Latin Quotes Worth Knowing About: You See a Louse on Someone Else, You don't see a Tick on Yourself!

In the Satyricon (57), Petronius writes:


In alio pediculum vides, in te ricinum non vides!
You see a louse on someone else. You don't see a tick on yourself! 


This is startlingly similar to the sentiment expressed in Matthew 7:3:


τι δε βλεπεις το καρφος το εν τω οφθαλμω του αδελφου σου την δε εν τω σω οφθαλμω δοκον ου κατανοεις?
Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but you do not notice the log that is is in your own eye?

This Latin quote implies an ancient awareness that tick-borne illnesses were more dangerous than those on lice. Otzi the Iceman himself tests positive as being the oldest known case of Lyme Disease.

In the final analysis, the advice is as pertinent to us as moderns as it was to those living two thousand years ago--Do not judge others. Examine only yourself. Make corrections as necessary. Rinse. Repeat.

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If you're interested in Latin or ancient history, or even just an entertaining read, check out the time-travel thriller In Saecula Saeculorum. Click to learn more.

It's a bargain at 0.99 cents on Kindle (or affordably priced at $11.90 on paperback). 

You'll travel back to ancient Rome on a harrowing mission to save the modern world. It's the adventure of four lifetimes.

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Latin Worth Knowing: When in Rome, do as the Romans do...

If you search online for the Latin original of this well-known adage, you will find it rendered as:

si fueris Rōmae, Rōmānō vīvitō mōre; si fueris alibī, vīvitō sicut ibi.

"If you are at Rome, live in the Roman style; if you are elsewhere, live as they live there."

This quote is attributed to St. Ambrose, but this particular Latin formulation is of early modern origin (vid. Ductor Dubitantium, Jeremy Taylor [1660].

The actual authentic Latin language antecedent of the sentiment is what is most worth knowing.

St. Augustine, with his mother St. Monica, was visiting Rome. The Roman Christians fasted on Saturday. That was not the custom elsewhere. His scrupulous mother wanted to know what they should do. So Augustine asked his mentor St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. His response was:

Cum Romam venio, ienuno Sabbato. Cum hic sum, non ienuno; Sic etiam tu, ad quam forte Ecclesiam veneris, eius morem serva, si cuiquam non vis esse scandalo, nec quemquam tibi. (Epistle to Januarius 2.3)

When I come to Rome, I fast on the Sabbath. When I am here (in Milan), I don't fast; Thus also (should) you (do), to what Church, by chance, you come, observe its custom, if you want to neither be a scandal to someone, nor someone (give scandal) to you.

I'm an Eastern Orthodox Christian of Lutheran heritage and nurture, married to a New Calendar Romanian Orthodox, communing in an Old Calendar (12 day tardy) Russian Orthodox Church.  

I joke, therefore, that I start the fasts with the Russians, and I end them with the Romanians.

But seriously, then as now, St. Ambrose points out that the fasts, as with the Sabbaths, were made for Man, not Man for them. Serve God to the best of your ability. Give no one offense. 

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If you're interested in Latin or ancient history, or even just an entertaining read, check out the time-travel thriller In Saecula Saeculorum. Click to learn more.

It's a bargain at 0.99 cents on Kindle (or affordably priced at $11.90 on paperback). 

You'll travel back to ancient Rome on a harrowing mission to save the modern world. It's the adventure of four lifetimes.

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Latin Worth Knowing: Stultum est Timere Quod Vitare non Potes - It is Stupid to Fear that which you Can not Avoid...

It's a delightful quote grammatically, with infinitives abounding and exhibiting irregular verb forms well worth knowing.

Stultum est timere quod vitare non potes. 
It is foolish to fear that which you cannot avoid.
Publilius Syrus, Sententiae 752

Let's be honest, what is it that no one can avoid?

Death.

At face value, we can almost buy into the sentiment Publius Syrus states. Mark Twain said:

"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

But all that said, I rather enjoy my sense of consciousness. It's really all I have.

And I don't enjoy the notion that it could be snuffed out to oblivion. The difference between ten thousand years ago and now is that--I am. I think. I dream. I screw up royally, oh yes I do. But I still try. I love. I forgive.

So, I was not dead ten thousand years ago, Mr. Twain. I simply didn't exist back then. I do exist now, as you also did some years back. And I don't want that consciousness to end. Ever. It's precious to me. Again, it's all I have.

