Zibaldone

by Leopardi, Giacomo

  Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, speaking about the souls who are in Elysium: “Pars alias artes, antiquae imitamina vitae, / Exercent,” etc. [“Some devote themselves to the activities of their former life”].3 See this passage. See p. 4210, paragraph 4.

  For p. 4196, end. “τὴν δὲ θρησκείαν ὁ ἀνὴρ” (᾿Ιωάννης Λαυρέντιος φιλαδελφεὺς ὁ Λυδὸς) “ἔοικε δεισιδαίμων” (superstitiosus) “εἶναι. σέβεται μὲν τὰ ῾Ελλήνων καὶ θειάζει, θειάζει δὲ καὶ τὰ ἡμέτερα· μὴ διδοὺς τοῖς ἀναγινώσκουσιν ἐκ τοῦ ῥᾴστου συμβαλεῖν πότερον οὕτω νομίζων θειάζει, ἢ ὡς ἐπὶ σκηνῆς” (simulate) [“in religion he” (Joannes Laurentius Lydus of Philadelphia) “seems to be superstitious, because he respects and honors the beliefs of the Greeks, but he also honors ours, without letting his readers easily decide whether he honors them by conviction or as one who plays a part”]. Photius, codex 180, end.4

  “περιεῖχε” (Apollodori Bibliotheca) “τὰ παλαίτατα τῶν ῾Ελλήνων, ὅσα τὲ περὶ θεῶν καὶ ἡρώων ὁ χρόνος αὐτοῖς δοξάζειν” (i.e., μυθολογεῖν, etc.) ἔδωκεν” [“It” (Apollodorus’s Bibliotheca) “contained the most ancient stories of Greece: everything which the time led them to believe” (i.e., to narrate) “about gods and heroes”]. Ibid., codex 186, end. See p. 4210.

  Conon in Photius, Bibliotheca, codex 186, narrative 10, calls the king of the Thracian Chersonese, father of Pallene, Οἴθων (Οἴθωνα) [Oithon], whom Stephanus of Byzantium, under Παλλήνη, calls with an initial sigma Σίθων (Σίθωνα) [Sithon], and likewise Parthenius in the ἐρωτικῶν [Erotica Pathemata], ch. 6. (Σίθονα.)5 (Bologna, 30 Sept. 1826.)

  [4209] Plat, noun and adjective, piatto (English flat) (see the Spanish) — πλάτος, πλατὺς. Photius, Bibliotheca, codex 186, Greek-Latin ed., col. 444. “πλατεῖ τῷ ξίφει οὐκ ἐθέλοντα προιέναι, τύπτων τὰ νῶτα, ἤλαυνεν” “he pushed him forward, when he did not want to go on, hitting him on the back with the flat of his sword,” colla spada piatta, col piatto della spada, a forza di piattonate, battendolo colla spada di piatto.1 (Bologna, 2 Oct. 1826.) See the following page.

