Johannes Eriugena's Poetry (Notes)

Reading John J. O'Meara's Eriugena, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.

Chapter 10 is on the Poetry of Eriugena:

1) historical context
Poetry in Latin was an important element in the Carolingian Renaissance. This poetry was political and inspired by Virgil, especially by his Aeneid. Louis the Pious reacted against this, Charles the Bald revived it.

Prevalent themes are the praise of the holy Cross, hagiography and moral didacticism. The focus of the poetry is Charles the Bald himself. Almost every poem of Eriugena praises and prays for him.

Irishmen had a great influence in promoting theological debates at that time.

Poets in Charles' time had an interest in parody, for example Sedulius Scotus's poem on the ram.

2) Eriugena's poetry

In the Edition of L. Traube in the MGH (Monumenta germaniae historica: poetae latini aevi Carolini, 3) one can find lists of Greek words in Greek script.. There are some pieces composed altogether in Greek written in Greek script. There is one in Greek but transliterated into Latin script. There are poems in Greek (in Greek script) followed by a word-for-word translation in Latin. Many of the poems have Greek words introduced here and there, sometimes few, sometimes many. About half of the poems are written in elegiac couplets and half in dactylic hexameter (p. 178-179).

His poems derive from a collection formed during his lifetime and probably by the author himself. They were written between 850 and 877. The extant poems come mainly form MSS Vat. Reg. 1587 and 1709.


3) Interpretation
One of the more interesting poems is Aulae siderae. Madame Viellard-Troiekouroff thought it describes the Church of St. Mary of Compiègne. Her evidence is verse 87 where the word 'hundred' is mentioned, and took it to be an allusion to the numbers of clerics this church was built for. But P. Dutton and É. Jeauneau thought together with Y. Christe that this number can be biblical (one hundred cubits in the temple of Ezekiel).

For Viellard-Troiekouroff the poem clearly indicates the octagonal character of the church built by Charles the Bald, but it does not clearly indicate that it has a cupola.

Foussard offers a metaphysical interpretation.


4) Content of Aulae siderae
The poem centres in its earlier part around the numbers four and eight. Four itself, as the poems tells us, is the number of the seasons which are headed by Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn which mark the equinoxes and solstices. These constellations mark also the conception of Christ (Aries, 25 March), the birth of John the Baptist (Cancer, 24 June), the conception of the Baptist (Libra, 24 September), and the birth of Christ (Capricorn, 25 December).

Eight is an important number in relation to Christ and the reintegration of all things in the end. Christ was born on the eighth day before the kalends of January, was conceived on the eighth day before the kalends of April, was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, and rose from the dead on the eighth day of the week. The universe will end in its eighth age.

The main theme is the birth of Christ and the return of man which it makes possible.

The poem ends with a prayer for Charles to Christ and to Mary. For Mary Charles is building a church which is therupon described in some detail Charles is shown as seated on a throne in the church looking out upon all, wearing on his head a diadem and holding sceptres in his hands.

It contains one hundred hexameters which is followed by one line of acclamation.

The Aulae siderae can be considered as an instance of Eriugena's interest in art and as conveying his approach to it - his philosophy of art.

In his poems generally he manifests an interest in objets d'art and speaks of the robes encrusted with jewels that the queen, Ermentrude, weaves for Charles; of the golden vases and broad hangings that furnish a church built by Charles; and of gold and gems burning like flames. He speaks of the purple vestments of the ministers of the altar and shows a lively consciousness of things artistic.

The prosody of this poems is acceptable but the verses have little of the harmonious movement of Virgil's. This is partly due to the total avoidance of elision and synapheia. The result is inevitalbe staccato. But it has still some possibly Virgilian echoes (v. 54) for example

Salve sancta domus, panis ditissima patrum

cf. Virgil's Aeneid 5.80:

Salve, sancte parens, iterum salvete, recpti
nequiquam cineres

or in his Georgics, 2.173:

Salve, magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus.

Also cf. Statius' Silvae 3.3.208

Salve supremum, senior mitissime patrum

5) Usage of Greek

M. Lapidge believes that Eriugena derived this practice of incorporating Greek words and verses in his poems not from his forbears in Irland (though there are some phrases in Greek in the Book of Armagh, written in 807), nor from Ausonius, who was not much read in the Carolingian period, but, possibly from Martianus Capella. However it is more probable that the practice originated with Eriugena himself.

6) Influence on his contemporaries

Martin the Irishman collected the Greek words that were in the verses of Johannes Scottus (Laon MS 444). Hincmar of Laon, Heiric and Remi of Auxerre all followed him in this practise of using Greek words. And especially Odon of Fleury.

Yeats & Propertius - The Key

The poem of Yeats posted two days ago is so dark, I don't really understand it. But comparing with the second book of Elegiae by Propertius, I find one poem which could be the inspiration of Yeats:

Liber secundus II

Liber eram et vacuo meditabar vivere lecto;
at me composita pace fefellit Amor.
cur haec in terris facies humana moratur?
Iuppiter, ignosco pristina furta tua.
fulva coma est longaeque manus, et maxima toto
corpore, et incedit vel Iove digna soror,
aut cum Dulichias Pallas spatiatur ad aras,
Gorgonis anguiferae pectus operta comis;
qualis et Ischomache Lapithae genus heroine,
Centauris medio grata rapina meo;
Mercurio et qualis fertur Boebeidos undis
virgimeum Brimo composuisse latus.
cedite iam, divae, quas pastor viderat olim
Idaeis tunicas ponere verticibus!
hanc utinam faciem nolit mutare senectus,
etsi Cumaeae saecula vatis agat!

Tristia

Puto te amicum me nunquam visuram esse. Hac aestate me iterum reliqueris. Relicta in campo saevo expectavi vana spe te iterum invenire. Titan rotavit quinquadraginta circulos, luna crevit luna descrevit, sed te non vidi.

Campum quis prius arcadia nostra erat nunc habitant homines saevi et rudes. Teresa illum locum reliquit, et non scit an reddet. Spes puellae teresae vana est. Somnium veris tantum, sed nullum somnium aestatis istae miserae puellae dabitur.

Esne salvus? Esne felix? Sed teresa miserissima et tristissima sum, quia spes me perdit, somnium me perdit, laetitia me perdit. Et scio causam miserae meae solum meum stultum corda esse. Mens mea dicit esse vanam spem sed cor istam spem non omittere vult.