Years and years ago, children were taught to nightly pray:

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take."

 That's real. That's people, even young people, living the reality of their frail existence.

My own mother, of blessed memory, however, taught us a less morbid version and had us pray it nightly:

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
Guide me safely through the night,
Wake me with the morning light."

I am a participant in a religion, Eastern Orthodoxy to be specific. My religion teaches that my consciousness will not end upon my physical death.

Some days, I believe. Many days, I doubt. All days, I hope.

St. Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians 13:13:

"There are three things that remain: Faith, Hope, and Love. And the greatest of These is Love."

If the greatest of those is love, then it would seem to follow that hope is greater than faith.

Hope I have. And I try to love.

And so, when I die, as I unavoidably one day will, I hope it is all true. The Gospel, the Sacraments, the Story of a God-Turned-Human, the Church. 

St. Paul wrote that:

"If the dead are not raised, then Christ was not raised...and we are of all people most to be pitied." (1 Corinthians 15:16-19)

But the fact is, if death is extinction, then all of us who have ever looked into a mirror--and smiled--we are all to be pitied.

We lose nothing by hoping otherwise... 

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If you're interested in Latin or ancient history, or even just an entertaining read, check out the time-travel thriller In Saecula Saeculorum. Click to learn more.

It's a bargain at 0.99 cents on Kindle (or affordably priced at $11.90 on paperback). 

You'll travel back to ancient Rome on a harrowing mission to save the modern world. It's the adventure of four lifetimes.

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Latin Worth Knowing: Nulla Dies Sine Linea - No Day Without a Line

I learned this quote from a dear man, David McCarthy, PhD, who taught me Syriac at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He died before the world was ready for him to pass, but that is too often the way of the world.

The quote comes to us from Pliny the Elder, who translates it from the Greek of the artist Apeles:

Nulla dies sine linea 
Not a day without a line
Apeles, Greek painter, quoted by Pliny, Natural History 35.36

The artist Apeles means this to refer only to art. An artist should not let a single day pass without drawing something, even a single line on the medium.

But Dr. McCarthy cast a wonderful secondary sense upon it. Those of you who love languages, who love Scripture, who love learning of any topic whatsoever--never let a day pass without a line. 

A line, a single line of text in that language you want to keep in your heart. A line of Scripture, open the Bible and read just a bit of what you see. Whatever it is you want to keep strong in ability, do just even a little bit of it every day.

Who am I to tell you all this? A shameful hypocrite. I haven't read so much as a line of the Syriac Dr. McCarthy taught me in--no more lying--years.

[Five Minutes Later]

I've just remedied that. I just read Matthew 1:1 in Syriac. 

In other words, I've just read a line. Tomorrow is another day.

Requiescas in pace, David. Memory Eternal. May you be in a Place of Brightness, a Place of Verdure, a Place of Repose.

I promise you, David, tomorrow, I will read another line...

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If you're interested in Latin or ancient history, or even just an entertaining read, check out the time-travel thriller In Saecula Saeculorum. Click to learn more.

It's a bargain at 0.99 cents on Kindle (or affordably priced at $11.90 on paperback). 

You'll travel back to ancient Rome on a harrowing mission to save the modern world. It's the adventure of four lifetimes.

________________________________________________________________

 

Latin Worth Knowing: Davus sum, non Oedipus - I'm Davus, not Oedipus

Oedipus, for all of his other Oedipal failings, solved the riddle of the Sphinx:

"What is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?"

He solves it, "A man, who as a baby crawls on all fours, then walks on two feet, and then, in old age, adds a cane."

The Sphinx, in despair that someone solved the riddle, commits suicide. 

The Roman playwright Terence, in his play Andria 1.2, has the trickster slave, when asked to solve a problem, utter the delightful response:

Davus sum, non Oedipus.
"I'm Davus, not Oedipus."

This quote, useful I guess now only within the most erudite settings, can be employed when one is asked to speak to an area far outside their area of expertise. 

My high school Latin students typically are working levels of mathematics far beyond what I was required even for my BA degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987. And I have said, when asked by one of them, "Hey, Dr. Massey, can you help me with Calculus?"

"Davus sum, non Oedipus."

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If you're interested in Latin or ancient history, or even just an entertaining read, check out the time-travel thriller In Saecula Saeculorum. Click to learn more.