  For p. 4194. Photius, Bibliotheca, codex 186, summarizing the διηγήσεις or Narratives of Conon, Greek-Latin ed., cols. 449–52, narrative 43, writes: “Η μγ.' Οἱ τῆς Αἴτνης τοῦ πυρὸς κρατῆρες ἀνέβλυσάν ποτε” (effuderunt) “ποταμοῦ δίκην, φλόγα κατὰ τῆς χώρας, καὶ Καταναίοις (πόλις δ' ῾Ελλὰς ἐν Σικελίᾳ ἡ Κατάνη), ἔδοξε παντελὴς ἔσεσθαι φθορὰ τῆς πόλεως. καὶ ἀπὸ ταύτης φεύγοντες ὡς εἶχον τάχους, οἱ μὲν χρυσὸν, οἱ δὲ ἄργυρον ἔφερον, οἱ δὲ ὅ τι ἄν τις βούλοιτο ἐπικούρημα τῆς φυγῆς.” (subsidium in exsilio allatura). “᾿Αναπίας δὲ καὶ ᾿Αμφίνομος ἀντὶ πάντων τοὺς γονεῖς γηραιοὺς ὄντας ἐπὶ τοὺς ὤμους ἀναθέμενοι ἔφευγον. καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἄλλους ἡ φλὸξ ἐπικαταλαβοῦσα, ἔφθειρεν. αὐτοὺς δὲ περιεσχίσθη τὸ πῦρ, καὶ ὥσπερ νῆσος ἐν τῇ φλογὶ πᾶς ὁ περὶ αὐτοὺς χῶρος ἐγένετο. διὰ ταῦτα οἱ Σικελιῶται τόν τε χῶρον ἐκεῖνον, εὐσεβῶν χώραν ἐκάλεσαν, καὶ λιθίνας εἰκόνας ἐν αὐτῷ τῶν ἀνδρῶν τῷ μνημείῳ” (in monumento), “θείων τε ἅμα καὶ ἀνθρωπίνων ἔργων” (Schottus suppl. testes), “ἀνέθεσαν” (*“Strabo, bk. 6, Sicily, Catania; Seneca, De beneficiis, bk. 3, ch. 37; Silius, bk. 14 and the author of Aetna in Catalecta Virgiliana,”* Schottus’s marginal note on the words Anapias et Amphinomus).a2 [“XLIII. The craters of fire on Etna once threw up some real rivers of fire over the region, and the people of Catania (Catania is a Greek town in Sicily) thought their town would be completely destroyed. They fled as quickly as they could, some carried away gold, others silver, and others everything that could be useful for them in exile. And Anapias and Amphinomus, by preference to all else, carried their old parents on their shoulders as they fled. Now, all the others, overwhelmed by the flames, perished. Where the two young men were, the fire parted and the ground around them became an island in the flames. That is why the people of Sicily called this place the land of the righteous and erected there some statues in stone of the two men, in memory of such deeds, at once human and divine”]. Which version has been plagiarized, this one or the one of Aeneas? (Bologna, 1826, 2 October.) Other such plagiarized tales, traditions, parallel stories are very frequent in Greek history, especially when they refer to the origins or memorable events in the history of [4210] different cities in Greece or Greek cities. See pp. 4213, 4224, 4225, end.

  For p. 4208, end. “ἔχει γὰρ” (he is speaking about a work of Ptolemy Hephaestion) “δοῦναι βραχεῖ χρόνῳ συνειλεγμένα εἰδέναι, ἃ σποράδην τὶς τῶν βιβλίων ἀναλέγειν πόνον δεδεγμένος, μακρὸν κατατρίψει χρόνον” [“Here” (he is speaking about a work of Ptolemy Hephaestion) “is a ready supply of collected items of knowledge which, scattered all over the place, it would take a diligent worker much longer to gather together from various books”].1 “Brevi enim tempore, collecta simul, cognoscenda suppeditat quae nonnisi longo temporis intervallo quispiam per libros passim dispersa laboriose comportare possit.” (Schottus) Ibid., codex 190, beginning, col. 472. See the following page.

  Tè, popular word for tieni, prendi [take it]. See Crusca. —Τῆ. Homer, Odyssey 9, 347.

  For the preceding page. That this is the meaning of the phrase πλατεῖ τῷ ξίφει τύπτειν is clear from the context, where it turns out to be the opposite of ἀναιρεῖν τῷ ξίφει [to kill with the sword]2 and πληγὴν (that is, ferita [wound]) ἐμβαλεῖν τῷ ξίφει [to inflict a wound with the sword] with the intention of killing. Schottus translates gladii lamina verberans. I wonder if he understood the meaning properly, since he has not noted the Italianism, Gallicism, etc., in the phrase of Photius (or Conon, whom Photius summarizes).

  For p. 4208, paragraph 1. And that is not all; they thought as well that souls fell in love with one another, copulated and had children. Ptolemy Hephaestion in the fourth book περὶ τῆς εἰς πολυμάθειαν καινῆς ἱστορίας (Novae ad variam eruditionem historiae) [New History Intended for Scholarship] in Photius, codex 190, Greek-Latin ed., col. 480, writes “ὡς ῾Ελένης καὶ ᾿Αχιλλέως ἐν μακάρων νήσοις παῖς πτερωτὸς γεγόνοι” (cum alis) “ὃν διὰ τὸ τῆς χώρας εὔφορον” (fertilitatem), “Εὐφορίωνα ὠνόμασαν. καὶ ὡς ἐρᾷ τούτου Ζεὺς, καὶ ἀποτυχών,” (minime potiens) “κεραυνοῖ ἐν Μήλῳ τῇ νήσῳ καταλαβὼν διωκόμενον. καὶ τὰς νύμφας, ὅτι θάψειαν αὐτόν, εἰς βατράχους μετέβαλε” [“There was born of Helen and Achilles in the Islands of the Blessed a winged child named Euphorion after the fertility of the land; Zeus fell in love with him, and when his love was not returned, he chased after him and struck him down with a thunderbolt on the Island of Melos, and he transformed the nymphs there into frogs when they gave him a proper burial”]. (Bologna, 3 Oct. 1826.)