Cor desiste sperare! Quia ista spes mors mea est. Parce mihi, quia vivere volo.

Yeats & Propertius

Reading the Oxford's Anthology of W.B. Yeats (The Major Works, including poems, plays, critical prose), found a dark poem which he claims to be inspired by the Second Book of Elegy by Propertius - A Thought from Propertius: (p. 70)

She might, so noble from head
To great shapely knees
The long flowing line,
Have walked to the altar
Through the holy images
At Pallas Athena's side,
Or been fit spoil for a centaur
Drunk with the unmixed wine.

(Shall compare with Propertius and expand on it later).

Last Summer in Norway

This summer came too late. But now it is here. Warm. The hills around our village are deep green, and the ripening crops slumber in the burning sunshine. No wind. And the evening is peaceful, when the glaring sun retires but the heaven is still bright and hanging over us in a pale blue.

Now I must remember the happy and peaceful days last year in Norway. Never seen such a beautiful country. They said it rained often in summer, but during my visit I had mostly sonny days. The never ending days of the Norwegian Summer! The sun doesn't sink to the bosom of his bride, but suspends just above their marital bed and projects a long red shadow on the surface of the ocean.

Being alone there and with all the colleagues of the institute which hosted me gone home to their wives and kids, I enjoyed extended walks in the city and in the hills surrounding it. Wherever you are, you get a view of the bays, the Fjords as they call them. Loosed from the embrace of the pine trees you soul flows out to the wide sky and the boundless sea, an unspeaking longing, and free! (And I must recall the painting of Caspar David Friedrich, Kreidefelsen auf Rügen).

The light was so pale there that it deemed everything unreal. A landscape for sleep-wanderers. In the city the youth enjoyed the prolonged day and everyone was celebrating. At 4 o'clock teens and students still roamed the streets. And in the parks they brought casts of beer. But I enjoyed more the loneliness of my walk in areas with no bars but a magnificent view over the city and the bays. But away from the city, in a park alongside the bay, I stopped and observed a party of young men and women who enjoyed their sprouting youth. And suddenly I understood Edvard Munch, who painted series of "the Frieze of Life" with the stretched reflection of the suspending sun over the water a returning motive. It was the force of life they displayed: Sexuality and the lust for life. Today, manifested in a more primitive form than at the time of Munch, but the substance is the same. Do these youth know what melancholy is, or they just drink it away as melancholy is for them painful and unendurable?

Melancholy, the tendency to death, the mother of reflection, is never absent from the earlier paintings of Munch. So the life radiating youth together with me make a full picture of reality. And upon turning away from this scene, I was struck by the sight of a Moslem sitting on a bench just meters away, praying with a Koran in his hands.

(My favourite painting of Munch is: Summer Night, Inger on the Shore, from the Rasmus Meyer Collection).

Some Notes on Christologie (in the Patristics)

1. Basic Concepts:

gr. ousia/physis hypostasis/prosopon
lat. essentia/substantia substantia prima/subsistentia/persona
engl. natur person

2. the classic christological dogma:

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one Person of the Divine word, which subsists eternally in the Divine nature of the Logos and temporally in the human nature he took.

The word "Jesus" means not only the empirical reality of the man from Nazaret (i.e. the natural prosopon), but also the invisible Person of the Logos (p. 322 in the Handbook of Dogmatics), which conveys the unity of two natures and individualizes the concrete human existence of Jesu.

Johannes Scotus Eriugena (Poemata-1)

The edition of his poems can be found in MGH Poetae 3,2, p. 516ff.

I
Caesare sub Karolo Francorum gloria pollet,
Litora ceu pelagi piscibus atque salo:
Secta diabolici damnatur dogmatis atque
Pastorum cura plendet amoena fides.

Another very long Poem with Greek words used occasionally will be posted soon.

(a recent edition of his Carmina: Iohannes Scottus Eriugena. Herren, Michael, ed. Carmina. Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, vol. 12. Pp. viii, 179. ISBN: 1-855-00162-4., Book review).

Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagiter in the Latin translation of John Scot Eriugena

His Latin translation is available online (the Patrologia Latina edition).

Yesterday in a lecture I heard something quite interesting: Pseudo-Dionysius mentioned in the 11. Chapter of his De Divinis Nominibus that Peace is a name of God:

I. Some notes

The divine and ecclesiastical (divina et archisynagoga pax) Peace is "omnium adunatrix, et omnium consensus, et connaturalitatis genitrix et operatrix". The Peace is the unifier of everything, the generator and effector of all agreement and likeness (how to translate connaturalitas adequately? ).

Everything desires the Peace because it unifies the multitity into one, and tie the concurrence (or better battle?/ bellum) into an uniform cohabitation.

The first of the with each other combining powers (primores congregatarum virtutum) participate in the divine Peace and unify themselves into one. They keep everything from running into anarchy (c.f. "non sinit separata fundi ad multum et infinitum, inordinata, et incollocata, deserta Deo facta").

Divine Peace or the Repose (silentio), which is called by the holy Justus ajfqegxivan? (the unutterable? This word must have been written in Greek, the transcription here in the electronic edition is strange, must look up in the PL itself. ), never loses its unity.

But the Divine Peace is not permitted for anyone of the existent things to speak out or to be understood, nor is possible to do this (Neque dicere, neque intelligere cuidam existentium est fas, neque possibile).


But we can make the following observations about the Divine Peace:

1) Through the Divine Peace an unloosable unity according to Divine Harmony is established (cf. Per quam una et insolubilis omnium complicatio secundum divinam ejus harmoniam constituitur, et compaginatur consonantia perfecta, et consensus, et congerminatio congregans inconfuse, inseparabiliterque confusa).

2) God: Sed per seipsum esse, et per seipsam vitam, et per seipsam deitatem dicimus principaliter quidem et deiformiter et causaliter unum omnium superprincipale et superessentiale principium et causam. Participaliter autem editas ex Deo non participante providas virtutes, per seipsam deificationem, per seipsam vivificationem, per seipsam deificationem, quas existentia proprie sibimetipsis participant, et existentia, et viventia, et divina, et sunt, et dicuntur, et alia similiter.

But under 2) no further connection is made with the Divine Peace

II. the usage of Greek words in the Latin translation

two Greek words are introduced in this chapter,
1) the "unutterable" (Greek form still to be found in PL)
2) nullum ον, quod quidem est.