It's a bargain at 0.99 cents on Kindle (or affordably priced at $11.90 on paperback). 

You'll travel back to ancient Rome on a harrowing mission to save the modern world. It's the adventure of four lifetimes.

________________________________________________________________

Latin Quotes Worth Knowing: Gladiator in arena consilium capit - The Gladiator makes his plan in the Arena

This is a delightful quote, embodying both key vocabulary and a crucially important lesson on life.

Gladiator in arena consilium capit.
The Gladiator makes (his) plan in the Arena. 
(Seneca, Epistolae 22.1)

The point being, making a plan in the arena is too late! One needs to plan ahead in order to succeed.

Nota Bene, the Latin idiom to "take" (capere) a plan (consilium) rather than the English idiom "to make a plan." 

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If you're interested in Latin or ancient history, or even just an entertaining read, check out the time-travel thriller In Saecula Saeculorum. Click to learn more.

It's a bargain at 0.99 cents on Kindle (or affordably priced at $11.90 on paperback). 

You'll travel back to ancient Rome on a harrowing mission to save the modern world. It's the adventure of four lifetimes.

________________________________________________________________

How Do You Say "Snow" in Latin? In Indo-European?

Since I'm sitting looking out the window at a blizzard unfolding, I was reflecting on the word for snow in Latin and how it survives in related languages.

My car. Right now.

The word for snow in Latin in nix (nivis in the genitive case). Based on the nominative form nix we might assume the word is from the root nig- or nic- (compare rex, regis, 'king' and pax, pacis, 'peace'). But the genitive form nivis seems to imply that the root is niv-, also implied by the adjective niveus, 'snowy-white'.

On the other hand, the Latin verb 'to snow' is ninguo, ninguere. 

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If you're interested in Latin or ancient history, or even just an entertaining read, check out the time-travel thriller In Saecula Saeculorum. Click to learn more.

It's a bargain at 0.99 cents on Kindle (or affordably priced at $11.90 on paperback). 

You'll travel back to ancient Rome on a harrowing mission to save the modern world. It's the adventure of four lifetimes.

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Our English word snow is a cognate with nivis, sharing the n and the w sound (v was pronounced as a w in Classical times).  This would seem to be yet further evidence that the original Indo-European root indeed was niv-.

But then the Romance languages themselves muddy the waters.  In Spanish we have nieve, a vote for niv-. Italian has neve. But then French has neige. Romanian has nins, but also the word zăpadă, which means snow after it has fallen on the ground. But the verb 'to snow' in Romanian in ninge. 

The solution to this mystery comes when we broaden the study to the wider Indo-European language family. 

When I embark on a philological adventure, I run straight to Lithuanian. Somehow that language preserved a baffling degree of linguistic antiquity. I have a Lithuanian friend, Elisa, an astounding linguist who speaks her native Lithuanian, but also Russian, Spanish, French, Esperanto, and English.

The word for snow in Lithuanian is sniegas.

The Russian word is снег (sneg).

Scholars of Indo-European have concluded that the original Indo-European word for snow has the root form *sneigwh. Some languages kept the initial s. Others preserved the g in various forms. Other forms lost the g but kept the w.

One thing we can conclude from the existence of an Indo-European word for snow is that they saw the stuff wherever their homeland was. Unfortunately, this fact does not really tip the scales at all for the various proponents of either an Anatolian origin or the Pontic Steppe. 

But either way, it's amazing to consider that as much as ten thousand years ago, one of my distant ancestors looked out the opening of her tent and saw a scene similar to what I see out my window. She called the stuff *sneigwh. I still call it snow.

For your amusement, my Latin language version of "Do You Want To Build a Snowman?"

Latin Worth Knowing: Potius Sero Quam Numquam - Better Late Than Never

I'm a procrastinator. I'm not going to lie. I have been all my life and, at this writing I'm 49 years old and I expect to be a procrastinator for all of the uncertain number of days and years I have left.

And that's why it's important to focus on the Latin quote:

Potius Sero Quam Numquam
"Better Late Than Never."

It comes to us from Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 4.2.

These are true and important words spoken across the millennia. Plan accordingly... 

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If you're interested in Latin or ancient history, or even just an entertaining read, check out the time-travel thriller In Saecula Saeculorum. Click to learn more.

It's a bargain at 0.99 cents on Kindle (or affordably priced at $11.90 on paperback). 

