The Death of Marcus Aurelius

The Death of Marcus Aurelius

Friday, January 27, 2023

Delphic Maxims 8


Σαυτὸν ἴσθι 
Be yourself 

IMAGE: Jules Bastien-Lepage, Diogenes (1873) 



2 comments:

  1. It's know thyself which is totally different

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    Replies
    1. Good morning,

      I am not a scholar of Ancient Greek, and I bow to your wisdom if you are. Yet I did my due diligence over the years on this, and Σαυτὸν ἴσθι, as I find it listed in Stobaeus, is regularly translated with either "know" or "be". It was once explained to me this way:

      Σαυτον: This is a contraction of σεαυτον, the reflexive second person pronoun of yourself.
      ισθι: This is the imperative of ειδω (know) or of ειμι, συμ (be).

      I chose to go with "be" here simply because I found this version to be the more common. It's funny, because I had hunch someone might object!

      Whatever the admitted subtleties of the Ancient Greek, "know" and "be" are, for our human nature, not "totally different" at all. If you are assuming some sort of hippy-dippy association with the latter expression, know that this in your own associations, not in the original.

      You are always welcome to properly introduce yourself and engage in a friendly conversation, but this blog isn't a place for anonymous trolling, and is instead intended for quiet reflection. You will find more success on the Facebook groups or on Twitter if curt corrections are your thing.

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