Conversas

πὰρ πυρὶ χρὴ τοιαῦτα λέγειν χειμῶνος εν ώρῃ
εν κλίνῃ μαλακῃ κατακείμενον, έμπλεον όντα,
πίνοντα γλυκὺν οῖνον, ὑποτρώγοντ' ερεβίνθους ·
"τίς πόθεν εῖς ανδρῶν, πόσα τοι έτε' εστί, φέριστε;
πηλίκος ῆσθ', όθ' ὁ Μῆδος αφίκετο;"

Xenófanes, Fragmento B22. Tradução minha.

No inverno, reclinados junto ao fogo
num sofá confortável, há muitos temas de conversa
para quando se bebe vinho doce e se petisca uns feijões,
«Quem és tu, meu amigo? De onde vens? Quantos anos tens?
Que idade tinhas quando vieram os Medos?»


Lembrando também,


Gut
Ist ein Gespräch, und zu sagen
Des Herzens Meinung, zu hören viel
Von Tagen der Liebe
Und Thaten, welche geschehen.

Hölderlin, Andenken 32-36. Tradução minha

Bom
É conversar e falar
Do que vai no coração, e ouvir muito
Dos dias de amor
E de coisas que aconteceram.

O Criminoso Imortal

[τὴν σωφροσύνην] ὑμεῖς επὶ μὲν τῶν ιδιωτῶν επαινεῖτε, καὶ νομίζετε τοὺς ταύτῃ χρωμένους ασφαλέστατα ζῆν καὶ βελτίστους εῖναι τῶν πολιτῶν, τὸ δὲ κοινὸν ἡμῶν ουκ οίεσθε δεῖν τοιοῦτο παρασκευάζειν, καίτοι προσήκει τὰς ἀρετὰς ασκεῖν καὶ τὰς κακίας φεύγειν πολὺ μᾶλλον ταῖς πόλεσιν ὴ τοῖς ιδιώταις. ανὴρ μὲν γὰρ ασεβὴς καὶ πονηρὸς τυχὸν ὰν φθάσειε τελευτήσας πρὶν δοῦναι δίκην τῶν ἡμαρτημένων: αἱ δὲ πόλεις διὰ τὴν αθανασίαν ὑπομένουσι καὶ τὰς παρὰ τῶν ανθρώπων καὶ τὰς παρὰ τῶν θεῶν τιμωρίας.

Vós elogiais a sensatez de cada pessoa em particular, e julgais que os que a praticam não só vivem em segurança, como ainda por cima se tornam bons cidadãos. Mas ao mesmo tempo nem sequer pensais em fazer com que o Estado [τὸ κοινόν] seja também ele sensato, muito embora faça sentido que sejam as cidades até mais que os indivíduos a praticar as virtudes e a evitar os vícios. Isto porque pode muito bem acontecer que um homem ímpio e corrupto morra antes de pagar a pena dos seus crimes, mas as cidades são imortais, e não têm como evitar submeter-se mais cedo ou mais tarde ao castigo às mãos dos homens e dos deuses.

Isócrates. Sobre a Paz. 119-120. Tradução minha.

Mourning Becomes Electra

ουδεὶς τῶν αγαθῶν γὰρ

ζῶν κακῶς εύκλειαν αισχῦναι θέλει

νώνυμος, ω παῖ παῖ ·

ὡς καὶ σὺ πάγκλαυτον αιῶνα κοινὸν εἵλου,

τὸ μὴ καλὸν καθοπλίσασα δύο φέρειν εν ἑνὶ λόγῳ,

σοφά τ'αρίστα τε παῖς κεκλῆσθαι.

(Sophoclis Electra 1082-1087, edidit Jebb (1894)

The question now arises, what has Electra been doing (in the opinion of the Chorus) in choosing a life of mourning in common with Agamemnon?

The MSS all have τὸ μὴ καλὸν καθοπλίσασα κτλ., and this is translated by all editors (those that is who do not emend the words) more or less as follows: 'having warred down dishonour so as to win a twofold guerdon, namely to be called (once and for all) both a wise and a very good daughter.' But this version (which goes back to the Scholiast, who explains τὸ μὴ καλὸν καθοπλίσασα as καταπολεμήσασα τὸ αισχρόν) gives an unexampled meaning to καθοπλίζω, which elsewhere always means 'equip'. Therefore, the text has been widely suspected, and a number of emendations have been proposed, almost all substituting another word for καθοπλίσασα, meaning 'having conquered', 'rejected', or the like.

