiate, called "decimal" from the Latin word "decem" meaning "ten". But there are and have been other system, even among us. Relics of these other systems are for example  counting by dozens in some cases (a dozen eggs …); it  would correspond to a system or base 12, duodecimal or duodenary, from the Latin word "duodecim" which means "twelve";  the French phrase to designate  80  "quatre vingt" (four twenties) which reveals the use of base 20, measuring time: 60 seconds make a minute and 60 minutes an hour time corresponding to a   sexagesimal system or base 60 (from Latin word  sexaginta which means "sixty").

    The decimal system is imposed naturally because ten are the fingers of the two hands that man used to tell. The hand is and remains the first calculating machine. However the systems of weights and measures in many countries, and even within them, were very different even being decimal, which greatly hindered relations, especially economic, between them.

    At the end of the Age of Enlightenment, the eighteenth century, on the French Revolution, it begins to bring order to this confusion. First men  tried to find a "unit" that was applied to the measurement of length, space, volume, capacity and weight. After much discussion was  founded  a length which is called "metre or meter" with which they built a pattern of platinum and iridium at 0 ° C. Today that distance is defined as the length of the path traveled by light in vacuum during 1/299.792.458 second.

    This unit was called "meter or metre" from the Greek word ("μέτρον" metron) meaning "measure".

    This unit could generate decimal multiples and submultiples, those who also had to put a name.  The French scientists found a Solomonic solution: to multiples would put them Greek names: deca-, from the Greek "deka" (δέκα), which means ten, hecto-(Greek ἑκατόν "ekaton") meaning hundred, kilo-(χίλια Greek. "xilia") which means thousand. To sub-multiples Latin names would be placed: deci-(from the Latin "decem" meaning “ten”, centi-(Latin centum) meaning hundred, cent,; milli-(from the Latin "mille") which means “thousand”.

    Applying this terminology to length measurements we have: the unit is the meter; multiples are decameter or decametre, the hectometer, kilometer, submultiples are decimeter, centimeter, millimeter.

    As measure of capacity we the liter;  multiples the decaliter, the hectoliter, kiloliter; submultiples deciliter, centiliter, milliliter.

    The word "liter" is from the French  "liter" and this from medieval Latin "litra" and this in turn from the Greek λίτρα, "litra" meaning and from which  “libra”, on English  "pound".

    As weight measures we have the unit, gram (Greek γράμμα, "gramma" meaning letter and passing into Latin with the meaning of pebble); are multiples dekagram, hectogramme or hectogram, kilogram; submultiples are decigram, the centigram, the milligram.

    Once again Greece and Rome, our roots, came to our aid.

    By the way, a prism with 1 decimeter base  by a decimeter height  is a cubic decimeter because it results from multiplying 3 times the decimeter (length X width X height). The capacity of water that can collect this prism is a liter and the weight of that water is one kilogram. It was thus the relationship and equivalency among the measures of length, capacity and weight and all of them on the decimal system. Besides was the measurement of time, as noted ancient residue.

    So has be imposed almost entirely the decimal system except the relics previously mentioned, and in the Anglo world, determined to count in miles and yards.

    Both in the case of relics like English is checked once more that in human society is not always forced  coldly rational; they  are manifestly improvable customs imposed by the will or social inertia.

    But the needs of modern computing has forced to overcome traditional metric system and this has created the International System of Units or multiples measures with terms such as yotta, zetta, exa,  peta, tera,  giga, mega, kilo, hecto,  deca, and submultiples such as deci,  centi; milli, micro, nano, pico, femto, atto, zepto,  yocto .

    Almost all the new names are also Greek and Latin with some adaptations, as yotta, zetta, peta (like penta), giga, mega … micro, nano, micro, zepto, yocto. It seems to have cast some Danes as femto or attto.
     

  • Graecia capta (by Romans)

    The Romans came very soon in relation to Greek culture: the last Roman kings were Etruscans, people heavily influenced by Eastern and Greek culture, Sicily and southern Italy were soon colonized by the Greeks (south of Italy is called precisely Magna Grecia, “Great Greece” ); see
    https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/paestum-world-heritage-doric-temples

    In their  expansion in the Mediterranean and the East, finished the wars with the Carthaginians and occupied Sicily in the mid-third century BC, the Romans declare Greece Roman province in 197 BC.  But  in happy expression of Horace, Greece was conquered, but the Greek culture took possession of Rome:

    Conquered Greece took captive her savage conqueror and brought her arts into rustic Latium. (Book II, epistle 1, lines 156-157.)

    Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio.

    And that was so  in effect:  in general culture, literature, oratory, history, art, religion, customs, education …. everything was influenced and determined by the Greeks. The educated Romans were bilingual, all students of noble and resourceful family passed a stage of their training in Greece, Greeks were the teachers of Roman children, the first historians and analysts write on  Greek about Rome but not on Latin , etc..

    Cicero recognizes it well in his Tusculans Dispute, I, 1.3 when he says ….

    In learning, indeed, and all kinds of literature, Greece did excel us, and it was easy to do
    so where there was no competition ; for while among the Greeks the poets were the most ancient species of learned men since Homer and Hesiod lived before the foundation of Rome, and Archilochus 1 was a contemporary of Romulus we received poetry much later. For it was
    about five hundred and ten years after the building of Rome before Living" published a play in the consulship of C. Claudius, the son of Caucus, and M. Tuditanus, a year before the birth of Ennius, who was older than Plautus and Naevius.     ( Trans.by  C. D. Yonge.)
     