You'll travel back to ancient Rome on a harrowing mission to save the modern world. It's the adventure of four lifetimes.

________________________________________________________________

 

Latin Worth Knowing About: sunt pueri pueri. pueri puerilia tractant

sunt pueri pueri. pueri puerilia tractant.

This is a Medieval maxim of uncertain provenance.

The first part of this is a tautology. "Boys are boys." But we, of course, understand what this actually means. We have our own similar tautology: "Boys will be boys," i.e., boys will behave like boys--loud, rude, hyperactive, even violent. I can say this. I used to be a boy.

The second part, pueri puerilia tractant, essentially unpacks the tautology--"Boys carry out childish things."

Another Medieval variant reads:

sunt pueri pueri. vivunt iuveniliter illi.
"Boys are boys. They live youthfully."

While we're on the subject, enjoy another late Medieval celebration of youth, Gaudeamus Igitur!

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If you're interested in Latin or ancient history, or even just an entertaining read, check out the time-travel thriller In Saecula Saeculorum. Click to learn more.

It's a bargain at 0.99 cents on Kindle (or affordably priced at $11.90 on paperback). 

You'll travel back to ancient Rome on a harrowing mission to save the modern world. It's the adventure of four lifetimes.

________________________________________________________________

KIC 8462852, Tabby's Star: Randomness - An Explanation

KIC 8462852, aka Tabby's Star has gained attention as a possible proof of extraterrestrial life. 

The following short story presents a potential description of the aliens' back story.

 Randomness

“I know we don’t have a lot of time,” Crulax said rubbing a tear from her eye. “But let’s recount once more our rationale for this measure.”

Spru nodded and mustered, despite it all, a simple smile across his chest. “It’s a message to all the intelligent life in our galaxy, even hundreds and thousands of years into the future." He glanced around the room, a darkened confusion of circuits. "Don’t follow in our footsteps.” 

“But why do we conclude they can know what we became?” Priya asked. She already knew the answer. She herself was the one who had proposed the controversial measure.

Crulax closed her eye and took a deep breath. “Any intelligent life out there capable of observing what we leave here will have already learned that interstellar travel is unfeasible. You can launch intergenerational missions to the star next door, but the light barrier is insurmountable.”

“And that means…” Spru started.

“Everyone is alone,” Priya stated.

A moment of silence.

“How did we get to this juncture?” Crulax asked.

Spru looked to the ceiling and sighed. “Our divorce from nature, from our home world, which we depleted, led to ever grander living structures in orbit of our sun. Today five thousand or so modules, each one significantly larger than our home world, orbit at varying distances.”

“And what do neighboring stars conclude right now when they observe the light of our star?” Priya asked. Even she now smiled, realizing the import of the moment.

Her eye was still filled with tears, but Crulax was resolved and calm. “They conclude this system is full of regularly orbiting planets and comets. And that is why we three, the last remaining of our species, must do this thing.”

“Far too late,” Spru began, “we learned that living beings are a part of the planet that bore them. We waged wars against the viral diseases that stream through the universe. We eventually lost. Only now we know that it was our home world that gave us immunity.”

Another moment of silence.

Crulax herself now finally smiled, though tears still flowed from her eye. “We know we have to do this thing. We know that we three have just days left to live. We are going to send a transmission to all the empty orbiting modules to randomly change their speed.”

Priya actually laughed out loud. “We have the ability to send an SOS out to the entire galaxy. We have to believe, have to hope, that when intelligent beings see that the light of our sun drops by 20% at random levels, that they will draw what we know is the only rational conclusion.”

“Randomness is only produced by a mind,” Spru said. 

“Planets and comets orbit regularly. We have to hope that the randomness is what intelligent beings will notice. It can only mean that a race of people have a left a warning beacon.”

“Again,” Priya blurted, “ What do they conclude?”

A final moment of silence.

Crulax nodded. “Working backwards. A random drop in light is the mark of a mind. And it is obviously produced by a mind with a message. And that message can only be that extra-planetary existence is doomed. And so, we three have agreed, before we die, we send the signal. The modules will now randomly change their speed, producing a light-signature we can only hope other systems will see. And if they read it right, they will choose to nurture the planet they inhabit, rather than deplete it and then abandon it.”

Spru smiled a final time. “I love you all. And I love them.”