Posted by:
anybody
(
)
Date: August 15, 2019 07:56AM
"Μήπως ενώ έχουμε πεθάνει ζούμε μόνο κατά φαντασίαν,
εμείς οι Έλληνες, που έχουμε περιπέσει σε συμφορά
νομίζοντας ότι η ζωή είναι όνειρο;
Ή ζούμε εμείς, και έχει αποθάνει η ζωή;"
Παλλαδάς ο Αλεξανδρεύς - αναφερόμενος στην καταστροφή του Ελληνισμού
"Is it true that we Greeks are really dead and only seem alive -
in our fallen state where we imagine that dream is life?
Or are we truly alive and is life dead?"
-- Palladas of Alexandria
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PalladasThere is little direct allusion in his epigrams to the struggle against the onslaught of Christianity. One epigram speaks obscurely of the destruction of the "idols" of Alexandria popular in the archiepiscopate of Theophilus in 389; another in even more enigmatic language (Anth. Gr. 10.90) seems to be a bitter attack on the doctrine of the Resurrection; and a scornful couplet against the swarms of Egyptian monks might have been written by a Reformer of the 16th century. For the most part his sympathy with the losing side is only betrayed in his despondency over all things. But it is in his criticism of life that the power of Palladas lies; with a remorselessness like that of Jonathan Swift he tears the coverings from human frailty and holds it up in its meanness and misery. The lines on the Descent of Man (Anth. Gr. 10.45), fall as heavily on the Neo-Platonic martyr as on the Christian persecutor, and remain even now among the most mordant and crushing sarcasms ever passed upon mankind.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2019 07:59AM by anybody.