A Time for Song

"Now we too shall sing a song of glory named

for proud victory to celebrate the thunder

and fire flung weapon of thunder-rousing Zeus,

the blazing lightning

that befits every triumph,

and the swelling strains of song

shall answer to the pipe's reed."

-Olympian Odes, LOEB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O4VS6ikrik&feature=related

Work

"For the gods keep the means of life concealed from humans. Otherwise you would easily be able to work in just one day as to have enough for a whole year without even working."

-Hesiod (Loeb Classical Library Leader; Works and Days)

Work is overrated. This is an obvious statement; you might think "True, I'm lazy, I hate work". I very much agree. Our society, however, does not agree with this. Work, not family, not happiness, not love, nor any other unquantifiable, yet fundamentally more rewarding quality, has become the foundation of western society. Students spend hours working on assignments and studying for exams not to learn or to expand their minds, but to prepare themselves for university and eventually a career, in hopes of earning as much money as they can dream of. This is not to say that the Greeks envisioned this type of society, but they did value work over and above everything else. This quote, to me, says that if the gods are concealing the means of life and work is something that isn't concealed, then work is not to means of life. What the means are though, I am not sure.

Lysistrata

"All right. We're going to have to give up - the prick. Why are you turning away from me? Where are you going? Why are you all pursing your lips and shaking your heads? What means your altered color and tearful droppings? Will you do it or not? What are you waiting for?"

- Loeb Classical Library Reader, Lysistrata, Page 63

They seem so outraged that they would have to give up sex to make their husbands and lovers halt their wars but they also seem to be aware of the power they hold over their men. Women in history are portrayed as quiet and demure and yet classical women seem to be far more brash and confident in themselves and their power over society and their men. Makes you wonder if we've come full circle with women, going from powerful and somewhat close to equal to not at all to somewhat close to equal again. Taboo topics have changed over the centuries as well but again, sex is no longer taboo. These women seem very open about their sexuality. Also...it's kind of hilarious...

The Lovely Ladies of Greece

pp 27-65 in the LOEB Classical Library Reader (Antigone, Medea, and Lysistrata)
~Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes

Women in classical drama are often shown breaking the traditional conventions of women. A classical woman is seen as being sexually passionate. This can be most clearly seen in Lysistrata, when the women are willing to do anything other than give up “the prick” to end Athens’s war with Sparta. They are also seen as being irrational, which one can see in Medea, where Medea wants to kill her husband’s new bride and their children. They are seen as being religiously fervent, which is excellently portrayed in the Bacchae when all of the women of the city leave to pray to Dionysus (even though they were under a spell). Women were meant to be subservient to men which is very clearly not seen in all of the plays. Antigone goes against the will of her king, Medea goes against the will of her husband, the women of Greece go against their husbands in Lysistrata, and the women of Thebes go against the will of their husbands and their king in the Bacchae. They were meant to be kept inside and away from all excitement and all men other than her husband. This rule is broken in all of the aforementioned plays. The characters of these plays are rarely appreciated for their good qualities, and are only cursed for the sole reason that what they think is right is not what the men think is right.

I do not feel that the playwrights are sympathetic toward or respectful of their female characters at all. They make them very stereotypical basic females with no complexity of emotion or action. Their worlds revolve around the men and children in their lives no matter what else the plot may contain. I think that the playwrights would have maintained the stereotypes so as not to upset the audiences, who would have been angered by such a drastic change of the role of women. The only play that even comes close to breaking the stereotype of women is Antigone, because it makes Antigone appear to be wise and logical, and it makes the king appear ignorant and dependant on his crown.

The nature of things

Pleasant it is... to gaze from shore upon another's great tribulation:.... to percieve what what ills you are free from yourself is pleasent. Pleasent is it to behold great encounters of warfare arrayed over the plains, with no part of yours in the peril... O blind intelligences! In what gloom of life, that pain be removed away out of the body, and that the mind, kept away from care and fear, enjoy a feeling of delight!

On the nature of things
Loeb pp. 145

Working the 9 to 5

"For the gods keep the means of life concealed from humans. Otherwise you would easily be able to work in just one day so as to have enough for a whole year even without working."

-Hesiod (Loeb Classical Library Reader; Works and Days; Page 14)

The Life of a Human

"--the strife of wits, the fight for precedence, all labouring night and day with surpassing toil to mount upon the pinnacle of riches and to lay hold on power." - On the Nature of Things, Lucretius

This describes the life of most human beings. Everyone nowadays always strives to become rich and live the "good life", but we don't know exactly what this good life really is. We don't find peace of mind because we are too busy "labouring night and day" whether it be at our job or at school. All our lives we want to make money and be powerful because people tell us that's what we should want. The idea of being rich and powerful is fixated in the minds of humans. The working for us never ends...

Neighbourly Love

"For a man to take something from his neighbour and to profit by his neighbour's loss is more contrary to nature than is death or poverty or pain or anything else that can affect either our person or our property."

-Cicero (Loeb Classical Library Reader; "Duty to one's neighbour"; pg. 133)


The value of neighbours and community was quite prevalent in Ancient Greece. Parents taught their children to respect, defend, and support their neighbours in order to receive the same treatment in return. This was because of a sense of community in Greek culture; a result of the explosion of city states. In modern day society we generally don't care about community; with the exception of small towns or villages. This lack of togetherness or community pride is the result of the ongoing fight for individual rights. Every person wants the choice to live their life unbounded by an obligation to the state or any organization for that matter. It is commendable that we have reached the point where this right is a reality, unfortunately community was lost along the way.

The Thirst for Knowledge

“…understanding gives great pleasure not just to philosophers but similarly to everyone else though their capacity may be limited for it”– Aristotle, Poetics

Short-Term Happiness

“Assuredly, when we have found such wealth in heaven, we may well grieve to have sought after poor passing pleasures here on earth.” – Jerome, Letters

We will never know if this quote is true or not due to the fact that no one can ever speak to us from heaven, if there even is one. Yes, the latter part of the quote is true, because in life all of us contemplate poor decisions and/or wasted valuable time. We may not realize that these things were “poor passing pleasures” until we are of old age. This usually happens because we become more experienced and wiser as we grow older. We do grieve over wasting valuable time in life. For example, when people are very old, they often say “I wish I hadn’t done this/ I wish I could have done this,” meaning that they wasted valuable time on something that wasn’t of value, or they did not give time to what was of value in retrospect. The second thing this quote is saying is that the things we have on earth are only of temporary value. Even if they are pleasurable for a certain amount of time, we will never find true and permanent happiness until we reach heaven or a higher degree of life, if there really is one.

To Sum it Up

“…life is one long struggle in the dark.” – Lucretius, "On the nature of things"

Be Victorious

“O Zeus and Zeus’s justice, O light of the sun, now, my friends, I shall be victorious over my foes: I have set my foot on the path”

This quote was in Medea 764-766, it’s about Medea creating plot to get back at her husband Jason who left her for another women. This quote however can be used to express any situation where you are in a mindset to get things done. It expresses the desperation that someone has when they are angry or embarrassed, the want to fix wrongs or get revenge.