  Juillet [July].

  For p. 4167. Aristides, Oration εἰς βασιλέα [“To the King”] (Marcus Aurelius), ed. Canter, tome 1, pp. 114–15.3 “ἀπελθούσης τῆς Βρισηΐδος παρ' αὐτοῦ” (Αχιλλέως),
“καὶ χρόνον [4211] τινὰ ποιησάσης παρ' ᾿Αγαμέμνονι” (cum Agamemnon vixisset. Canter) [“Briseis having left Achilles, and having lived for some time with Agamemnon…”].

  Fare for giovare, servire [to be useful, to be good for]. Photius, codex 190, end, col. 493, Greek-Latin ed. “ἐν τούτῳ” (τῷ ἰχθῦϊ) “λίθον εὑρίσκεσθαι” (φησὶ Πτολεμαῖος ὁ ῾Ηφαιστίων) “τὸν ἀστερίτην, ὃν εἰς ἥλιον τεθέντα, ἀνάπτεσθαι” (incendi) “ποιεῖν δὲ καὶ πρὸς φίλτρον” (valere etiam ad philtrum. Schottus) [“in the body” (of the fish), “one finds a stone,” (says Ptolemy Hephaestion) “the asterites, which, when placed in the sun, catches fire; it works as well against charms”]. See p. 4225.

  Thus, redundant. “Καὶ ἡ μεταφορὰ αὐτῷ τῶν λέξεων οὐκ εἰς τὸ χάριεν καὶ γεγοητευμένον περιήνθισται, ἄλλ' οὕτως ἁπλῶς καὶ ἀπεριμερίμνως παραλαμβάνεται” [“And his way of using words in a figurative sense has no flowery grace or charm, it is thus very simple and straightforward”]. Where Schottus quite incorrectly translates οὕτως further on, not having understood its meaning, nor that of the following sentence, which should read ὃ δ' ἐγγὺς for ὁ δ' ἐγγὺς, and not as Schottus corrects.1 Photius, Codex 192, col. 501, Greek-Latin ed. See p. 4224.

  “Ταῦτα μὲν, εἰ καὶ κατὰ τὸ μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον ἀλλήλων διαφέροντα, ὅμως εἰς τὴν πρακτικὴν χειραγωγεῖ φιλοσοφίαν τὰ ὀκτὼ τῶν λογίων.”2 “These eight books” (λόγοι ἀσκητικοὶ [ascetic books] of one Mark the Monk) “all lead, although with the difference between them that they do it to a greater or lesser degree, or are conducive, to the exercise of practical philosophy” (meaning the Christian and ascetic virtues). Photius, codex 200, toward the end, col. 522, Greek-Latin ed. Schottus mistranslates: “Qui quidem octo libri, etsi plus minusve sint inter se diversi; omnes tamen ad operantem sapientiam quasi manu ducunt.” (Bologna, 4 Oct., Feast of St. Petronius, 1826.) See following page.

  For p. 4165, paragraph 3. Similarly from Aristides, Oration εἰς βασιλέα [“To the King”], that is in praise of Marcus Aurelius, ed. Canter, tome 1, p. 106, penultimate–last lines.

  For p. 4166. The same phrase is used, τὸ αὐτοῦ μέρος [for his part], with the same meaning and in the same way, by Photius, Codex 219, col. 564, Greek-Latin ed. See Plato, ed. Ast, tome 1, p. 192, line 11.3

  For the preceding page. Likewise codex 240, col. 993, δίδωσιν ἐννοεῖν [gives one to think].4 See p. 4213.

