Plato

[Akar]

Odyssey, Book I (lines 1–25)
[lines 1–10: The Proem]
line 1: Tell/sing to me, O Muse, of the man of many turns (polýtropon), who very much
line 2: wandered, after he destroyed the sacred citadel of Troy;
line 3: of many men he saw the cities and knew their mind / way of thinking,
line 4: and many sufferings he endured in his heart upon the sea,
line 5: striving for his own life and for the return of his companions.
line 6: But not even so did he save his companions, though desiring to do so;
line 7: for through their own reckless acts / folly they perished,
line 8: fools, who the cattle of Hyperion the Sun
line 9: ate; but he took away from them the day of their return.
line 10: Of these things, starting from any point, O goddess, daughter of Zeus, speak to us as well.
[lines 11–25: The Situation of the Gods and Odysseus]
line 11: Then all the others, as many as had escaped sheer destruction,
line 12: were at home, having escaped both the war and the sea;
line 13: but him alone, who longed for his return and his wife,
line 14: the queenly nymph held back, Calypso, divine among goddesses,
line 15: in her hollow caves, desiring him to be her husband.
line 16: But when at last the year came, in the revolving of time,
line 17: in which the gods spun for him to return home,
line 18: to Ithaca, not even there was he free from struggles / toil,
line 19: even though he was among his loved ones. And all the gods had pity [on him],
line 20: except Poseidon; and he relentlessly raged
line 21: against divine Odysseus, before he reached his land.
line 22: But he [Poseidon] had gone to the Ethiopians who dwell far off,
line 23: the Ethiopians who are divided into two parts, the most distant of men,
line 24: some where Hyperion [the Sun] sets, others where he rises,
line 25: to receive a hecatomb of bulls and lambs.


-G

 

[Akar]

I wanted to publish some of the most beautiful quotes I have found, which I believe reflect very well the multifaceted nature of the human soul.

The human mind tends to mistake myth for truth, often purely out of habit; in my view, one must separate narrative fiction from the rigor of reality.

Homer – Translation: "He spoke, telling many falsehoods similar to the truth"

Contextualization: Describing Odysseus telling lies to Penelope so as not to be recognized.

Hesiod – Translation: "We know how to speak many falsehoods similar to the truth, but we also know, when we want, how to proclaim the truth"

Contextualization: The Muses are warning Hesiod that poetic inspiration and myths can both deceive human beings with beautiful fables and reveal to them the deepest truth about things.

Plato – Translation: "First, we tell stories [myths] to children; and this is, as a whole, a fiction, but true things are also contained within it"

Contextualization: The fable is an invented fiction, but it also serves as a shell to teach a true moral principle to someone who is still too young to understand pure philosophy.

Aristotle – Translation: "How great the power of habit is is shown by the laws, in which mythical and childish things have more power than real knowledge, because of custom"

Contextualization: Most people prefer to believe in childish narratives or comforting myths rather than making the effort to reach true knowledge.

Plutarch – Translation: "Myth is a false discourse that reflects the truth"

Contextualization: Myth is not a simple lie meant to deceive, but an allegory: an invented story (logos pseudes) constructed specifically to act as a mirror to a truth.

Next, I wanted to propose this passage from the Symposium (I believe among the most beautiful written regarding the birth of love)


Well, O Eryximachus," said Aristophanes, "I intend to speak in a different way compared to what you and Pausanias have done.
For it seems to me that hunans have not grasped at all the power of Eros; because, if they had grasped it, they would have built for him the greatest temples and altars and would offer him the greatest sacrifices, whereas now nothing of all this is done towards him, while being the thing that above all should happen. He is indeed the most philanthropic among the gods, being a defender of men and a physician of those evils whose healing would bring maximum happiness to the human race.
I therefore will try to illustrate to you his power, and you will be teachers of it to the others. But first you must know human nature and the vicissitudes it has undergone. Our ancient nature in fact was not that of now, but another.
In the first place there were three genders of men, and not two as now, the male and the female, but there was also a third one, which was common to both of these two, of which now the name has remained, but it has disappeared; the androgen in fact was then a single thing, both in appearance and in name, common to both, to the male and to the female, whereas now it no longer exists, except as a name used as a term of contempt.

-G

 

[Akar]

Acoustics in ancient Greek theatres, imagine watching a Greek tragedy 2600 years ago, and there is no replay. Imagine the power of such an experience, that you will probably experience only once in life


-G