Kairos

εἰ δ᾽ ὁ καιρὸς ἦν σαφής,

οὐκ ἂν δύ᾽ ἤστην ταὔτ᾽ ἔχοντε γράμματα.

"If propriety (kairos) were more clear," says Phaedra, "two things would not be carried by the same letters."  

Kairos is a rich and complex word, which in itself exemplifies the problem of multiple meanings being "carried by the same letters." The notion of fitness, applied to time, suggests something that is seasonable, opportune, and from there it can extend to the notion of a "kairotic moment," a critical turning point, a climactic moment either to be seized or lost forever.

καιρός , ὁ,
A. due measure, proportion, fitness (not in Hom.), καιρὸς δ᾽ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἄριστος (which became a prov.) Hes.Op.694,Thgn. 401; “κ. παντὸς ἔχει κορυφάν” Pi.P.9.78; “κ. Χάριτος” A.Ag.787 (anap.) (cf. “ὑποκάμπτω” 11); εἰ ὁ κ. ἦν σαφής the distinction, the point, E.Hipp. 386; ἡ ἀπορία ἔχει τινὰ κ. has some point or importance, Arist. Metaph.1043b25;καιροῦ πέρα beyond measure, unduly, A.Pr.507; “μείζων τοῦ κ. γαστήρ” X.Smp.2.19; “καιροῦ μεῖζον” E.Fr.626 codd.;προσωτέρω or πορρωτέρω τοῦ κ., X.An.4.3.34, HG7.5.13; ὀξύτερα τοῦ κ. Pl.Plt.307b; νωθεστέρα τοῦ κ. ib.310e;ὑπερβάλλων τῇ φιλοτιμίᾳ τὸν κ. Plu.Ages.8, cf. Hp.Loc.Hom.44.

II. of Place, vital part of the body (cf. “καίριος” 1), “ἐς καιρὸν τυπείς” E.Andr.1120.

III. more freq. of Time, exact or critical time, season, opportunity, Χρόνου κ. S.El. 1292: usu. alone, κ. [ἐστιν] ἐνᾧ Χρόνος οὐ πολὺς κτλ. Pl.Lg.709c; ἔχει κ. τι it happens in season, Th.1.42, etc.; κ. ἔχειν τοῦ εὖ οἰκεῖν to be the chief cause of. 

b. adverbial phrases, ἐς καιρόν in season, Hdt. 7.144, E.Tr.744, etc.; (but also οἱ κατὰ κ. ἡγεμόνες in office at the time, Pl. Plt.277a;πρὸ καιροῦ prematurely, A.Ag.365 (anap.); ἐπὶ καιροῦ also means on the spur of the moment, “ἐπὶκ. λέγειν” Plu.Dem.8, cf. Art.5; “ἐξενεγκεῖν πόλεμον” Id.Ant.6. 

2. season, πᾶσιν καιροῖς at all seasons of the year, IG14.1018, cf. LXX Ge.1.14, Ph.1.13, Porph. ap.Eus.PE3.11; κ. ἔτους, later Gr. for Att. ὥρα ἔτους, acc. to Moer.424; time of day, Philostr.VA6.14.
b. critical times, periodic states, “καιροὶ σωμάτων” Arist.Pol.1335a41.
3. generally, time, period, “κατὰ τὸν κ. τοῦτον” Plb.27.1.7; “κατ᾽ ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ” Conon 3, al.: more freq. in pl., κατὰ τούτους τοὺς κ. Arist.Ath.23.2, al., cf. Plb.2.39.1; τὰ κατὰ καιρούς chronological sequence of events. 

4. in pl., οἱ καιροί the times, i. e. the state of affairs, freq. in bad sense, ἐν τοῖς μεγίστοις κ. at the most critical times, X.HG6.5.33, cf. D.20.44; “περιστάντων τῇ πόλει κ. δυσκόλων” IG22.682.33, etc.: also in sg., X.An.3.1.44, D.17.9; ὁ ἔσχατος κ. extreme danger, Plb.29.27.12, etc.; “καιρῷ δουλεύειν” AP9.441(Pall.).

