DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0673
OF THE MISCELLANY CUSTOMS OF GREKC'E.
645
Tlo\hds t'i vf/iy, yupsCoa-Kiia-m t' iyle.
Ah ! wretched me, ah ! my unhappy fate !
With blooming comforts did I once presage
In your young tender years ; I thought, alas '■
What bless'd support 1 should receive when old
From you, the prop of my declining age ;
How you would give me decent obsequies
When I should leave the world, and be no mere. j. a.
Admetus, introduced by the same poet, tells his father, that he being de-
livered over to death by him, there would be no man to take care of him
whilst alive, or pay him due respect after death (1) :
Tei ydp piiTiumv ita.lS'tt.s £x. st' dv pfla'voif
0< ynpc£otTH»<TX!Tl HXl &ctV0VT it CTi
IltptTt\Sptt mu Trpod-foovrctl ysitpov
Oil ydp a-' Xymyi T«rf" tfAM Q-d-^ee Jt{pW
TsOvhk* yip tf» tiiri <r .-
Other sons
Wilt thou not therefore speed thee to beget,
To cherish thy old age, to grace thee dead,
With sumptuous vests, aiid lay thee in the tomb !
That office never shall my hand perform,
For, far as in thee lay, I died. potter.
They were so concerned about these things, that when they undertook
any hazardous enterprise, it was customary to engage some of their friends
to maintain and protect their aged parents. Thus when the Thebans living
in exile at Athens conspired to free their native country from the tyrants
which the Lacedaemonians had imposed on it, they divided themselves in-
to two companies, and agreed that one should endeavour to get into the
city, and surprise their enemies, whilst the other remaining behind in At-
tica, should expect the issue, and provide for the parents and children of
their associates, if they perished in the attempt (2). Euryalus in Virgil,
when going to expose his life to danger, passionately entreats Ascanius, to
comfort and make provision for his mother (3) : the provision made by
children for their parents was termed t£o<ps7a, by the poets ^gs^ripa, or
SgstfT^a, and sometimes S^eVtsk, as we find in Homer (4). To be negli-
gent in this matter was accounted one of the greatest impieties, and most
worthy of divine vengeance : whence Hesiod, enumerating the evils of
the last and iron age, mentions the disobedience and disrespectful beha-
viour of children to their parents as one of the greatest, and which called
to heaven for vengeance (5) : :
--TuptttnccvTet; etti(/.tiaxift Toutac,
Mefji-^ovrm S* dpa. tsc ^otXeiroJc @d£ovr iir'no-ei
ILyiTMoi, oirit sioWs?, fc'tfs f*h o'iyt
T»pttVTi<ra-i Toktufftv dvo SptTTTHplCL Sow.
Nor shall the parent, when his sons are nigh,
Look with the fondness of a parent's eye :
Nor to the sire the son obedience pay,
Nor look with rev'rence on the locks of gray,
But O! regardless of the pow'r divine
With bitter taunts shall load his life's decline. cooke.
|
(1) Alcestide, v. 662.
(2) Plutarchus Pelopida.
13) iEneid. is. v. 283-
(4) Iliad, 5'. v. 478.
(5) Oper. et Dier. lib. i. v. 13.
645
Tlo\hds t'i vf/iy, yupsCoa-Kiia-m t' iyle.
Ah ! wretched me, ah ! my unhappy fate !
With blooming comforts did I once presage
In your young tender years ; I thought, alas '■
What bless'd support 1 should receive when old
From you, the prop of my declining age ;
How you would give me decent obsequies
When I should leave the world, and be no mere. j. a.
Admetus, introduced by the same poet, tells his father, that he being de-
livered over to death by him, there would be no man to take care of him
whilst alive, or pay him due respect after death (1) :
Tei ydp piiTiumv ita.lS'tt.s £x. st' dv pfla'voif
0< ynpc£otTH»<TX!Tl HXl &ctV0VT it CTi
IltptTt\Sptt mu Trpod-foovrctl ysitpov
Oil ydp a-' Xymyi T«rf" tfAM Q-d-^ee Jt{pW
TsOvhk* yip tf» tiiri <r .-
Other sons
Wilt thou not therefore speed thee to beget,
To cherish thy old age, to grace thee dead,
With sumptuous vests, aiid lay thee in the tomb !
That office never shall my hand perform,
For, far as in thee lay, I died. potter.
They were so concerned about these things, that when they undertook
any hazardous enterprise, it was customary to engage some of their friends
to maintain and protect their aged parents. Thus when the Thebans living
in exile at Athens conspired to free their native country from the tyrants
which the Lacedaemonians had imposed on it, they divided themselves in-
to two companies, and agreed that one should endeavour to get into the
city, and surprise their enemies, whilst the other remaining behind in At-
tica, should expect the issue, and provide for the parents and children of
their associates, if they perished in the attempt (2). Euryalus in Virgil,
when going to expose his life to danger, passionately entreats Ascanius, to
comfort and make provision for his mother (3) : the provision made by
children for their parents was termed t£o<ps7a, by the poets ^gs^ripa, or
SgstfT^a, and sometimes S^eVtsk, as we find in Homer (4). To be negli-
gent in this matter was accounted one of the greatest impieties, and most
worthy of divine vengeance : whence Hesiod, enumerating the evils of
the last and iron age, mentions the disobedience and disrespectful beha-
viour of children to their parents as one of the greatest, and which called
to heaven for vengeance (5) : :
--TuptttnccvTet; etti(/.tiaxift Toutac,
Mefji-^ovrm S* dpa. tsc ^otXeiroJc @d£ovr iir'no-ei
ILyiTMoi, oirit sioWs?, fc'tfs f*h o'iyt
T»pttVTi<ra-i Toktufftv dvo SptTTTHplCL Sow.
Nor shall the parent, when his sons are nigh,
Look with the fondness of a parent's eye :
Nor to the sire the son obedience pay,
Nor look with rev'rence on the locks of gray,
But O! regardless of the pow'r divine
With bitter taunts shall load his life's decline. cooke.
|
(1) Alcestide, v. 662.
(2) Plutarchus Pelopida.
13) iEneid. is. v. 283-
(4) Iliad, 5'. v. 478.
(5) Oper. et Dier. lib. i. v. 13.