[B-Greek] Was there any word for ...
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Oct 26 09:39:24 EDT 2010
On Oct 26, 2010, at 9:05 AM, James Spinti wrote:
> There is a delightful snippet in N.T. Wright's "Justification" that sums up the problem nicely, too:
>
> This situation, frustrating and confusing to those without Greek and even to some who have it, is further complicated by the tendency for words, like bright three-year-olds, not to sit still where you told them to, but to wander around the room, start fiddling with things they weren't supposed to touch, form new friendships (especially when they bump into their Latin cousins, but that's another story) and generally enjoy themselves at the expense of the exegete who is trying to keep them under control.—Justification, page 89
>
> Having several grandchildren in that age range makes this word picture all the more delightful :)
That's nice; need I say that the grandchildren need not be so young as "bright three-year olds," and further, that it is true of children, aye, and even of so-called "grownups." I have remarked, on more than one occasion, that I never was quite sure about the doctrine of original sin before I had my own children. Perhaps words too are subject to that primeval curse?
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Carl Conrad
> Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 8:54 AM
> To: James Ernest
> Cc: B-GREEK list
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Was there any word for ...
>
> On Oct 26, 2010, at 7:22 AM, James Ernest wrote:
>> John,
>> If I were pursuing the question you pose, I think I would start by rereading
>> Plato's Symposium. I'm not sure whether it will answer your question, or
>> lead you to revise it, or neither. But that's where I'd look. At worst,
>> you'll be reading some lovely (pun intended) Greek.
>
> Indeed, and, for what it's worth, it was through a careful reading of the
> Symposium that I came to see that Anders Nygren's insistence that ERWS
> is fundamentally a selfish love of the other for one's own benefit, is not
> quite adequate to Plato's handling of the word. The problem here is that
> one tends to think of ERWS as exploitative and sexual, although in Plato
> it becomes mutually beneficent and generative of shared good. The
> repercussions of Plato's notion of ERWS are to be noted in Aristotle's
> notion of the unmoved mover of the universe (κινεῖ ὡς ἐρώμενον,
> ΚΙΝΕΙ hWS ERWMENON) in the Metaphysics, and Dante's final-line
> vision of "l'amor che muove il sole e l'altre stelle" in the Paradiso.
> An endeavor to define Greek words for "love" in a carefully-nuanced
> fashion may readily founder on a discovery that usage is not consistent
> among all Greek authors nor necessarily consistent within a particular
> Greek author.
>
> T. S. Eliot in Quartet #1, "Burnt Norton" writes:
>
> "Words strain,
> Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
> Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
> Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
> Will not stay still."
>
> Even to Greek, that paragon of precise discourse, Eliot's
> words appear readily applicable. Seems to me that the
> subject-header of this thread is extraordinarily apt!
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list