    Doctrina Graecia nos et omni litterarum genere superabat; in quo erat facile vincere non repugnantes. nam cum apud Graecos antiquissimum e doctis genus sit poëtarum, siquidem Homerus fuit et Hesiodus ante Romam conditam, Archilochus regnante Romulo, serius poëticam nos accepimus. annis fere CCCCCX post Romam conditam Livius fabulam dedit C. Claudio, Caeci filio, M. Tuditano cos. anno ante natum Ennium. qui fuit maior natu quam Plautus et Naevius.

    Note: Rome was founded in 753 BC, Archilochus lived between 720 and 676 BC, Appius Claudius Caecus (the Blind) lived  c. 340 BC – 273 BC, Ennius wrote the Annals and lived from 239 to 169 BC, Livius Andronicus came to Rome as a prisoner in 272 BC and translated the Odyssey into Latin. Plautus was born around the year 254 …. Naevius lived from 269 to 199…

    That is, when Rome was founded in 753, Greek bards recite the Iliad and the Odyssey; all Greek classical authors have died when Rome is still in his childhood as a city.

    But was all so simple and linear? Did Roman culture disappeared under Greek culture? Naturally, no. As so often in history, the native refuses to disappear and often remains on the substrate under innovative layer. Maintained Roman religion maintains its particular ritual character, the arts in general acquire a practical sense that they had not in Greece, science helps technique and especially the Roman law, based on common sense, maintains its vigor and energy. And custom and habits remain peculiarly Roman.

    There is a contemporary French author, Pascal Quignard (1948), which has published an interesting and disturbing book "Sex and terror", an essay on Roman eroticism, the result of his studies of Pompeii, Herculaneum buried by Vesuvius and fascination by numerous archaeological erotic content. In his prologue summarizes the content and purpose of his work:

    "When Augustus reorganized the Roman world in the form of the empire, jubilant eroticism, anthropomorphic and accurate eroticism of Greeks becomes  frightened melancholy ".

    Phallus word does not exist. The Romans called fascinus what the Greeks called phallos. In the human world, as in the animal kingdom, fascinate  requires  anyone who sees not look away. It is fixed in place, without will, in terror.

    Why, for so many years, I have written this book? To address this mystery: the pleasure is that is puritanical.

    The enjoyment starts the vision of that what desire had only begun to unravel.
                                                                                 Pascal Quidnard


    Then in what he calls "Warning" tells us:

    When the edges of the civilizations touch and overlap themselves ,  shocks occur. One of these earthquakes occurred in the West when the edge of Greek civilization touched the border of Roman civilization and system of rites, when the erotic anguish became fascinatio and when  erotic laughter became sarcasm of ludibrium.
                                            ……………………

    I try to understand something incomprehensible:   transport of eroticism from Greek to imperial Rome. This mutation has not been thought until now because  a reason unknown by me and because a fear that I understand. During the fifty-six year reign of Augustus, who overhauled the Roman world in the form of the empire, saw the metamorphosis of cheerful and accurate Greek eroticism in frightened  melancholy. This mutation took just thirty years to impose (from -18 BC to AD 14 AD) and yet still dominates around us and our passions. Christianity was only a consequence of this metamorphosis taking up this eroticism so to speak in the way he had redrafted the Roman officials, that  the principality of Octavius Augustus raised and the Empire  during the four following centuries  was taken to multiply in the obsequiousness.
    Thus the Greek conception of the erotic not won in Rome; what  prevailed and sought to maintain and restore  was the former morality  of Roman matrons. Luxury, refinement, uninhibited sexuality at the bottom were always frowned upon in Rome.

    That morality  and customs were  reinforced by Christianity and  prevailed in the West and we still do not have a certain joy of life that we cherish  elsewhere, usually in the east.

    Note: Regardless of the "horror" that Quignard can cause in some people, reading, highly suggestive, shows once again the importance and validity of the study of the classics in our time.
     

  • With the ships on the shoulders

    Apollonius of Rhodes gave us the only Greek epic poem that is conserved from Homer to the Hellenistic period, “The journey of the Argonauts”. Five centuries have passed and many things have changed. If Homer’s gods mingle with the heroes in their struggle, now the work is of men, although the gods, powerful, influence, help but do not mix with them. Actually the poem seems more like a novel and as such should be read.

    The poem tells the epic and fantastic journey of any Greek heroes in search of the "golden fleece". A journey of these features allows the author to describe scenarios, actions and mythical tales circulating among the Greeks as popular cultural wealth, so perhaps similar to our stories.