IV. advantage, profit, τινος of or from a thing, Pi.O.2.54, P.1.57; εἴ τοι ἐς κ. ἔσται ταῦτα τελεόμενα to his advantage, Hdt.1.206; ἐπὶ σῷ κ. S.Ph.151 (lyr.); τίνα κ. με διδάσκεις; A.Supp.1060 (lyr.); τί σοι καιρὸς . .καταλείβειν; what avails it.? E.Andr.131 (lyr.); τίνος εἵνεκα καιροῦ; D.23.182; οὗ κ. εἴη where it was convenient or advantageous, Th.4.54; ᾗ κ. ἦν ib.90; Χωρίον μετὰ μεγίστων κ. οἰκειοῦταί τε καὶ πολεμοῦται with the greatest odds, the most critical results, Id.1.36.

Some words in Euripides' Hippolytus

As we begin Euripides' Hippolytus, I'll be putting occasional notes here, some strictly philological in nature, others as seems fit.

Three words that come back again and again, with almost hypnotic regularity, are:

sōphrōsunē

From Ancient Greek σωφροσύνη (sōphrōsunē, “soundness of mind, prudence, self control, temperance”) from σώφρων (sōphrōn, “sane, moderate, prudent”) (from σῶς (sōs, “safe, sound, whole”) + φρήν (phrēn, “mind”)) +‎ -σύνη.

Sophrosyne is the subject of Plato's Charmides, and is treated in Book 2 of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.

semnos  σεμνός  revered, august, holy: 

I. [select] prop. of gods, e.g. Demeter, h.Cer.1,486; Hecate, Pi.P.3.79; Thetis,Id.N.5.25; etc. 

2. of things divine, ὄργια ς. h.Cer.478, S.Tr.765; “θέμεθλαδίκης” Sol.4.14; “ὑγίεια” Simon.70;  devoted to the gods,  holiness,D.21.126. 

II. of human or half-human beings, reverend, august, “ἐν θρόνῳσεμνῷ σεμνὸν θωκέοντα” Hdt.2.173,  E.Fr.688; αἱφαυλότεραι . . παρὰ τὰς σεμνὰς καθεδοῦνται beside the great ladies,Ar.Ec.617, cf. Isoc.3.42; “οἱ σεμνότατοι ἐν ταῖς πόλεσιν” Pl.Phdr.257d;ἄνθρωπος οὐ ς., i.e. a nobody, Ar.Fr.52D.; opp. χαῦνος, Pl.Sph.227b(Comp.); opp. κομψός, X.Oec.8.19; “σεμνὸς οὐ προσώπου συναγωγαῖς ἀλλὰβίου κατασκευαῖς” Isoc.9.44: c. dat., revered by . . , “ς. πόλει” Riv.Fil.57.379(Crete); also, worthy of respect, honourable, 1 Ep.Ti.3.8, 11, Ep.Phil. 4.8.
2.of human things, august, stately, majestic,  

III. in bad sense, proud, haughty, “τὰ σέμν᾽ ἔπη” S.Aj.1107; “σεμνότερος καὶ φοβερώτερος” And.4.18; τὸ ς. haughty reserve, E.Hipp.93, cf. Med.216.
2. [select] in contempt or irony, solemn, pompous.

aidos αἰδώς  reverence, awe, respect

A. reverence, awe, respect for the feeling or opinion of others or for one's own conscience, and so shame, self-respect (in full “ἑαυτοῦ αἰδώς” Hierocl.in CA9p.433M.), sense of honour, “αἰδῶ θέσθ᾽ ἐνὶ θυμῷ” Il.15.561; ἴσχε γὰρ αἰ.καὶ δέος ib.657, cf. Sapph.28, Democr. 179, etc.; “αἰ. σωφροσύνης πλεῖστον μετέχει, αἰσχύνης δὲ εὐψυχία” Th. 1.84, cf.E.Supp.911, Arist.EN1108a32, etc.; “αἰδοῖ μειλιχίῃ” Od.8.172; so “ἀλλά με κωλύει αἴδως” Alc.55 (Sapphus est versus); “ἅμα κιθῶνι ἐκδυομένῳ συνεκδύεται καὶ τὴν αἰδῶ γυνή” Hdt.1.8; δακρύων πένθιμον αἰδῶ tears of grief and shame,A.Supp.579; “αἰ. τίς μ᾽ ἔχει” Pl. Sph.217d; “αἰ. καὶ δίκη” Id.Prt.322c; “αἰδοῦς ἐμπίπλασθαι” X.Cyr.1.4.4; sobriety, moderation, Pi.O.13.115; “αἰδῶ λαβεῖν” S.Aj.345. 