A dark text. Doesn't seem philosophically significant to me. What is he trying to say here beside of the already known Platonic doctrines like the One and the Multitude?

Perhaps should read the whole text in full, not just this one chapter.

The order of the demons: Something Father Cumanus told me tonight

Pride - Lucifer
Avarice - Mammon
Lust - Asmodeus
Wrath - Satan
Gluttony - Beelzebub
Envy - Leviathan
Sloth - Belfagor

Shall write more about it later.

Material (Johannes Scottus Eriugena)

1) Neuplatonismus und Ästhetik. Zur Transformationsgeschichte des Schönen, hrsg. von Verena
Olejniczak Lobsien und Claudia Olk. Berlin, New York (Walter de Gruyter) 2007, 256 S. EUR 78,- (Transformationen der Antike, hrsg. von H. Böhme u. a., Bd. 2; ISBN 978-3-11-019225-4).
in this book an article from Walter Haug, an outstanding medievalist, on the Neoplatonic Aesthetics, he covered Jamblich, Proklos, Augustinus, Dionysius, Johannes Scotus Eriugena, Isidor
von Sevilla, Macrobius und Alanus von Lille.

2) Glosses of Pschychomachia of Prudentius
John M. Burnam: Glossemata de Prudentio, edited from the Paris and Vatican manuscripts. University Press, Cincinnati (Ohio) 1905 (Ausgabe der Glossen von Johannes Scotus Eriugena)

3) Kurt Ruh: Die Grundlegung durch die Kirchenväter und die Mönchstheologie des 12. Jhs., 1990.

4) Max Manitius: Geschichte der Lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 1974.

5) Hanns Peter Neuheuser: Zugänge zur Sakralkunst: narratio und instututio. 2001

(to be expanded)

Some examples of the Reception of Ovid's Heroides

Boccaccio's Elegia di madonna Fiammeta
Diego de San Pedro: Carcel de Armor (1492)

And don't know whether these soliloquies of love can be considered to be the continuation of the same tradition too, for example:
Franz Schubert: Gretchen am Spinnrad (from Goethe's Faust I) (the video is too sentimental for my taste, but the interpretation is the best I can find in web).

Ovid: Epistulae Heroidum (I: Penelope to Ulysses)

Carmen 1

I. to the text in general:

This kind of fictional epistle is a new form of art i.e. sliloquy. There were before some similar examples, to be found in Propertius' Poem which displays a letter of Arethusa to her husband Lycotas, but it is supposed to have been written by a real person to a real person (from Aelia Galla to Postumus). As Prof. Palmer says, Propertius "did not grasp, or at any rate did not work out the idea that such an epistolary form could be used in general for the delineation of character and the expression of emotion" (Arthur Palmer in his Introdoction to Heroides, Hildesheim: Olms, 167, xii). It was Ovid who expanded this genre.

Main Manuscript: Codex Parisnus 8242 (P) of the 11th. century (Puteaneus).

Medieval translation into Greek!: by Maximus Planudes (13th. century), along this work he translated also: Cicero's Somnium Scipionis and its commentary by Macrobius, Caesar's Gallic War, Ovid's Metamorphoses, St. Augustin's De Trinitate, Boethius' De consolatione Philosophae,

Influence: the tradition of 'female complaint', the Spanish novela sentimantal of the 15th. century, and the epistolary novel of the 18th. century.


II. notes: (from ed. Peter E. Knox: Ovid Heroides, Select Epistles, Cambridge University Press, 1995)

Homer's Odysseus was also read as a love story. Like Ovid made it clear himself in his defence of his poetry to Augustus, where he wrote: "aut quid Odyssea est nisi femina propter amorem, dum uir abest, multis una petita procis" (Trist. 2.375-6).


to the letter: according to the narration in the poem we can judge that the letter is meant to be written after the fall of Troy and the return of the Greeks, and after Penelope's interview with Telemachus, which takes place the day before the suitors are killed. Kennedy suggests that the intended carrier of the letter would be non other than Ulysses himself.


(line: 7-10) Penelope's complaint that she must sleep alone and pass the night in weaving mirrors Cynthia's complaint in Propertius' elegy 1.3.41 "nam modo purpureo fallebam stamine somnum

7-8 in Homer's Odysseus Penolope complains the same to the disguised Odysseus

nomine in Hectoreo: at the mention of Hector's name

17 Menoetiaden: Patroclus, son of Menoetius

33 Sugeua tellus: the land of Troy, called after the promontory Sigeum, the burial place of Achilles and Patroclus (Virg. Aen. 7.294)

39-46 Diomedes and Ulysses captured the Trojan spy Dolon and were informed by him of the location of Rhesus' camp.

vertere puppim: landing a ship stern first

and some more explanatory notes added by me:

1) Pergama: the citadel of Troy, poet. for Troy: Pergama
2) Simois: a river near Troy, flows into the Scamander
3) Aeacides: derived from Aeacus, given to various of his descendants, here must be Achilles, his grandson

Text in full (fairly long) according to the Brepol-edition

Hanc tua Penelope lento tibi mittit, Ulixe;
Nil mihi rescribas, at tamen ipse veni!
Troia iacet certe Danais invisa puellis:
Vix Priamus tanti tota que Troia fuit.
O utinam tum, cum Lacedaemona classe petebat,
Obrutus insanis esset adulter aquis!
Non ego deserto iacuissem frigida lecto,
Non quererer tardos ire relicta dies,
Nec mihi quaerenti spatiosam fallere noctem
Lassasset viduas pendula tela manus.

Quando ego non timui graviora pericula veris?

Res est solliciti plena timoris amor.

In te fingebam violentos Troas ituros,
Nomine in Hectoreo pallida semper eram;
Sive quis Antilochum narrabat ab Hectore victum,
Antilochus nostri causa timoris erat;
Sive Menoetiaden falsis cecidisse sub armis,
Flebam successu posse carere dolos;
Sanguine Tlepolemus Lyciam te pefecerat hastam:
Tlepolemi leto cura novata me ast;
Denique, quisquis erat castris iugulatus Achivis,
Frigidius glacie pectus amantis erat.

Sed bene consuluit casto deus aequus amori:
Versast in cineres sospite Troia viro.