The great objection to all these conjectures is that, apart from eliminating the 'good' (i.e. picturesque, descriptive) word καθοπλίσασα (cf. Lloyd-Jones, C.Q. n.s. 4 (1954) 95) they all end up by making the Chorus say that Electra has a right to be called wise as well as good (lit. 'best': but αρίστα here simply replaces αγαθή), because of the fact that, not introducing a negative with καθοπλίσασα, they do not cancel out the result-infinitive (φέρειν) and they thus make Electra win (unqualifiedly) the two prizes, 'being called both wise and good'. That the Chorus should agree that Electra is to be called 'good' is natural and certain. What they cannot possibly declare is that she is also to be called wise, having themselves explicitly or implicitly said that she is not wise (in her present conduct - and what else can they be talking about here?) at 990-1 and 1015-16. The same charge of inconsistency naturally applies also to retaining the MS reading and rendering καθοπλίσασα = καταπολεμήσασα or the like.

What is needed is to emend 1087 in such a way as to introduce a negative along with καθοπλίσασα. This I have done, and have thus, I hope, restored the line. The meaning  now is that Electra has chosen her lot of mourning 'not having armed (or equipped) ignobility (so as) to win two prizes at once [ἑνὶ λόγῳ may mean simply 'on one account', i.e. ἅμα - but the phrases may also mean 'by one argument': cf. below], so as to be called once for all (= the force of the perfect κεκλῆσθαι) a daughter both wise and very good'. For the plural τὰ μὴ καλὰ = 'what is not good' (abstract) cf. 972 τὰ χρηστά, Eur. Hipp. 331 εκ τῶν γὰρ αισχρῶν εσθλὰ μηχανώμεθα. In saying this the Chorus of course are not denying that Electra is 'good'. Far from it! They are just about to say that she is supremely 'good' (1097). What they do deny is that she has tried to combine goodness with wisdom; they are saying that she has not tried to get the best of both of two possible worlds, by appearing both good and wise. For their judgement of course remains that she is imprudent. But they admire her for a lonely excellence, an ancient and unwordly adherence to heroic and aristocratic standards: put in modern terms, c'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre'.

J.H. Kells. Electra - Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. P183-184, comentário a 1077ssq. Cambridge University Press (1973).

ουδεὶς τῶν αγαθῶν ζῶν

κακῶς εύκλειαν αισχῦναι θέλει

νώνυμος, ω παῖ παῖ,

ὡς καὶ σὺ πάγκλαυτον αι-

ῶνα κοινὸν εἵλου,

τὸ μὴ καλ' ου καθοπλίσα-

σα δύο φέρειν εν ἑνὶ λόγῳ,

σοφά τ'αρίστα τε παῖς κεκλῆσθαι.

(Sophoclis Electra 1082-1087, edidit Kells (1973)

Fotograma da gravação da encenação da Elektra de Richard Strauss (1909)

com direcção de Karl Böhm e encenação de Götz Friedrich (1981)

e com Leonie Rysanek no papel de Elektra.

O libretto foi composto por Hoffmannsthal, que se inspirou principalmente em Sófocles.

Foi a primeira ópera que eu vi e ouvi .

A repetição da antiguidade no pico da modernidade

The center of Strauss's reflection is the extraordinary nature of philosophical questioning, whose radicality he contrasted with the moderation required by political action. "The virtue of the philosopher's thought is a certain kind of mania, while the virtue of the philosopher's public speech is sophrosune." [...]

Philosophy necessarily begins with reflection on particulars that lead to awareness of the universal but are never wholly derivable from the universal. No instance of the philosophic life is strictly speaking repeatable, given that it is always a particular life, engaged with particular circumstances, in erotic quest for the universal. Löwith's formulation "repetition of antiquity at the peak of modernity"* spoke to Strauss since it brings forward the essential novelty of what seems to be only a recurrence of the same. The boldness of repetition involves the daring of unorthodox readings. "Who can dare to say that Plato's doctrine of ideas as he intimated it, or Aristotle's doctrine of the nous that does nothing but think itself and is essentially related to the eternal visible universe, is the true teaching?"

Richard Velkley. Heidegger, Strauss, and the Premises of Philosophy: On Original Forgetting. Chicago University Press (2011) P11&163

* Frase que Karl Löwith usa para se referir a Nietzsche.