2. regard for others, respect, reverence, “αἰδοῦς οὐδεμιῆς ἔτυχον” Thgn.1266, cf. E.Heracl.460; αἰ.τοκέων respect for them, Pi.P.4.218; τὴν ἐμὴν αἰδῶ respect for me, A.Pers.699; regard for friends, “αἰδοῦςἀχαλκεύτοισιν ἔζευκται πέδαις” E.Fr.595; esp. regard for the helpless, compassion, “αἰδοῦς κῦρσαι”S.OC247; forgiveness. 

II. that which causes shame or respect, and so,
1. [select] shame, scandal, “αἰδώς, Ἀργεῖοι, κάκ᾽ ἐλέγχεα” Il.5.787, etc.; αἰδώς, ὦ Λύκιοι: πόσε φεύγετε;16.422; “αἰδὼς μὲν νῦν ἥδε . . ” 17.336. 

2. τὰ αἰδοῖα, dignity, majesty “αἰ. καὶ χάρις” h.Cer.214.
III. [select] Αἰδώς personified, Reverence, Pi.O.7.44; Mercy, Ζηνὶ σύνθακος θρόνων Αἰ. S.OC1268, cf. Paus. 1.17.1; “παρθένος Αἰδοῦς Δίκη λέγεται” Pl.Lg.943e.

Phaedra:

εἰσὶ δ᾽ ἡδοναὶ πολλαὶ βίου,

μακραί τε λέσχαι καὶ σχολή, τερπνὸν κακόν, 385

αἰδώς τε. δισσαὶ δ᾽ εἰσίν, ἡ μὲν οὐ κακή,

ἡ δ᾽ ἄχθος οἴκων. εἰ δ᾽ ὁ καιρὸς ἦν σαφής,

οὐκ ἂν δύ᾽ ἤστην ταὔτ᾽ ἔχοντε γράμματα.

Life's pleasures are many, long leisurely talks—a pleasant evil— [385] and the sense of awe. Yet they are of two sorts,1 one pleasure being no bad thing, another a burden upon houses. If propriety were always clear, there would not be two things designated by the same letters.

Troezen, Argos and the Peloponnese

A useful map for understanding the geography of the ancient Peloponnese:

In Argolis, Troezen was founded by Pittheus, a son of Pelops. In the Hippolytus Troezen is called the forecourt of Argos. Two fateful events in the life of Theseus took place there:

According to Greek mythology, Troezen came into being as a result of two ancient cities, Hyperea and Anthea, being unified by Pittheus, who named the new city in honor of his deceased brother Troezen.[3] 

Troezen was the place where Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, slept with both Aegeus and Poseidon the same night, and fell pregnant with the great Greek hero Theseus. Before returning to Athens, Aegeus left his sandals and sword under a large boulder in Troezen, and requested that when the child was able to prove himself by moving the boulder he must return the items to his father in Athens; Theseus did indeed lift the boulder when he came of age.[4] 

Troezen is also the setting of the Euripides tragedy Hippolytus, which recounts the story of the eponymous son of Theseus who becomes the subject of the love of his stepmother,Phaedra. While fleeing the city, Hippolytus is killed when his chariot is attacked by a bull rising from the sea. Other plays on the same subject have been written by Seneca and Jean Racine, also set in Troezen 

The ancient city also possessed a spring, supposedly formed where the winged horse Pegasus once came to ground.

And no birds sing.

Italy, it seems, didn't have a lock on access to the Underworld with Cumae. Phyrgians had Ploutonion:

A “gate to hell” has emerged from ruins in southwestern Turkey, Italian archaeologists have announced. 

Digital reconstruction

Known as Pluto's Gate -- Ploutonion in Greek, Plutonium in Latin -- the cave was celebrated as the portal to the underworld in Greco-Roman mythology and tradition. 

Historic sources located the site in the ancient Phrygian city of Hierapolis, now called Pamukkale, and described the opening as filled with lethal mephitic vapors.

“This space is full of a vapor so misty and dense that one can scarcely see the ground. Any animal that passes inside meets instant death,” the Greek geographer Strabo (64/63 BC -- about 24 AD) wrote. 

“I threw in sparrows and they immediately breathed their last and fell,” he added.