Argolici rediere duces: altaria fumant;
Ponitur ad patrios barbara praeda deos;
Grata ferunt nymphae pro salvis dona maritis,
Illi victa suis Troica fata canunt;
Mirantur iusti que senes trepidae que puellae,
Narrantis coniunx pendet ab ore viri,
Atque aliquis posita monstrat fera proelia mensa
Pingit et exiguo Pergama tota mero:
'Hac ibat Simois, haec est Sigeia tellus,
Hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis;
Illic Aeacides, illic tendebat Ulixes,
Hic lacer admissos terruit Hector equos'.

Omnia namque tuo senior te quaerere misso
Rettulerat nato Nestor, at ille mihi.
Rettulit et ferro Rhesum que Dolona que caesos,
Ut que sit hic somno proditus, ille dolo.

Ausus es, o nimium nimium que oblite tuorum,
Thracia nocturno tangere castra dolo
Tot que simul mactare viros, adiutus ab uno!
At bene cautus eras et memor ante mei!
Usque metu micuere sinus, dum victor amicum
Dictus es Ismariis isse per agmen equis.

Sed mihi quid prodest vestris disiecta lacertis
Ilios et, murus quod fuit, esse solum,
Si maneo, qualis Troia durante manebam,
Vir que mihi dempto fine carendus abest?

Diruta sunt aliis, uni mihi Pergama restant,
Incola captivo quae bove victor arat.

Iam seges est, ubi Troia fuit, resecanda que falce
Luxuriat Phrygio sanguine pinguis humus,
Semisepulta virum curvis feriuntur aratris
Ossa, ruinosas occulit herba domos:
Victor abes, nec scire mihi, quae causa morandi,
Aut in quo lateas ferreus orbe, licet!
Quisquis ad haec vertit peregrinam litora puppim,
Ille mihi de te multa rogatus abit,
Quam que tibi reddat, si te modo viderit usquam,
Traditur huic digitis charta notata meis.

Nos Pylon, antiqui Neleia Nestoris arva,
Misimus: incertast fama remissa Pylo;
Misimus et Sparten: Sparte quoque nescia veri.

Quas habitas terras aut ubi lentus abes?
Utilius starent etiamnunc moenia Phoebi:
(Irascor votis heu! levis ipsa meis)
Scirem, ubi pugnares, et tantum bella timerem,
Et mea cum multis iuncta querela foret.

Quid timeam, ignoro; timeo tamen omnia demens,
Et patet in curas area lata meas:
Quaecumque aequor habet, quaecumque pericula tellus,
Tam longae causas suspicor esse morae.

Haec ego dum stulte metuo, quae vestra libidost,
Esse peregrino captus amore potes;
Forsitan et narres, quam sit tibi rustica coniunx,
Quae tantum lanas non sinat esse rudes.

Fallar, et hoc crimen tenues vanescat in auras,
Neve, revertendi liber, abesse velis!
Me pater Icarius viduo discedere lecto
Cogit et inmensas increpat usque moras.

Increpet usque licet! tua sum, tua dicar oportet:
Penelope coniunx semper Ulixis ero.
Ille tamen pietate mea precibus que pudicis
Frangitur et vires temperat ipse suas:
Dulichii Samii que et, quos tulit alta Zacynthos,
Turba ruunt in me luxuriosa proci
In que tua regnant nullis prohibentibus aula;
Viscera nostra, tuae dilacerantur opes.
Quid tibi Pisandrum Polybum que Medonta que dirum
Eurymachi que avidas Antinoi que manus
Atque alios referam, quos omnis turpiter absens
Ipse tuo partis sanguine rebus alis?

Irus egens pecoris que Melanthius actor edendi
Ultimus accedunt in tua damna pudor.

Hinc faciunt custos que boum longaeva que nutrix,
Tertius inmundae cura fidelis harae!
Tres sumus inbelles numero, sine viribus uxor
Laertes que senex Telemachus que puer.

Telemacho veniet, vivat modo, fortior aetas:
nunc erat auxiliis illa tuenda patris;
Ille per insidias paenest mihi nuper ademptus,
Dum parat invitis omnibus ire Pylon;
Di, precor, hoc iubeant, ut euntibus ordine fatis
Ille meos oculos conprimat, ille tuos.

Sed neque Laertes, ut qui sit inutilis armis,
Hostibus in mediis regna tenere potest,
Nec mihi sunt vires inimicos pellere tectis:
Tu citius venias, portus et ara tuis!
Est tibi sit que, precor, natus, qui mollibus annis
In patrias artes erudiendus erat;
Respice Laerten; ut iam sua lumina condas,
Extremum fati sustinet ille diem;
Certe ego, quae fueram te discedente puella,
Protinus ut venias, facta videbor anus.

Schubert's Adaption of Anakreons Εις λυρα (an the lyra)

Franz Schuberts "An die Leier" of Anakreon (Odes 1), op. 56 no. 1, D. 737 (German Text: Franz Seraph Ritter von Bruchmann)
Ich will von Atreus' Söhnen,
Von Kadmus will ich singen!
Doch meine Saiten tönen
Nur Liebe im Erklingen.

Ich tauschte um die Saiten,
Die Leier möcht ich tauschen!
Alcidens Siegesschreiten
Sollt ihrer Macht entrauschen!
Doch auch die Saiten tönen
Nur Liebe im Erklingen!

So lebt denn wohl, Heroen!
Denn meine Saiten tönen
Statt Heldensang zu drohen,
Nur Liebe im Erklingen.

Εις λυρα
Θέλω λέγειν Ἀτρείδας,
θέλω δὲ Κάδμον ἄιδειν,
ὁ βάρβιτος δὲ χορδαῖς
ἔρωτα μοῦνον ἠχεῖ.

ἤμειψα νεῦρα πρώην
καὶ τὴν λύρην ἅπασαν·
κἀγὼ μὲν ἦιδον ἄθλους
Ἡρακλέους, λύρη δέ
ἔρωτας ἀντεφώνει.

χαίροιτε λοιπὸν ἡμῖν,
ἥρωες· ἡ λύρη γάρ
μόνους ἔρωτας ἄιδει.

Example: Sung by Jussi Börling
Important literature: Vertonung Antiker Texte von Barock bis zur Gegenwart, Joachim Draheim, Amsterdam : B. V. Grüner, 1981.

