It occurs to me that while Apollon’s epithet λοξίας “oblique” dates back to Aiskhulos, his epithet φοῖβος “clear” dates all the way back to Homeros. In the same way, I think the Egyptians had it right: the best place to hide things is in plain sight.
“Different goals for different souls.”
εἰς δὲ τέλος
And finally into μάντεις
prophets τε καὶ
and ὑμνόπολοι
poets καὶ
and ἰητροί
healers
καὶ
and πρόμοι
champions ἀνθρώποισιν
to humankind ἐπιχθονίοισι
on the earth πέλονται·
they become,
ἔνθεν
thence ἀναβλαστοῦσι
to sprout up as θεοὶ
gods, τιμῇσι φέριστοι.
honored above all.
(Empedokles, fr. 146.)
You know, I don’t think it occurred to me before that lord Apollon rules each of prophets, poets, healers, and champions...
The Nile runs from Lake Victoria in the south to the Mediterranean Sea in the north. Adorably, the Egyptian hieroglyph for 𓊛 “to go north” is a boat with it’s sail furled, since the current alone is sufficient to carry it downstream, while the hieroglyph for 𓊝 “to go south” is a boat with it’s sail set, since one needs the wind to carry it upstream against the current.
But this is even more elegant when one considers that the Osiris myth uses the Nile as something of the world axis: the south is towards the Sun, towards the light, towards the spiritual world, while the north is away from the Sun, away from the light, away from the spiritual world. (This is why Horos was born in the north at Buto, in the material world, and each successive battle with Seth extended his dominion further and further south into the spiritual world.) These hieroglyphs therefore suggest it’s easy to let the current carry you downstream towards the material; but if you want to go upstream, towards the spiritual, it takes work.
Herodotos (Histories I §46–91, with many digressions) tells the amusing story that king Kroisos of Ludia (modern Turkey) was becoming concerned about the growing power of Persia (modern Iran) and thought to do something about it before they were too powerful. He sent envoys to each of the most prestigious oracles of the time: of Apollon at Delphi, Apollon at Abai, Zeus at Dodona, Amphiaraos at Thebai, Trophonios at Lebadeia, the Brankhidai at Diduma, and Zeus-Amun at Siwa. He asked his envoys to, on the hundredth day from leaving Ludia, inquire of the oracles what he was doing at that very moment. Five of the oracles simply failed the test. Amphiaraos was vaguely correct and was given a modest gift as a reward. But the Puthia shocked Kroisos by answering—before she was even asked the question!—that she smelled a tortoise and a lamb being stewed together in a bronze pot with a bronze lid, which was, in fact, exactly what the king was doing. He was so impressed that he sent such ludicrously vast gifts of gold and silver that they were still the glory of Delphi some seven hundred years later, and he bid his envoys inquire a second time of the Puthia, asking what would happen if he sent an army against the Persians. She answered that, if he should do so, a mighty empire would fall. Kroisos, emboldened by the oracle, attacked Persia. They defeated his army, so he retreated to Sardis to lick his wounds and send for reinforcements; but the Persians besieged the city, took him prisoner, and conquered Ludia, thereby proving the oracle correct—but not in the way Kroisos had hoped!
Ἰδὼν γεωργὸς
A farmer, watching νῆα
a ship ναυτίλων πλήρη
full of sailors,
βάπτουσαν ἤδη κῦμα κυρτὸν ἐκ πρώρης,
the prow already submerging from an arching wave,
“ὦ πέλαγος” εἶπεν
said, “O sea! “εἴθε
I wish μήποτ’ ἐπλεύσθης,
we never sailed upon you,
ἀνηλεὲς στοιχεῖον
you pitiless element, ἐχθρὸν
enemy ἀνθρώποις.”
to men!”
ἤκουσε δ’ ἡ θάλασσα,
The sea heard him, καὶ
and γυναικείην // λαβοῦσα φωνὴν
taking on the voice of a woman
εἶπε
said, “μή με βλασφήμει·
“Don’t blaspheme me,
ἐγὼ γὰρ
for I ὑμῖν
to you all οὐδὲν αἰτίη
am in no way guilty τούτων
of this,
ἄνεμοι δὲ
but the winds χειμάζοντες,
storm themselves up, ὧν μέση
in the middle of which κεῖμαι.
I am caught.
τούτων δὲ χωρὶς
Without them, ἢν
if ἴδῃς με
you looked at me καὶ
and πλεύσῃς,
sailed upon me,
ἐρεῖς
you will say με τῆς σῆς ἠπιωτέρην γαίης.”
that I am gentler than your own land!”
(Ὅτι
(Thus πολλὰ φύσει χρηστὰ
many things useful by nature πράγμαθ’ αἱ κακαὶ χρήσεις
by bad misuses
τρέπουσιν
are turned εἰς τὸ χεῖρον,
into worse things, ὡς δοκεῖν
so as to seem φαῦλα.)
useless.)
(Babrios §71.)
I often wonder what life would be like if society weren’t so abusive as to make everyone unable to function.
I’ve whined before about how scholarship attributes the classical elements to Empedokles, since they apparently predate him. I was looking up Herakleitos for a personal project, and it turns out he’s another example of the elements predating Empedokles, this time by some fifty or sixty years:
πυρὸς
Fire τροπαὶ πρῶτον
first turns into θάλασσα,
sea, θαλάσσης δὲ τὸ μὲν ἥμισυ
and the one half of sea
is γῆ,
earth, τὸ δὲ ἥμισυ
and the other half
is πρηστήρ.
whirlwind.
Heraclitus, fragment B31.
ζῇ πῦρ
Fire lives τὸν ἀέρος θάνατον
air’s death καὶ
and ἀὴρ
air ζῇ
lives τὸν πυρὸς θάνατον,
fire’s death;
ὕδωρ
water ζῇ
lives τὸν γῆς θάνατον,
earth’s death; γῆ
earth, τὸν ὕδατος.
water’s.
Heraclitus, fragment B76.
It is not possible to depict an angel in paint, but Munch, I suspect, has come about as close as one can.
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