More here.

An Atlas for Homer

Here's a nice atlas full of illustrations of the Iliad and Odyssey, via Public Domain Review.

Shopping in Ancient Rome

From a review of Claire Holleran's Shopping in Ancient Rome:

Take the shops and bars you see lining the streets in all the best-preserved Roman towns. Walk down the main streets in Pompeii or Herculaneum and (as modern tourist guides always insist) you can feel comfortably at home in what seems recognisably close to a modern cityscape: bars and cafés (tabernae, popinae or cauponae) with their counters facing the pavement to catch passing trade, and shops (also called tabernae) with wide openings to display products and entice customers inside. There are even traces of the big shutters that made these openings secure at night, and the little snicket doors that would let the proprietor into his establishment if he didn’t want to take his shutters fully down.

Insights into Jews and Greeks

A new book by Amos Oz and Fania Oz-Salzberger, Jews and Words, treats the deep relation of Jews to books and the act of reading:

 

A nice interview of Oz and Oz-Salzberger here.

 Out of print, but occasionally available through resellers, Anne Rockwell's Temple on a Hill gives us a bit of the world of Athens, with great characters and glimpses of the Greek mind:

 

Venetian artist at the Ringling

The Ringling Museum is set to open an exhibit of Paolo Veronese's work.

Paolo Veronese (1528–1588) was one of the giants of Venetian Renaissance painting. Though perhaps best known for his grand ceiling paintings and large Biblical feast scenes, Veronese and his workshop created altarpieces and smaller religious paintings for private devotion or collectors, as well as portraits, depictions of sensual narratives drawn from the classical tradition, and allegories glorifying the Venetian state. Veronese was also an outstanding draughtsman.

The exhibition Paolo Veronese: A Master and His Workshop in Renaissance Venice presents some of the artist’s finest paintings and drawings now in North American museums and private collections, as well as a selection of prints after important works.

The exhibit will run from Dec. 7, 2012 to April 14, 2013. Some distinguished scholars and lecturers will be coming - schedule here.

Veronese, The Art of Painting

Liberal education is a conversation . . .

Mark Kingwell, a teacher in Toronto, on returning to a humanistic basis for education:

We philosophers don’t value Plato because he has been around so long; he has been around so long because he’s valuable. . . .

Sitting together in groups, with a shared text before us, still works as well as it did two millennia ago. And many innovations, such as flashy PowerPoint slides or “clickers” that rate instant comprehension, are just gadgets. Gadgets can be fun, but they are no substitute for reading, writing and discussion. . . 

Liberal education is a conversation, not a data transfer that might be accomplished as well online. That conversation starts in a room, with other people. It can even be a large room, if the professor is engaging and enthusiastic.

Montaigne's beams and the cultivation of freedom

A friend posted these links:.

The first is a catalog of the inscriptions that Montaigne placed on the beams of his famous library.

The second is an editorial on why narrow models of education are a betrayal of pedagogy.

An unusual wall painting in Pompeii.

As we've often alluded to the complex relationship of the worldview of the Greeks to that of the Hebrews -- here's a painting found at Pompei that suggests at least an awareness of the Old Testament wisdom books among 1st Century AD Romans:

According to Theodore Feder, the painting depicts the scene of Solomon in judgment, and the two women each claiming to be the mother of an infant, and how he decided that case. Feder says it's quite likely that the two figures on the far left, observing the scene, were meant to represent Socrates and Aristotle, thus bringing Hellenic philosophy into the chambers of Israel's wisest king.

Interestingly, Socrates's posture here is not unlike that of a satyr, which is interesting in light of a tradition stemming from Plato's Symposium. In that dialogue, Alcibiades compares Socrates to Silenus, an ugly old satyr to all appearances, but one who contains invaluable riches within. Feder's article is here. More on Silenus on the Ovid blog here.

(Thanks to Arline for the pointer to Feder's article.)

US Gnoticism?

For an informed discussion of the relation of Romanticism to religion -- a kind of anticipation of the "death of God" proclaimed by Nietzsche -- have a look at this piece by Simon Critchley in the NY Times. Interestingly, citing Harold Bloom, it focuses on Mormonism, but locates that sect, tellingly, within the gnostic tradition:

Why I Love Mormonism

The Joseph Smith sermon alluded to is the King Follett sermon.