θάνατος

Talking about the Triumph of the Death yesterday, a thought occurred to me upon waking up today: how comes that this theme was so popular in the Renaissance? The theme of Memento Mori was a commonplace in Christian arts throughout the middle ages. We find sculptures displaying a woman covered with toads and worms for example. But the horrid vision of the triumph of death as it was depicted in the panel painting of Peter Bruegel the Elder was new. The medieval sculptures remind us only of the transient nature of our earthly life and admonish us to hold the salvation of our souls higher than the earthly happiness. But never was the Death thought thus mighty as it appears in Bruegels Painting. We know that Dürer's woodcut of the four apocalyptic knights: the fourth riding on a pale horse is named Death. But what a majestic sight! Not fear, but awe and hope does it infuse one with! Or is it only me? It is a great difference to the horror scene in the painting of Bruegel.

Can we say that it is due to the terrible experience with the Black Death? But the Black Death peaked in Europe between 1348 and 1350, and by the time when Bruegel painted his picture, this pandemics was long gone.

And how it is possible that this painting occurred in the Renaissance, when people began to build churches filled with light and air, and to enjoy more the temporal happiness and to stress the significance of human virtues? And how diagonal does it stand to the increasing interest in Ancient culture! We do know the Thanatos was depicted as a young man who extinguished the torch. Nothing horrible is to see in him.

The horrifying depicting of the Death as a skeleton figure seems to be a Christian innovation. Or am I not sufficiently informed? And not even a medieval one! Recalling the gravestones I have seen, the medieval ones talk hope of the resurrection and confidence in Jesus Christ. The memento mori theme has in these cases a moral and religious meaning. But the skull and crossed thigh bones are more often used during the baroque times. The religious feeling was another one. The optimism of the middle ages is gone, in its place melancholy steps. It displays not despair, but the sighing upon seeing the shortness of man's life. But Bruegel's painting shouts out pure despair. It shout as loud as the painting of Munch. It speaks panic. What is happening?

Perhaps displaying Death as an ugly skeleton is a commitment to the reality. And this horrifying fact is only bearable with the help of religion. The fear can be only overwhelmed with a stoic attitude which can also be found in the Christian religion. We shouldn't forget that Stoicism was rediscovered and became very popular in the Renaissance and especially baroque era. But in the painting of Bruegel not even the consolation of religion and philosophy can be found. It is only fear. I believe this painting must be singular. But perhaps I am not well informed enough.

Whatever it is like, it was only in the classicism that the Death was again depicted as a beautiful young man. But in the Baroque era the motive of putto did appear.

So, we can ask, did the ancient Greeks and Romans, as Nietzsche would like it, try to overcome their fear of reality through inventing an apparent world? But how can we say they feared Death as the Homeric heroes willingly died for fame? But perhaps they didn't fear dying, because they made themselves believe that the Death is not horrible. As Socrates didn't fear the hemlock. And didn't Solon say that the best what could happen to a human being is to die young? Perhaps the ancient philosophy saw this illusion through and returned to reality. And the Christians accepted this reality because they had a hope beyond this finite reality. But with the increasing secularism during the 18th. and 19.th., Death couldn't be born as it is, people began to find consolation in apparent and illusion again. And didn't they, as I learned during my visit to Trier, remove in the 19th. the skeleton man from the grave in the Cathedral?

Just a casual thought.

Lamentatio

Misera teresa peccatorix, quid quaeris, quid expectas? Umbram sequeris et numquam invenies quod tibi in somnio tuo apparuit. Quando expergisceris?

Litore Naxou sola relicta es, nullus homo nec deus tibi subveniet. Nec Bacchus te ex tuo misero eripiet. Theseus iam navigavit ad Athenam. Lacrima dos tibi stulta puella. Et num credis quod is cuius tu nolis obliviscere lacrimas tuas polluctum accipiet? Vocem tuam diffigiunt venti. lacrimas tuas potant flumina maris.

A casual thought: Joyce and Laurence Sterne

It occurred to me a few days ago that there is certain similarity between the writing method of Joyce and Sterne. Didn't both travesty earnest academical genres like Tractatus, Quaestiones and so on for literary purposes? The chapter on the nose in "The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy" is such a one. And both in "Ulysses" and "Finnegans Wake" one can find sufficient examples. Joyce even used footnotes, glosses and marginal notes. Though I knew before what both were doing with these passages, but I never brought both authors into connection with each other.

Is it only a coincidence?

Erinna

Is it a coincidence? The girl lying buried under the stone plate in the church aisle died at the age of 19, and Erinna too, who wrote the verse "Therefore only the empty Echo enters Hades; Silence in the realm of the Dead - the voice dies out in the darkness" (cf. Wilamowitz, Hellenistische Dichtung I 109).

Today I made a visit to the library, and found two epigrams of her in the Anthologie Grecque, Première Partie Anthologie Palatine, par Pierre Waltz, Paris: Siciété d'Édition "Les Belles Lettres", 1960:

1) Erinna's Grave epitaph for her friend Baucis: (Anthologia Grecque VII, 710)

Στᾶλαι καὶ Σειρῆνες έμαὶ πὲνθιμε κρωσσὲ,
ὅστις ἔχεις Ἀΐδα τάν ὀλίγαν σποδιἀν,
τοῖς ἐμὸν ἐρχομένοισι παρ' ἠρίον εἴπατε χαίρειν,
αἴτ' ἀστοὶ τελέθωντ' αἴθ' ἑτεροπτόλιες.
χὥτι με νύμφαν εὖσαν ἔχει τάφος, εἴπατε καὶ τό.
χὥτι πατήρ μ' ἐκάλει Βαυκίδα, χὥτι γένος
Τηνία, ὡς εἰδῶντι. καὶ ὅττι μοι ἁ συνεταιρὶς
Ἤρινν' ἐν τύμβῳ γράμμ’ ἐχάραξε τόδε.

2) a lamentation of the same Baucis (Anthologia Grecque VII, 712):
Νύμφας Βαυκίδος εἰμί. πολθκλαύταν δὲ παρέρπων
στάλαν τῷ κατὰ γᾶς τοῦτο λέγοις Ἀΐδα.
«Βάσκανος ἔσσ', Ἀΐδα.» Τὰ δέ τοι καλὰ σάμαθ' ὁρῶντι
ὠμοτάταν Βαθκοῦς ἀγγελἐοντι τύχαν,
ὠς τὰν παῖδ', "Υμέναιος ἐφ' αἶς ἀείδετο πεύκαις,
ταῖσδ' ἐπι καδεστὰς ἔφλεγε πυρκαϊᾷ.
καὶ σὺ μὲν, "Υμέναιε, γάμων μολπαῖον ἀοιδὰν
ἐς θρήνων γοερῶν φθέγμα μεθαρμόσαο.

