Key to Reading Unit 21

1. It is not possible for mortals to fight against the gods.

2. In the face of such [a situation] one must bite one's lip (lit. mouth).

3. It is not possible that a man who has not been ruled [can] rule well.

4. My son, may you be more fortunate than your father, but in other respects like [him], for (lit. and) [so] you would not be base.

5. Since I have the chance to rule, shall I ever be this man's slave?

6. So let none of you speak in opposition or interrupt before/until you know what is intended (lit. the intention) and have listened to the explanation (lit.. the man who explains).

7. There are many diverse [moods] in Aphrodite; for in particular she both delights and grieves mortal men. May I experience (lit. get) her when she is well-disposed.

8. The man who reveres his parents in life is dear to the gods both alive and dead; but may the man who refuses to honour his parents neither join in sacrifice to the gods with me nor share a voyage with me on the sea. (Euripides fragment 852)

9. May it be [given] to my enemies to have a hostile wife.

10. Just as our body is not everlasting (lit. mortal), so it is fitting that the man who knows how to be sensible does not keep his anger for ever (lit. immortal) either.

11. I proclaim one thing alone to you: never willingly go alive to slavery, if you have the chance to die free.

12. Would that the ship Argo (lit. of Argo) had not winged her way through the dark-blue Clashing Rocks to the Colchians' land and that the pine had never been cut and fallen in the glades of Pelion nor furnished with oars the hands of the heroes who went to fetch the golden fleece for Pelias. (Euripides Medea 1-6)

13. Indeed Socrates was accustomed to say, ' The nature of one's words is the same as one's life; and the nature of one's actions the same as one's words.' (lit. of what sort is life, of such a sort also speech; and of what sort speech, of such a sort also is action(s))

14. The moment he saw me (lit. immediately having seen me) Cephalus greeted me, saying, 'You don't often (lit. are not accustomed to) come down to the Piraeus to [see] us. But you should. For if I were still able to make the journey easily to the city, there would be no need for you to come here, but we would go to you. As it is, you should come here more often. For, I assure you (lit. know well that), in my case, in proportion as the physical (lit. with respect to the body) pleasures wither away, so do my desire for and pleasure in conversation increase. So don't do anything else, but associate with these young men and visit us here as [you would] friends and close relatives.' 'Yes, Cephalus,' I said, ' and I do enjoy conversing with the very old. For I think that we should learn from them, as from men who have preceded us along a road which we too will have to travel, what sort of road it is, rough and difficult or easy and pleasant to travel.' (Adapted from Plato Republic 328 C-E)

15. But when day with her white steeds covered all the land, brilliant to see, first of all a resounding (lit. resoundingly) shout rang out triumphantly like a song from the Greeks, and at the same time the echo resounded loudly from the rock of the island, and fear was present among all the barbarians, mistaken in their judgement; for the Greeks then were not chanting the holy paean as in flight, but advancing to battle with courageous boldness. The trumpet set all those parts ablaze with its blare; and immediately, pulling together with their plashing oars (lit. with pulling together of plashing oar), they smote the deep sea at the word of command. Swiftly they were all manifest to see: first of all in good formation the right wing led the way in order , then the whole fleet came out to the attack, and at the same time one could hear a great shout: 'Sons of the Greeks, go [forth] and free your native land, free your wives and children and the dwelling-places of your ancestral gods and the tombs of your ancestors. Now is the struggle for all.' (Aeschylus Persians 386-405)

(c) Gavin Betts, Alan Henry 2001