    The poem deserves to be read for many reasons, some literary, historical or  folk other. I transcribe a fragment, that this is too large, on an episode of the trip, almost at the  end, in which the heroes, burly undoubtedly be forced to carry his ship on dry land to  find again the sea and go  back home. I use the translation that Carlos García Gual made of the poem a few years ago for the  spanish  “Editora Nacional”:

    And at once Peleus rejoiced and spake among the throng of his comrades:
    “I deem that Poseidon’s car has even now been loosed by the hands of his dear wife, and I divine that our mother is none else than our ship herself;  fornsurely she bare us in her womb and groans unceasingly with grievous travailing. But with unshaken strength and untiring shoulders will we lift her up and bear her within this country of sandy wastes, where yon swift-footed steed has sped before. For he wil not plunge beneath the earth; and his hoof-prints, I ween, will point us to some bay above the sea.”
    Thus he spake, and the fit  counsel pleased all. This is the tale the Muses told; and I sing obedient to the Pierides, and this report have I heard most truly; that ye, O mightiest far of the desert sands of Lybra raised high aloft on hour shoulders the ship and all that ye brought therein, and bare her twelve days and nights alike. Yet who could tell the pain and grief which they endured in that toil? Surely they were of the blood of the immortals, such a task did they take on them, constrained by necessity. How forward and how far they  bore her gladly to the waters of the Tritonian lake! How they strode in and set her down from their stalwart shoulders!       (Trnasl. by  R.C.Seaton M.A.)

    Well this episode, apparently mythical, has at least two real confirmations, yes similar if not identical.
    In 1453 the Turkish sultan Metmet II finally conquered Constantinople, which had long resisted heroically Turkish thrust. Among other defenses such as several belts of defensive walls, the spectacular "Golden Horn" (one of the most beautiful places on Earth) was closed by an iron chain that prevented the passage of ships. The Sultan Metmet II, obsessed with the target and willing to do anything, he built a dirt road behind Pera by which transported their boats to the "Golden Horn".

    Again the ships sailed for the mainland. It happened on April 22 and at this day Constantine XI, the last emperor, understood  the determination of the Turkish sultan and knew that soon the Roman capital of the Eastern Empire would be Turkish. At the day  May 29  ended the Eastern Roman Empire.

    The Turks, now inhabitants of Colchis, Medea's homeland, somehow repeated the feat of heroes in mythical times walked these lands. Most likely Metmet knew the legend, the story, the story of some Greeks, the Argonauts, who in antiquity loaded with boats in tow.

    The city came into history  calling Byzas  (whence Byzantium), then the "Nova Roma" (New Rome), soon Constantinople, from  Constantinus (name of Roman Emperor) and Greek word polis, "city",  until 1930, when  was given the Turkish name  Istanbul, derived from the phrase eis tên Polin (εις τήν Πόλιν) meaning "in or into the city" (although in colloquial language was called "islambol" meaning "city of Islam "or" Islam immense ").

    In 1492 Christopher Columbus had discovered a new continent unknowingly, then, tricks of fate would not be called "Colombia or Columbia" but America. Then Spanish expeditions happen especially for the new territories. Vasco Nunez de Balboa, interesting character in several respects, attracted, like everyone, for the gold reaches the isthmus connecting North to South America;  the natives tell him that if the only thing that matters is the gold, he must go to west to a huge sea abounding metal. After many penalties wetlands and forested mountains, on September 25, 1513 sights from the top of a mountain the vast sea, which he calls "South Sea" and takes possession in the name of his king of Spain. Later  Ferdinand Magellan called it the Pacific Ocean by the apparent calm waters and it has left so to posterity.

    Years later, in 1516, decided from the Atlantic coast to prepare a naval expedition for the "South Sea" because it was authorized to do so before 1518. Thinking that in coast the Pacific he could not find the materials to build their boats, prepared then in Acla, city on the Atlantic coast. Cuts and carves  wood, prepares the anchors and all instruments thatnrequire two brigs. All this is carried on the shoulders and backs of Indians, of course, (with a small share of a few blacks and some Spanish) by swamps, jungles and mountains to the Balsas River, currently the river Sabanas, which disembogue into the Pacific. In the harsh and painful transport operation many Indians died;  Bartolome de las Casas, who is who tells us these things, says that over 2,000 Indians died. Maybe the gods of the Isthmus, outraged by so much ambition and cruelty, sent tropical storms of such magnitude that destroyed built ships. The end of Balboa was unfortunate result of betrayal and false accusation: arrested by  Pizarro, whom he found in the way back, was convicted and executed in January 1519.

    Certainly, his discovery of the "South Sea, then" Pacific Ocean "was a great feat, despite the shadows that always hover over any human endeavor.

    I do not know if Nunez de Balboa  knew the poem of Apollonius, but we can assume that probably knew some details of the capture of Constantinople by the Turks; in all it  happened sixty-three years before expedition to the "South Sea" .

    The propaganda of the time of the dictatorship of General Franco presents the episode as a feat of mythic heroes own, regardless of what it really cost. A  scholar book of 1967 (The Book of Spain, edit. Edelvives, Zaragoza 1967) says, for example,  on page 47:

    "Only Spanish hearts could  conceive the project. The feat leaves the bounds of the human ".

    In any case and for the matter  that interests us, not the mainland or the dense jungle and the steep mountain was an obstacle for to the wind push two sailboats brig.