(try to type Greek with my two left hands)

The note of W. Marg in his translation to the first Epigram is quite interesting, that the Sirens are symbols for souls, didn't know it before. But now I do remember having seen Renaissance-gravestones decorated with Sirens.

Some Notes on Theology

1) John Henry Newman has great influence on the theology regarding the role of laity in the Church. The Vat. II document "Lumen Gentium" was prepared under the influence of his theology.

2) In the personality man and woman are equal. The relationship between man and woman is the foundation of all human interpersonal relations. Manhood and womanhood are modi of our existence as human beings. Men and women, are not different in regard of our personality, but in regard of our human existence. Both man and woman represent in himself/herself the complete image of God, not part of God's image.

A Poem of Properz (Typos corrected)

Being not too familiar with the Ancient Literature. Having read stories from Ancient Mythology as a child, then while learning Latin as an adult, read some Cicero, Catull and Ovid. Read also some Greek dramas in translation. Never read Propertius. Catull doesn't appeal much to me, too much vitriol. But Ovid is so poetic! And the world of Horace is so foreign to me. Bought the whole collection of the poems of Propertius on my birthday, that is three months ago, and start to read it today. The beauty of them takes instantly possession of me.

There is one of them I like especially: (the verses being elegiac couplets, but have not figured out how to type them in the correct format on the blog)

Book I, XIV
Tu licet abiectus Tiberina molliter unda
Lesbia Mentoreo vina bibas opere,
et modo tam celeres mireris currere lintres
et modo tam tardas funibus ire ratis;
et nemus omne satas ut tendat vertice silvas,
urgetur quantis Caucasus arboribus;
non tamen ista meo valeant contendere amori:
nescit Amor magnis cedere divitiis.
nam sive optatam mecum trahit illa quietem,
seu facili totum ducit amore diem,
tum mihi Pactoli veinut sub tecta liquores,
et legitur Rubris gemma sub aequoribus;
tum mihi cessuros spondent mea gaudia reges:
quae maneant, dum me fata perire volent!
nam quis divitiis adverso gaudet Amore?
nulla mihi tristi praemia sint Venere!
illa potest magnas heroum infringere vires,
illa etiam duris mentibus esse dolor:
illa neque Arabium metuit transcendere limen
nec timet ostrino, Tulle, subire toro,
et miserum toto iuvenem versare cubili:
quid relevant variis serica texilibus?
quae mihi dum placata aderit, non ulla verebor
regna vel Alcinoi munera despicere.

Some Notes on Theological Anthropology

Reading the second chapter of a handbook of Catholic Dogmatics concerning the theological anthropology. I have two questions:

1) the theological anthropology tries to be in accordance with the Holy Scripture, thus the Platonic hostility towards the body must be given up. In the Holy Scripture we find the testimonies for the imago Dei in the Genesis. But the Bible exegesis seems to differ between the older (Gen. 2,4ff) and younger (Gen. 1, 1-2.4) report of creation. What is exactly meant with the older and younger report? Were these passages written in different times? Shall look up in Commentary to the Bible later.

2) What is exactly the difference between "Spirit", "Soul" and "Body", as mentioned for example in the Book Sapientia (2,23)?

The Exodus-Metaphysics

(Ricardo Slles: Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics in Ancient Thought. Themes from the work of Richard Sorabji, Oxford: Clarendon, 2005)

A book is dedicated to the great scholar of ancient philosophy, Richard Sorabji.

An excellent book containing articles from different scholars. Shall make notes of several of them.

Just read one chapter from it:

Platonism in the Bible: Numenius of Apamea on Exodus and Eternity. (by M.F. Burnyeat)

1) Numerius is famous for his saying: "What is Plato but Moses talking Attic?" (in his On the Good). This sentence was quoted twice by the Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea. Numerius took it for granted the Moses knew Greek and spoke Attic, because Attic, in contrast to Doric, in it the obscure Pythagorean writings are made, is the language of clarity, says Burnyeat.

2) The second point Burnyeat tries to clarify is whether Plato's God, i.e. the First Principle, can be equated with Being. Numenius's First God is called the "egô eimi ho ôn" in the Septuaginta-translation of Book Exodus. But Plato did also bring the First Principle into connection with the Being. Though in his Republic 509b9 the First Principle is known to be the Good, which is beyond being (epekeina tês ousias), later, in the same book, Plato mentions that the Good is the brightest part of being (518c9). A similar combination of God and the Being can also be found in Plutarch's On the E at Delphi, where he interpreted the engraved "E" to be "ei" (is), so the God of Plutarch could as well be called the "ho ôn".

3) So popular opinion among modern scholars, that the Platonic Good transcends the Being, can be challenged by the interpretation of Numenius. But also by the testimonies of the Middle and Late Platonics. Seneca, for example, wrote in his Epistle 58 that the supreme genus is that which is (quod est). And Aetius wrote that Plato's God is that which is really as well as the One. And Alcinous, who wrote the Handbook of Platonism, argues that God as the first principle of Platonism, is not totally inexpressible as Moderatus had claimed. Rather like the elements of Theaetetus, God can be named but not described, and among his names we find Goodness, Proportion, Truth and Divinity, and also Beingness (ousiotês, 164.33-4).

Conclusion (according to my understanding of Burnyeats argument): The so called Exodus-Metaphysics is not a new element brought by the Christianity nor by the reception of the Greek Septuaginta. It was already an innate moment of the Platonic philosophy itself.

4) the third point which Burnyeats wants to clarify is the Platonic concept of Eternity. Sorabji interprets the Eternity as timelessness. But Burnyeats shows with text of Numerius, that the Platonics rather took Eternity to be a kind of Presence. And a text passage from Timaeus seems to fortify this position: there it is mentioned that the Demiurg created the Past and the Future, but not the Presence. Boethius made the distinction between the nunc stans and the nunc fluens. But in which way the Eternity in Plato's Philosophy should be interpreted? The nunc stans of Boethius seems to be abstracted from the time. But the Eternity, which is a kind of Presence in Platonism, is not tenseless, though not in the continuity of time? A question, which Burnyeats doesn't seem to have given us an answer (if it is not due to my carelessness while reading).