  The Greek author of the Life of Pope St. Gregory, called the Great, having spoken about the works of this Saint, and particularly about his Dialogues, [4212] adds (in Photius, codex 252, col. 1400, Greek-Latin ed. I think however that this Life is published in full, and probably can be found at the beginning of the works of St. Gregory): “᾿Αλλὰ γὰρ πέντε καὶ ἑξήχοντα καὶ ἑκατὸν ἔτη οἱ τὴν Ῥωμαίαν φωνὴν ἀφιέντες τῆς ἐκ τῶν πόνων αὐτοῦ ὠφελείας μόνοι ἀπήλαυον. Ζαχαρίας δὲ, ὃς τοῦ ἀποστολικοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἐκείνου χρόνοις ὕστερον τοῖς εἰρημένοις κατέστη διάδοχος, τὴν ἐν τῇ Ῥωμαϊκῇ μόνῃ συγκλειομένην γνῶσιν καὶ ὠφέλειαν, εἰς τὴν ῾Ελλάδα γλῶσσαν ἐξαπλώσας, κοινὸν τὸ κέρδος τῇ οἰκουμένῃ πάσῃ φιλανθρώπως ἐποιήσατο. οὐ τοὺς διαλόγους δὲ καλουμένους μόνους, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄλλους αὐτοῦ ἀξιολόγους πόνους ἐξελληνίσαι ἔργον ἔθετο.” “But for 165 years, only speakers of Latin could benefit from the usefulness of his works. Then Zachary, who at the end of that period succeeded that apostolic man (to the papacy), when he had translated his writings into Greek, graciously informed the whole world of their usefulness, which until then was limited to Latins alone. And not just the so-called dialogues, he also took it upon himself to translate into Greek other writings worthy of attention.”1 —Noteworthy testament to the universality of the Greek language even at the time of the writer of this Life, that is, I think, in the sixth century, if he was a contemporary of or came a little after Pope Zachary.2 (Bologna, 5 Oct. 1826.)

  For the preceding page. Proclus3 in the Chrestomathy, in Photius, codex 239, beginning, col. 981, writes “ὡς” (that) “αἱ αὐταί εἰσιν ἀρεταὶ λόγου καὶ ποιήματος” (of prose and poetry), “παραλλάσσουσι δὲ” (differ) “ἐν τῷ μᾶλλον καὶ ἦττον “nel più e nel meno” [“that the virtues of prose and poetry are the same but differ to a greater or lesser degree”]. Schottus: in eo, quod plus, minusve est [in that which is more or less]. (Bologna, 6 October 1826.)

  For p. 4163. Photius, codex 279, col. 1588, from Helladius Besantinous’s Chrestomathy, Greek-Latin ed., “γὰρ πρόθεσις βραχυκαταληκτεῖν θέλει” “because every preposition wants to” (that is must) “finish in a short syllable.” See p. 4226.

  [4213] On the use of the verb τιθέναι for fare, as in Spanish, poner.1 Helladius Besantinous in the books of the Chrestomathy, in Photius, codex 279, col. 1588, Greek-Latin ed. “ὁ παρ' ἄλλοις μισθοῦ δουλεύων θὴς καλεῖται, ἢ παρὰ τὸ θεῖναι, ὃ δηλοῖ τὸ χερσὶν ἐργάζεσθαι καὶ ποιεῖν (καὶ γὰρ τοῖς παλαιοῖς λέγειν ἔθος τὸ ἔθηκεν ἐπὶ τοῦ τὶ δρᾶν, ὡς καὶ δραστικώτατος ἥρως διὰ τοῦτο κέκληται Θησεύς)· ἢ κατὰ μετάθεσιν” [“The man who is paid to work for another is called a θὴς, which derives either from θεῖναι, which means to do manual work and to do—the ancients, in fact, used to say ἔθηκεν with the meaning of doing something, and the hero who did most deeds is called Θησεύς for that reason—or else through metathesis, etc.”], etc. Horace also by way of a Grecism: “nunc hominem ponere” (that is facere, fabricare, fabrefacere) “nunc deum” [“now in fashioning a man, now a god”].2 (Bologna, 8 Oct., Sunday, 1826.)

  Πονηρος which sometimes means wearisome, unhappy, etc., and sometimes evil, mentioned elsewhere [→Z 3343, 3382], has a different accentuation according to its different meaning. See the Lexicons.

  ῞Ορος–ὁρίον [boundary], μεθόριον [lying between as a boundary], etc.; φῦκος–φυκίον [seaweed]; ὅρκος–ὅρκιον [oath].

  For p. 4210. The fact referred to by Agatharchides in Stobaeus can also be found in Plutarch at the beginning of his Greek and Roman Parallel Stories (a little work to consult on this subject), and Plutarch compares it to that of Mucius Scaevola, and quotes book 2 of Agatharchides of Samos’s τῶν περσικῶν [On Persia].3 (Bologna, 9 Oct. 1826.)

  Diluere–diluviare [to drench–to pour down] active. See Forcellini.