    I also transcribe a fragment of the work of Bartolome de las Casas, History of the Indies, which tells us these things:

    Chap. LXXIV: "... As long as Compañon came and went, Vasco Núñez began to cut, by him first, wood  to begin the brigs, and so did those who were with him, where he labored all or most of the wood four brigs, to take so carved later to  this river “Balsa”  and form there he brigs and take them out to sea by the river, and finally it was did so…
    Vasco Nunez came back and  sent Compañon with some  Spanish and 30 black men to the summit of the mountains, from  where the water discharged into the, to do a house where rest  those who were carrying your carved wood and anchors and rigging of the brigs and they had the supplies and food and weapons and everything else for his defense.
                                                     ……………….
    to bring it into the house; this was 12 leagues of mountains and rivers away, already down and climbed up to reach the high mountains where this hideout settled. This timber was loaded onto the Indians which they had as slaves and those who were to robe  each day and  blacks took their part;  blacks were 30, and each Spanish carried that he could. The work here carrying and taking up this wood, and nailing and tools, and then anchors and rigging and all other gear needed for the launches, and then falling to the river, which is suffered by all, can not be believed, but there was no black or Spanish who died of them, but of the unhappy Indians were  countless  who perished and concluded their sad days; I saw signed by bishop with your name, in a relationship that he did for the Emperor in Barcelona the year 519, when he came from the mainland, as longer forward,  God willing, will be referred, that Vasco Nuñez killed 500 Indians for make the brigantines,  and the Bishop’s secretary told me that he  would not put more number because not seem amazing thing, but the truth was that they came or passed  2,000; and as the work was, indeed, anyone it should have been possible and be truly so, because carry naked naked men 24 and 25 leagues from towering mountains, hills and descended, piggyback carved wood to make four ships and anchors iron three, four, five six quintals and cables that are the ropes for the anchors, weighing as much and little less, and a thousand other such heavy quasi gear that ships require all without eating but a bit of corn grain bread made yet, but as they eat the birds or beasts, what men, even having bodies  formed part of the iron material, could suffer without dying?

    Cap. LXXV:

    God began to show what they  served him with those works, because the work of cutting wood sawing it  in Acla and North Sea, and then sad Indias carrying it on the shoulders through very rough  and intolerable roads, all that became empty because the timber was  there on land that was very close by the sea salt, and it was after eaten by meal worms, and therefore it was necessary to cut it again at the river; when they had  cut a lot of wood, and perhaps sawed it, because they wanted to put it into the shipyard, which is to start the brigs, came suddenly so big avenues that the river took part of the wood and the silt buried another part,  rising the water above  two states  (fourteen feet) ….

    Finally, the Argonauts were motivated by the desire to return home, as many traders and ancient Greek sailors. The Spanish in America were pushed to incredible target by the gold quest, conquest, glory;  Turks by the desire to conquer the capital, supposedly rich, of what had been a huge empire and remained as symbol of the Christian West.

    Some people believe that faith can move mountains, but what is proven from the ancient Greeks is that human will makes  boats sail on dry dirt roads.
     

  • What does carpe diem mean?

    It is very common to hear the expression Carpe Diem, but what does Carpe Diem mean? It means “seize the occasion, enjoy the moment”.  In short, it means: “don’t ask what our future will be; accept what is coming and since life is short, enjoy what you can now”.

    One of the advantages that ancient poets and writers in general have is that their work is not as extensive as some of the modern writers. So if we wanted, we could read their complete poetry in a few days. To the requirement of classical perfection, which only allows a very polished production, we have to add the havoc of time that makes us to have lost many extraordinary creations.

    Who said the phrase Carpe Diem?

    One of the most notable poets for his maturity and reasonable epicureanism is Horatio (Quintus Horatius Flaccus).

    He is the author, among several other famous ones, of the phrase carpe diem, quoted to satiety, used and abused constantly since Antiquity.
    Horace uses it in his Ode number 11 of the book I. The poem, which has only eight verses, is dedicated to a woman, Leucónoe, who some authors interpret as “the lucid-minded one”, to whom perhaps he makes a subtle insinuation of love.

    The poet explains very well the meaning of Carpe Diem in his Ode number 11, and although poetry, and more so ancient poetry, has certain difficulties in understanding, I will offer the text in Spanish and also in Latin, in case anyone has the opportunity to read it in its original language, which is always the best, if possible.

    Do not wonder (knowing it would be a sacrilege) what end
    the gods have decided for you and me, Leuconoe;
    or consult the Babylonian tablets *.
    The best will be to bear whatever comes.
    Whether Jupiter has still given us many winters
    as if this, that now hits the porous rocks of the Tyrrhenian Sea,
    is the latest in our lives, be wise, enjoy your wine
    and do not have a long hope.
    While we’re talking about, our time is escaping enviously.
    Enjoy the moment and trust in the future the least as possible.
    (* the horoscope ….)

    Tu ne quaesieris (scire nefas) quem mihi, quem tibi
    finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
    temptaris números. Vt melius quicquid erit pati!
    Seu plouris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
    quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare
    Tyrrhenum, sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi
    spem longam reseces. Dum loquitur, fugerit invida
    aetas: carpe diem, quam mínimum crédula postero.

    Note: immemorial poem, immortal poem, as meaningful today as yesterday. We will often talk about Horace, the quiet poet, the poet of maturity.

  • Alma mater

    Among the many phrases, sentences, Latin maxims that survive in the cultural wealth of the West there are some that have been particularly fortunate. One of them is definitely “alma mater”.

    "Alma" is the feminine form of the adjective "Almus,-a,-um", derived from the same root as the verb "alo";  it means feed, sustain, take care, so that "alma" means nurturing, life-giving, fertile, and other nuances associated with the word it qualifies, as a favourable, propitious,  encourages, benefactress.

    From the same root is logically "alimentum", food, and also "alumnus", fed, bred and therefore child who grows, and if he raises or  is educated  intellectually, he will be disciple.

    In ancient Rome this adjective was attached to the title of some goddesses as Mother Cybele or  Ceres or Venus.