The Cranach Altar in Weimar

Angenendt mentioned in his book in context of Grace and Sin (cf. the posting of last week) the Weimarer Altar of Lucas Cranach the Elder. He meant the following picture:



It is the altar picture of Herderkirche in Weimar. Lucas Cranach began his work in 1552/1553 but only to have it finished by his son after his death in 1555.

The altar in the church:

Is the defense of Human dignity possible for a merely secular government?

The telegraph journalist the Rev. George Pitcher quoted in length on his blog a sermon made recently by the Archbishop of Canterbury, where he mentioned, one should give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God. And His Grace interpreted in a way that, while the Church should be obedient to the secular power, the secular power should also give God what belongs to God, that is His Image in us: the human dignity.

My thought is, the secular power is NOT obliged to give God what belongs to God (though in the U.K. it might be different, as the Anglicanism is still the religion of the State) because the state is becoming in great part of the developed world atheistic and even hostile to Christian ideas. While in the enlightenment the human dignity was developed to be an universal foundation for a "secular" state, whose power, like Hobbes exclaimed, was not given by God, but by the people, who gave up a part of their freedom to the Leviathan, for the sake of peace and order. But in substantial difference to the world after the WWII, the European world during the time of Enlightenment and long afterwards, had not abandoned its Christian culture and ethical values, though the state was eventually separated from the Church.

The human rights are a weak echo of the old Christian idea of imago Dei and the essential equality between persons. But without Christianity the human rights becomes only terms on papers, and are able to be manipulated by functionaries.

I am not for a theocratic State, not in the least sense. I am for a democracy, but not for a democracy led without any common cultural values. But today's world, they call it the multi-cultural, is a pluralistic world with so many competing and contradicting culture values between groups of its citizens. How is democracy possible? It is no wonder that the state is becoming more and more authoritarian because to achieve a consensus between its citizens is too difficult.

A secular state of today won't care for holding the human dignity upright anymore. The cultural foundation is gone. But for the Catholic Church, this situation is nothing new, our Church grew out of the suppressions by the Roman Emperor. And Pope Benedict wrote in his book "Jesus of Nazareth" that the first alliance between the Church and Constantin was a temptation which resembled the temptation of Jesus Christ through Satan, in the last attempt to seduce Jesus Christ into embracing the worldly power.

We Catholics should be prepared for a hostile time, while retaining the idea of democracy.

Georg Kreisler awarded the Hölderlin Prize

Yesterday I heard in the radio that Georg Kreisler, the famous song writer, was awarded in Bad Homburg the Hölderlin Prize. I was amazed that he was still alive. There was also a short interview with him and the reporter asked him whether it was true that he saw Marlene Dietrich in her wardrobe, he was also asked what he saw, well, only a part of her leg he answered, but it was so long ago, didn't seem to be much impressed by her. But he is a great entertainer, and who says the Germans have no humour? Oh, pardon, he is from Vienna, a specific type of Austrian, and Jewish.

Indeed it shows that our society is still tolerant, if his chansons are liked, despite their macabre humour. In one song "Sport is healthy" he described how his family members all lost their life through sport, for example his cousin was a hunter and eaten by a bear, whose fur was now spread before his bed ...

To hear and watch his performance please click: The Triangle. (telling the story how a hopeful young pianist ended up as the man playing the triangle in the orchestra, dozing off while waiting 39 minutes for the nod of the conductor telling him to stand up and strike his triangle, especially Richard Strauss made him feel sleepy!)

His own website: Georg Kreisler für Grausame

And a collection of his song texts

Notes on "Geschichte der Religiosität im Mittelalter" (A History of the Religiosity in the Middle Ages)

Arnold Angenendt: Geschichte der Religiosität im Mittelalter, Darmstadt: Primus, 1997.

This book is a comprehensive handbook for the religious activities in the middle ages, written in 20 years, as the author confesses in the preface. It explains from the view point of the science of religion, and intends an objective phenomenological description. It is not a theological work.

Part VI: Grace and Sin (517-658)

1) the conscience
the conscience (Gewissen / conscientia / syneideis). The presupposition for conscience is a "split self", so Chadwick in his article in Real Lexikon für Antike und Christentum, because only such a self can reflect upon itself (Angenendt, p. 521). Somewhat Hegelian? (Homer Objectivity - Christianity / Subjectivity). Aaron Gurjewitsch observed that the Christianity met during its mission in Europe certain "conscienceless cultures" (522). Abaelard: "Non est peccatum nisi contra conscientiam". Bernhard of Clairvaux: the examination of one's conscience is the obligation of a monk (Ad clericos de conversione II, 3). The Scholastic, especially Thomas Aquinas, confirmed the function of the conscience. The conscience can be wrong, but it is not to be disobeyed ("conscientia erronea invincibilis", Thomas STh II-1, qu. 19, 5).

Very important!: The new spirituality of the 12th. century intensified the consciencesness. William of St. Thierry for example, recommanded the monk's cell to be a place for the examination of one's own conscience (Epistola aurea 107-108 SC 223, p. 228-230).


But this examination could be exaggerated, an example for it was given by Cardinal Peter of Luxemberg (14th. century) in one description quoted by Huizinga (Huizinga, Das Herbst des Mittelalters, 260).

Very interesting is also that Jean Gerson was also called "doctor consolatorius".

2) the promise made by the candidate for baptism as the foundation of ethics
During the early scholastic theologians tend to see this promise as the foundation of ethics, explained also by Klaus Berger in his Theoligiegeschichte. Representors of this positions are Caesarius of Arles and Jonas of Orléans (De institutione laicali). Also Buchard of Worms. Paralle to it is the profess of monks.

3) grace
charis: goodwill, sweetness, attractive appearance. Charis appears also in a personal interaction. To be compared with the Clementia of the Emperor. The Theologian for Grace in Christianity is Apostle Paul: Grace as the Grace of baptism. The Grace was won by Jesus Christ, and He gave us this Grace during our baptism. The famous ambrosiaster, a commentator of Paul from the 4th. century, took the grace to be the grace of baptism. The Paulus-Renaissance in the 4th. led to the Pelagianism-quarrel. Questions like "are we free to resist the grace" were asked. (against the so called synergismus). Augustinus in his later years was more convinced, that the Grace belongs solely to the sovereign actions of God. A kind of Voluntarism?

4) caritas (very important! not yet finished, to be expanded later)

Aelred of Rievaulx on the Christian friendship in his De spirituali amiritia, referring to the Nicomachean Ethics (1162b-1163a). Comparealso Phil 2, 6-11. ...