    So Virgil, in the beginning of his great poem dedicated to life in the countryside, Georgicae, just started with the reference to his patron Maecenas, starting from verse 5 goes to the stars and the gods, including Ceres, the goddess of agriculture (think of the name to refer to cereal grains like wheat and other guaranteed by the favor of the goddess):

    ... O universal lights
    Most glorious! ye that lead the gliding year
    Along the sky, Liber and Ceres mild,
    If by your bounty holpen earth once changed
    Chaonian acorn for the plump wheat-ear,
    …      (J. B. Greenough, Ed.)

    ….. Vos , o clarissima mundi
    Lumna, labentem caelo quae ducitis annum,
    Liber et alma Ceres, vestro si numine tellus
    Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista,
    …
    And so Ovid begins his IV book  of Fasti  referring to Venus as nurturing with the verses:

    ‘Kindly mother of the twin Cupids, favour me!’ I said.
    She glanced back towards her poet: ‘Why do you
    Need me?’ she said. ‘Surely, you sing greater themes.
    Have you some old wound lingering in your heart?’
    ‘Goddess, ‘ I replied, ‘you know my wound.’ She laughed,
    And the sky immediately cleared in her direction.
    (Translated by A. S. Kline)

    'Alma, fave', dixi 'geminorum mater Amorum';
         ad vatem voltus rettulit illa suos;
    'quid tibi' ait 'mecum? certe maiora canebas.
         num vetus in molli pectore volnus habes?'
    'scis, dea', respondi 'de volnere.' risit, et aether               5
         protinus ex illa parte serenus erat.

    And  another time Ovid in Book XV, 843 ff. of his Metamorphoses also refers to Venus as nutrient in the passage in which the goddess collects in the Senate the soul of killed Caesar and rises to the heavens:

    He scarcely ended had theis woordes, but Venus out of hand
    Amid the Senate house of Rome invisible did stand,
    And from her Caesars bodye tooke his new expulsed spryght
    The which shee not permitting to resolve to ayer quyght,
    Did place it in the skye among the starres that glister bryght
    (Arthur Golding, Ed.)

    Vix ea fatus erat, medi cum sede senatus
    constitit alma Venus nulli cernenda suique
    Caesaris eripuit membris nec in aera solvi              
    passa recentem animam caelestibus intulit astris

    And also the same Ovid in the same  Book IV of  the above quoted Fasti verses,  now Fasti IV, 317 ff., describing the arrival of the Mother Goddess Cybele to the port of Ostia, near Rome, in the year 204 BC also calls her  "alma":

    And, with loosened hair, uttered these words:
    “ Kind and fruitful Mother of the Gods, accept
    A suppliant’s prayers, on this one condition:
    They deny I’m chaste: let me be guilty if you condemn me:
    Convicted by a goddess I’ll pay for it with my life.
    (Translated by A. S. Kline)

    summissoque genu voltus in imagine divae
    figit, et hos edit crine iacente sonos:
    "supplicis, alma, tuae, genetrix fecunda deorum,
    accipe sub certa condicione preces.
    casta negor: si tu damnas, meruisse fatebor;
    morte luam poenas iudice victa dea;

    Horace applies it to the Muses, the Camenae: Almae Musae (feeder and-promoting the arts and sciences) in Book III, Ode IV for example, v. 42

    You, beneficent deities,  give the sweet consolation
    and ye rejoice for giving it

    vos lene consilium et datis et dato
    gaudetis, almae. …

    Then Christians claimed it logically to the Virgin Mary. A peculiar thing I will say that in 2009 the Vatican itself has released a CD entitled "Alma Mater", dedicated to the Virgin Mary religious songs of Pope Benedict XVI.

    But since the Middle Ages the term "alma mater" is applied especially to the University, Universitas Studiorum, real mother nurturing the minds and spirits of students moving through Europe: Bologna (founded already in 1088 ), Paris, Salamanca, Coimbra, Oxford …

    "Universitas, University" means community, corporation, joint group, college.

    Universitas magistrorum et scholarium is thus the community of teachers and students or as they say in The Seven-Part Code  (The Siete Partidas ), or Book of Laws published in the reign of Alfonso X the Wise (1252-1284):  Ayuntamiento de maestros et de escolares que es fecho en algún logar con voluntat et con entendimiento de aprender los saberes” "City of teachers and students made somewhere with  willing et understanding to learn the knowledge" (Partid. II, Title XXXI, Law 1)

    It is logical, therefore, to appear, even in the last stanza of the famous university hymn, widespread throughout the world, Gaudeamus igitur, whose letter is perhaps from the thirteenth century:

    May our Alma Mater thrive,
    A font of education;
    Friends and colleagues, where'er they are,
    Whether near or from afar,
    Heed her invitation.
                          (Trans.  by J. Mark Sugars, 1997

    Alma Mater floreat
    quae nos educavit,
    caros et conmilitones
    dissitas in regiones
    sparsos congregavit.

    If the university is "alma mater", it is logical to call “alumni”, students young or not so young who  nourish the know. Above is explained the meaning of "alumnus".

    Note also that there is the term "alma parens ". For example, it is  used by Virgil in Book II, v. 588 of the Aeneid, referring to Venus.

    So I raved,
    and to such frenzied purpose gave my soul.
    Then with clear vision (never had I seen
    her presence so unclouded) I beheld,
    in golden beams that pierced the midnight gloom,
    my gracious mother, visibly divine,
    and with that mien of majesty she wears
    when seen in heaven;
    (Theodore C. Williams, Ed.)

    Talia iactabam, et furiata mente ferebar:
    cum mihi se, non ante oculis tam clara, videndam
    obtulit et pura per noctem in luce refulsit
    alma parens, confessa deam, qualisque videri
    caelicolis et quanta solet,

    And later in Book X, v. 215, now referring to Cibeles:

    Day now had left the sky. The moon benign
    had driven her night-wandering chariot
    to the mid-arch of heaven. Aeneas sate,
    for thought and care allowed him no repose,
    holding the helm and tending his own sails.
    but, as he sped, behold, the beauteous train,
    lately his own, of nymphs, anon transformed
    by kind Cybebe to sea-ruling powers.
    In even ranks they swam the cloven wave,—
    nymphs now, but once as brazen galleys moored
    along the sandy shore.

    Iamque dies caelo concesserat almaque curru
    noctivago Phoebe medium pulsabat Olympum:
    Aeneas (neque enim membris dat cura quietem)
    ipse sedens clavumque regit velisque ministrat.
    Atque illi medio in spatio chorus ecce suarum
    occurrit comitum: nymphae, quas alma Cybebe
    numen habere maris nymphasque e navibus esse
    iusserat, innabant pariter fluctusque secabant,
    quot prius aeratae steterant ad litora prorae.

    And in the same Book X, v. 251 ff.

    Then in few words
    with eyes upturned to heaven he made his prayer:
    “Mother of gods, O Ida's Queen benign,
    who Iovest Dindymus and towns with towers,
    and lion-yokes obedient to thy rein,
    be thou my guide in battle, and fulfil
    thine augury divine. In Phrygia's cause
    be present evermore with favoring power!”
    He spoke no more.


    Tum breviter super adspectans convexa precatur:
    “Alma parens Idaea deum, cui Dindyma cordi
    turrigeraeque urbis biiugique ad frena leones,
    tu mihi nunc pugnae príncipes, tu rite propinques
    augurium Phrygibusque adsis pede, diva, secundo.
    Tantum effatus.

    And in Book XI, v.557 ff.

    ‘Latona's daughter, whose benignant grace
    protects this grove, behold, her father now
    gives thee this babe for handmaid!
    Lo, thy spear
    her infant fingers hold, as from her foes
    she flies a suppliant to thee! Receive,
    O goddess, I implore, what now I cast
    upon the perilous air.

    “Alma, tibi hanc, nemorum cultrix, Latonia virgo,
    ipse pater famulam voveo; tua prima per auras
    tela tenens supplex hostem fugit.

    It should be known that the Latin word "parens" (related to "pario", give birth, produce, raise) designates both father and mother. What is an unacceptable error, indicating considerable ignorance, is to build the phrase "alma pater" because "pater" only refers to "father", masculine, and "alma" is a feminine form, nurturing.

    Naturally, it is also a remarkable mistake to confuse  Latin adjective "alma", nurturing, with the Spanish noun "alma", spirit, term derived from "anima". By the way, all the "animals", as the name suggests, have  "anima" or spirit.

  • Three times three

    In general the Romans are very superstitious and very ritualistic. His conception of the world, in a sense it can be called animist because they believe that everything is pervaded by a divine force which justifies its development and virtuality, leads them to constantly be aware of the signs that manifest the will of the gods or announce the future. And this in turn requires constantly celebrate rites and ceremonies which discover the future and the will of the gods and spirits in order to propitiate his favor or stop their anger. So they do not undertake any action without consulting those signs.

    This idea was expressed consistently by Pliny the Younger at the beginning of his “Panegyric of Trajan” 1.1:

    Right and wisely, senators, our forefathers instituted that the actions and speeches must begin with prayers, because the men  can’t receive the auspices legally, can’t  receive them prudently at all without the help, without advice and without the glory of the immortal gods.

    Bene ac sapienter, patres conscripcti, maiores  instituerunt ut rerum agendarum ita dicendi a precationibus capere, quod nihil rite, nihil providenter homines sine deorum inmortalium ope, consilio, honore auspicarentur.

    The Romans  considered themselves the most religious people of all, as Cicero himself says in his De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods) 2.8:

    And if we want to compare our stuff with foreigners, we see that in the other aspects we are equal or even lower, but in religion, that is, in the worship of the gods we are much higher.

    et si conferre volumus nostra cum externis, ceteris rebús aut pares aut etiam inferiores reperiemur, religione id est cultu deorum multo superiores.

    If we understand religious  people as "rites practitioner", we must  to share the statement of Cicero.

    About the Roman rites I will speak more fully on another occasion, but we should know now a summarized example to assess its importance in the Roman religion. This is the ritual what  the paterfamilias (father and head of the Roman family) has to perform in the festivals of the dead called Lemuria, rite what in his time has lost all understanding but that is still practiced "religiously" as did their ancestors, never better applied this adverb, and which  the poet Ovid tells us in his Fasti, 5, 419-492:

    At midnight the father  (paterfamilias) rises,  bare feet up and,  clicks the thumb with the other fingers to ward off ghosts; washes his hands three times in a fountain;  puts into your mouth black beans which then pulls back saying  nine times: 'I throw these beans, with them I rescued me and mine' without turning back, touching the water again, sounds a bronze object and asks the shadow (the deceased) to exit home saying nine times  'Manes of my parents, get out'. So it is quiet.