To be continued next week!

Reading the first Volume of Pope Benedict's "Jesus of Nazareth"

Just read the first two chapters.

The second chapter on the temptation of Christ through the Great Fiend is especially revealing!

the first temptation: Satan asked Jesus to change stone into bread. It can be compared with the modern temptation of engaging oneself too much in philanthropist activities while forgetting the transcendent dimension of real Christian charity.

the second temptation: Satan asked Jesus to jumped from the roof of the temple. It can be compared with the modern temptation of trying to show that God has no power, if we don't see Him acting in the Human history. The atheists say where is your God? Try to show Him to us! It is a kind of arrogance, and seeing oneself above God as one thinks he can order God to act or to appear.

the third temptation: to be the Lord of this world alone. The welfare state, promising to give us all we need, is a great temptation to make us forget God.


Only some brief notes made in a hurry, will be expanded soon.(To be continued)

Corpus Christi Feast - Fronleichnam

Tomorrow is again Corpus Christi Feast, Procession in the city, the weather is not directly promising.

One thought occurs to me: at the end of the procession we usually sing two songs:

Holy God we praise your name (Großer Gott wir loben Dich) and Ein Haus voll Glorie schauet.

While the latter is one of my favourite hymns, and it is really very uprising when sung by thousands of people who take part in the procession, the first one is somewhat dull. It is meant to be a vernacular version of the Te Deum, so I just can't help asking myself why we don't just let the Te Deum be Te Deum as we do also sing in Latin the "Pange Lingua" and "Veni Creator Spiritus".

Atheism has become a show-business

Exceptionally this post is not about a book I am reading, but I have to speak out lout what just dawns on me, like the Barber had to speak out once that King Midas had donkey's ears.

What is Atheism? Nothing else than a show business. Have a look at Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, what are they doing everyday? Dawkins is supposed to be a scientist, but instead of spending his time for researches, he prefers to spout slurs and stur hatred.

And Christopher Hitchens? Well: look at this article from the Telegraph
An-audience-with-Christopher-Hitchens

No, not that I would buy only one of the books both ranters wrote, I have better ways to wile away my time, but it is clear that they are making good money out of this.

It seems you can become rich and be hailed as an hero through agitating hatred. People pay to be brainwashed by two arrogant igorami of all things religious. What a bigot world it has become! Indeed the modern society should ask itself why hatred is so popular, while the functionaries in the modern western societies try (in vane, obviously) to social engineer people to be "tolerant".

Exploring Plato with Aristotle, Part I

Too long had teachers of philosophy contrasted Aristotle against Plato. Though it is well known that Aristotle criticized Plato's teaching of the ideas, and the famous saying "Plato is my friend, but the truth is more my friend" is known by everyone. But it doesn't mean that Aristotle's philosophy should be toto genere different from that of Plato. One should remember a good critique can only come from someone who is familiar with the subject he criticizes and has sympathy towards it. A critique is not a refutation! Nor is it an arrogant dismissal of the ideas one dislikes. This contrast is more a cliché than an earnest preoccupation with their thoughts. Here are some philological indices that the philosophy of Aristotle should be considered as a further development of the Platonic philosophy:

1) the dialectic method of defining
Plato's doctorine of Ideas finds its preparation in the dialogue Menon (80dff) and Euthyphron (6dff), and is officially established in Symposium (208bff.), and considered a solution to the philosophical problems treated in Kratylos (438dff.). Its full developments is to be found in the Politeia (502cff.). The method, with which one reaches the ideas, is the dialectic, as the correct way to ask and answer. This method is also a method of a accurate definition, which can be considered as the origin of the Aristotelian syllogism.

2) the critique Plato's of the sophists
Plato criticized the Sophist Antisthenes in the last part of Theaitet (201dff.) and in Sophistes, the latter was reported to have said: "A horse, oh Plato, I do see well, but I don't see anything like horseness" (testified by Simplikios and Ammonius, Fragmenta 50A-C Caizzi). Diogenes Laertios recorded the scorn of Anthisthenes against Plato's doctrine of ideas. Diogenes documented the Sophismata of Anthisthenes, one of them consists in a careless usage of the word 'is'. This kind of Sophismata are treated by Aristotle in his Topik.

3) the critique of Plato's doctrine of ideas
The famous "third person" argument in Aristotle's Metaphysics is not his invention. It was already made by the Sophist Polyxenos (cf. Alexander Aphrodisias: In Arisotelis Metaphysicorum, 84, 16ff. Hayd.). So even if Aristotle was critical towards the doctrine of ideas, he was just taking his contemporary discussions among philosophers seriously. And I see no reason why a philosopher should be slavishly regarding a certain doctrine while dismissing good arguments made by opponents. So Aristotle's critique of the doctrine of ideas can also be understood as a trial to amend the teachings of Plato, instead of abolishing them, as many believe.

4) Not all students in Plato's Academy were friends of the "Ideas"
Plato mentions the "friends of Ideas" in his Sophistes. They were only a small part of all students, people guesse that the less original followers of the platonic philosophy were among them, for example Speusipp, Xenokrates and Herakleides Pontikos. So Aristotle is not a polemic opponent against Plato. He is an original thinker, and thus it is silly to demand that he follow his teacher dogmatically.

5) Zekl, who translated Aristotle's Analytica Priora, presumes that Aristotle's distance to the doctrine of Ideas is a result of his endeavour to save the doctrine of Ideas from the heavy assaults of the Sophistes (Zekl 1998: LXIV).

(the philological informations above are taken from Zekls preface to his translation of the Analytica Priora).

The anacreontic poetry

Henri Étienne 1554, editor of an anthology of newly discovered Greek poems, taken out of the famous Codex Anthologia Palatina, provided the western Latin civilization for the first time the source of anacreontic poetry from Ancient Greece. In it, Nr. 14 a catalogue of love affairs, being the example for the register of Leporellos in Don Giovanni. Nr. 33 the so called wet Cupido.

The anacreontic poetry is characterized by intended naivity, simple language, by the standards topics of nature, love and drinking, and a simple metric, the so called anacreontic vers: uu - u - u --.

There is one which is very very easy to understand:

Nr. 29

Χαλεπὸν τὸ μὴ φιλῆσαι,

χαλεπὸν δὲ καὶ φιλῆσαι

χαλεπώτερον δὲ πάντων

ἀποτυγχάνειν φιλοῦντα