    (Look at the times he  repeats the formula:  three or nine times)

    Julius Caesar, who among the many roles and titles that he had, held also the Pontifex Maximus (The greatest pontiff), ie one of the most senior religious authorities, was not particularly devout and respectful of fate and omens when they involved an obstacle in their projects: neither heard the blind seer (it is curios that often  a physical blind have clairvoyance of the future) who warned him to take care of the Ides of March nor attended the premonitory dream of his wife Calpurnia the day on he was killed.

    But that does not mean he was not as superstitious as their fellow citizens. Pliny tells us in HN 28,4(21) how pronounced three times a magic formula always riding on a war chariot  following a mishap that had on one occasion:

    It is said that the dictator Caesar, after having had an accident with your vehicle, always, before you sit down, what do we now know that many, used to seek their safety by repeating three times a spell.

    Caesarem dictatorem post unum ancipitem vehiculi casum ferunt semper, ut primum consedisset, id quod plerosque nunc facere scimus, carmine ter repetito securitatem itinerum aucupari solitum. (Plin. Naturalis Historia, Lib. 28, 4, (21).

    The spell  should not always be effective because  Dio Cassius tells us how  celebrating their first win of the four that won, that for his victories in Gaul, was broken  the axle of the car and had to await the arrival of a replacement . It was a bad omen, a bad sign that Caesar sought to correct gaiting with his knees up the steps of the Temple of Jupiter where the victorious general ended his parade:

    Dio Cassius tells us so in  Roman History 43, 21, 1-2:

    Now on the first day of the triumph a portent far from good fell to his lot: the axle of the triumphal car broke down directly opposite the temple of Fortune built by Lucullus, so that he had to complete the rest of the course in another.  On this occasion, too, he climbed up the stairs of the Capitol on his knees, without noticing at all either the chariot which had been dedicated to Jupiter in his honour, or the image of the inhabited world lying beneath his feet, or the inscription upon it; but later he erased from the inscription the term "demigod." (translated by Earnest Cary)

    Maybe someone thinks that these rituals and superstitious practices were unique to ancient religions, but any will easily notice how  number three is still present in our current customs and rituals. Probably the magical and mystical value of the number “three”   is conferred to it because the three represents  the union of opposites: one front and opposite the two,  the three becomes the synthesis.

    Also known is the importance of the "three" in Indo-European cultures in which societies are organized into three estates or parts: priests, warriors, artisans. These organization is reflected in all cultures from Europe to India.

    Evidence of this is also the group of deities in triads or groups of three gods: Jupiter, Juno, Minerva in Rome, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva in India.

    Is there any relationship between this religious custom of triads and acceptance of the Christian Trinity?

    But back to the ritual, is not how many present people too repeated three times few sentences or phrases such as "Ave Maria" or the sign of the cross? Do not Pope and  priest bless  three times the faithful? Would not it be just as effective a heartfelt prayer than its three times repetition?

    And what about the number nine which served as a guideline to the paterfamilias in the ceremony of Lemuria?  “Nine” is three times three. We remember our dead in a special way for nine days with a novena (nine days of prayers) to say nothing of those frequently held in honor of our saints or virgins of different invocation.

    We recall here what has been said in this blog  in https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/love-potion-filter-elixir-witch-pliny  talking about a spell to avoid an elusive love:

    But the nurse, mixing sulphur in a flat bowl,
    kindles narcissus and cassia, savoury herbs;
    and thrice tying nine threads, marked eith three different hues, she cries:
    “Spit thrice into your bosom, as I do,  maiden;
    spit thirce, maiden: heaven delights in an uneven number
    (by H.R. Fairclough, rev. G.P. Goold; Loeb Classical Library;  Cambridge, MA 2001;  )

    "At nutrix patula componens sulpura testa
    narcissum casiamque herbas incendit olentis
    terque novena ligans triplici diversa colore
    fila «ter in gremium mecum» inquit «despue, virgo,
    despue ter, virgo: numero deus impare gaudet.»:

     And all this is more shocking in a culture in which the decimal counting base is absolutely imposed and widespread, but for some things uses older accounts: triduums, weeks, novenas, dozens …

    Finally, anyone who has visited a any famous shrine of the many who are not only in Iberia but in Europe and across the ocean and seen the rows of worshipers kneeling walkers, will not miss the way that Caesar tried to exorcise her bad omens.

    Even today, some faithful and devoted people march kneeling from time to time in processions to atone for a fault or to make a profit of divinity. It is the realization of the principle "do ut des" (I give you to give me, I give, in this case an effort, to give me what I ask) which is a central element of Roman religion and currently survives on religiosity of many people.

    The Romans did not understand the meaning of many ancient rituals, although they believed in their magical efficacy. Do we understand finally ours rituals, which are nothing else the survival of their own? Certainly we do not understand them, but we do not cease to practice them.

  • “Symbol” and “diabolo” (devil) are two related words.

    It is difficult for modern man to establish the relationship between “symbol” and “devil”, but that relationship exists.

    σύμβολον, symbolon, symbol,  as dictionary says, means  contract, trade agreement, mark, badge, sign, password, emblem, symbol, logo, omen, auspice, convention, treaty. It relates to συμβάλλω, symballo,  take, gather, gather, recruit, launch, compare, interpret, agree … συμ-  or συν- , sin-, is a Greek preposition  or  preverb meaning "with" and therefore implies an  idea of community, of union, of meeting.

    “Symbol”  makes regard to a practice of protection of hospitality or completion of contracts and agreements; it consists on  break a piece of pottery, metal and other materials so that each of the two parties, the traveler and the host, the seller and the buyer, stayed with one of them;  on a future occasion the meeting of the two sides in one piece was the evidence of ancient hospitality established or agreement made. Then, in the legal world, the symbol was a contract between private individuals with certain legal guarantees.

    διάβολος, diabolos, devil,  means slanderer, detractor. It relates δια-βάλλω, dia-ballo,  throwing, rift, alienate, accuse, slander, denigrate, cheat … διά, dia-, is exactly a preposition or adverb meaning separately, in part, through .. ; it is, the opposite of συν , sin-, with.

    The term is related to διὰβολή,  diabole,  that means  disagreement,  quarrel, false accusation, slander.
    Actually the word diabole originally referred to the position that in judicial proceedings,  in court, kept who doubted the claim of the other party, which is called diabolos , διάβολος. From this  rhetorical sense step to mean "slanderer" and diabole "slander". In the Christian context the devil was  who introduces division and estrangement from the truth of God and therefore was the enemy of God.

    So etymologically "symbol" is the opposite of "devil":   if the "symbols"  join together, the "devils"  separate.

    Demons  (from Lat. daemonium, and this  from Gr. δαιμόνιον , daimonion, and δαιμόν, daimon ) deserves a separate treatment which in turn take out.

  • What is more important, the utilitarian oratory or spiritual poetry?

    Yesterday, the same as today, the “word” is an honourable activity of men, in some cases that activity produces huge profits while in other cases barely allows a simple life.

    Cornelius Tacitus (c. 55-120) was a senator, consul and  Roman governor, but mostly he was a famous historian who told us in two works (The Histories,  The Annals) the History of Rome from Augustus to Domitian.

    But  also wrote three minor works, one about  Germania, another with the biography of his father Julius Agricola and a third entitled " Dialogue on Oratory” which is about the decline of oratory in his time and the causes of corrupt eloquence.

    In this third in a simulated dialogue between the poet Curiatius Maternus and the orator Marcus Aper, discuss what art has to have primacy, what should be most important, poetry or oratory.

    The orator’s or speaker's job is to defend or accuse a citizen in court,  a city or a province which  requires their services. For his work he receives  good and large emoluments, besides a great reputation and social standing. The oratory, conceived as a weapon, strives for profit.

    The poet, intent on his solitude and peace of mind, on  expressing  their feelings or singing  in musical verses notable actions of men,  can hardly aspire to a reading from the circle of his friends and a difficult and costly edition of his works. Although he  may claim the support and protection of some powerful, the poet does not earn much money nor live in opulence.

    Everyone values these two activities as he deems appropriate, as it was in antiquity. But in this work and in this dialogue Tacitus  reminds us what happened to the great national poet Latin Virgil, the author of the Aeneid dedicated to the family of Emperor Augustus, the Eclogues, the Georgics. Tacitus says by the mouth of Maternus in Dialogue on oratory, I, 13:

    Look again at the poet's lot, with its delightful companionships. I should not be afraid of comparing it with the harassing and anxious life of the orator. Orators, it is true, have been raised to consulships by their contests and perils, but I prefer Virgil's serene, calm, and peaceful retirement, in which after all he was not without the favour of the di-vine Augustus, and fame among the people of Rome. We have the testimony of the letters of Augustus, the testimony too of the people themselves, who, on hearing in the theatre some of Virgil's verses, rose in a body and did homage to the poet, who happened to be present as a spectator, just as to Augustus himself. (tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb)

    Ac ne fortunam quidem vatum et illud felix contubernium comparare timuerim cum inquieta et anxia oratorum vita. licet illos certamina et pericula sua ad consulatus evexerint, malo securum et quietum Virgilii secessum, in quo tamen neque apud divum Augustum gratia caruit neque apud populum Romanum notitia. Testes Augusti epistulae, testis ipse populus, qui auditis in theatro Virgilii versibus surrexit universus et forte praesentem spectantemque Virgilium veneratus est sic quasi Augustum.

    (Note: the letters from Augustus  are not preserved.)

    Good, this was the public of a play, not people attending horse races or gladiatorial combat. Well, the stage, the situation, does not seem to have changed much in these two thousand years until today. And yet still fortunately are poets.

    The rural delight of Virgil is described so by himself in Georgicae,  lib. ii. ver. 485:

    Me may the lowly vales and woodland please,
    And winding rivers, and inglorious ease;
    O that I wander'd by Sperchius' flood,
    Or on Taygetus' sacred top I stood!
    Who in cool Hæmus' vales my limbs will lay,
    And in the darkest thicket hide from day?
    (Tr. Wharton’s Virgil)

    Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes;
    Flumina amem, sylvasque inglorius. O ubi campi,
    Sperchiusque, et virginibus bacchata Lacænis
    Taygeta! O quis me gelidis sub montibus Hæmi
    Sistat, et ingenti ramorum protegat umbrâ?

    Note: Virgil had a real  villa near Naples, where he wrote  his Georgics and  great part of the Aeneid.