It's like talking to a brick wall with these... people. Had I more sense, I would have said nothing about what passed at... that place. Yet I was... reasonable, and they were not. These... people. I feel like Daniel Day Lewis' character (Daniel Plainview) in There Will Be Blood, "I can't keep doing this any more on my own, with these... people."
In any case, what's to be done about it? Well, I have taken certain steps to ensure that things work out, eventually. As the late great savant Didier Deman once said, "It is not the learning which is important Maxwell, but the application of that learning to something practical and useful." Didier also told me that I would be inevitably heavily marginalised by many if I chose to become a scholar and an intellectual. How right he was. In any case, I quite often read when I am on my five minute break at... that place (with those... people). It could be anything. Today for instance it was the Loeb (vol.2) of Ammianus Marcellinus, the fourth century historian and antiquarian writer. Not so long ago it was Plutarch's Comparative Lives only in translation - Ian Scott-Kilvert, who, along with Rex Warner, are the very best translation of Plutarch. These... people, none of them, read.
Imagine, while exploring the lengthy and curious digressions of ancient peoples in some far off mystical landscape, learning about adventures of the great men of yore, the men of legend, the ancient heroes and gods (and goddesses) that populate the ancient wisdom: today, in Latin. You look up, and being cast out of the ancient world, in one's mind, for that moment, you must deal with these... people (the common noun reason, ratio in Latin does not feature in their vocabularies, or at least very few of them).
So what have I done which is so spectacular that will help me dig and claw my way out of this goddamn hell-hole of a subsistance? How can I give more money to charity, for one cannot help others without first helping oneself (the first law of business: give all your profits away immediately, without investing that money into a venture which will - probably - garner more returns). Seriously, though, what have I done which is so brilliant that merits clawing ones way out of a poverty pit-trap? Well, I have translated all of Apuleius' De deo Socratis, and written a master's degree dissertation on it: two case studies (6.1-8.4 and 16.3-17.2 [Jones' Loeb ed.]) discussing δαίμονες ('guiding spirits') chiefly in relation to the philosophical hermetica (which I have also translated, or at least Ficino's De Potestate et Sapientia Dei and several sections from Nock and Festugiere (French) hermetic 'fragments' of Stobaeus. Here is a section of my dissertation.
The earlier dating of the philosophical hermetica is controversial (Latham, 2020, p.xvi n.15) but has not changed a bit in 400 years. The general consensus among hermetic scholars is that the Corpus Hermeticum was written at some time around roughly the 1st-3rd centuries C.E. (Pereira/Guilherme, 2010, pp.90-91, 99). This is assumed from stylistic evidence, the type of Greek it was written in, primarily on the evidence of Isaac Casaubon’s Exercises On Sacred and Ecclesiastical Matters (Copenhaver, 2000, p.lix; Fowden, 1996, p.xxii) which was written in 1612. However, there is some evidence, largely dismissed by scholars, which suggests that the philosophical hermetica were not originally written on papyri in Greek, but inscribed on columns in Egyptian hieroglyphs ([Apuleius], Asclepius 24; Stobaeus, hermetic frag. 23.5-8; Iamblichus, Egyptian Mysteries 1.2.5-6 and 8.5.267-268; Naghammadi Papyri, Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth 61-62; Ammianus Marcellinus 22.15.30; Syncellus in Waddell, 1940, pp.208-209). Therefore, by merely inspecting the style of Greek they were written in does not help to date them in any way except by proving that they have a terminus ante quem of around Apuleius’ time: the 1st-3rd centuries C.E. Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that the interlocutors that feature in them existed from around 1,818–1,770 B.C.E. (Jackson, 1999, pp.102-106), perhaps even earlier, around 2,686-2,611 (Manetho in Waddell, 1940, pp.5-7, 41-47). Therefore, it is not impossible that Apuleius, Plato and Pythagoras were influenced by the philosophical hermetica, not the other way around. According to Iamblichus (Egyptian Mysteries 1.2.5-6) there were ‘the ancient pillars of Hermes, which Plato and Pythagoras knew before, and from thence constituted their philosophy.’ (trans. Taylor). Moreover, the Corpus Hermeticum (16.1-2) reads:
‘My teacher, Hermes, often used to say to me [Asclepius] privately… that the composition of my books would appear very… clear to those who read them. He added, however, that they are obscure and keep the meaning of the words hidden. He said they would become even more obscure later when the Greeks decide to translate our language into theirs… When expressed in its original language, the text preserves the pure spirit of the words… The very quality of the sound… of the Egyptian language carries… power… Therefore, O King… please ensure that this text is not translated, in order that these mysteries do not reach the Greeks…’ (trans. Salaman et al.).
Therefore, with my translation of Apuleius' De deo Socratis complete, with an extensive scholastic commentary, and the same goes for my (complete) translation of Nennius' History of the Britons, again with a full on deep commentary, I can bang those up on eBook and Audiobook. That should alleviate some of the burden, at least for now. Then, I also have a few more exciting and thrilling projects going on, such mostly done translations of Arnold van Gennep's Rites of Passage from the French, and Lucius Annaeus Seneca (the Younger's) Trojan Women. These are both half way home. Naturally, ruled by the Dioscuri (and in other aspects ruled by Saturn, as well as Mercury, among others), anyway, as a Gemini, I am naturally juggling several different projects at once. There is, my latest play for example Boadicea: Queen of the Iceni which is pretty much finished, just filling in the gaps and refining it, is all that needs doing. That's in the bag. I also have a translation of a book on runelore, which is absolutely fascinating, and also a book on ancient hermetic astrology (both translated from the Latin, of course). So, I have a few irons in the fire. Never mind my Chinese boss, who is fretful and dictatorial (to use Gilbert and Sullivan's phrase from HMS Pinafore). I also have some interest from the Americans (again, editing work - cheap enough for a mere graduate in English Lit'! Hardly taxing a Latin scholar's potential.) These... people. It's not picking up, work wise, so I've decided to go alone. Like the end of There Will Be Blood, "I'm going to Mexico. I'm starting my own company." "That makes you my competitor."
So anyway, what with my own company starting, publishing, online: Libelli Classics (which means 'little classical books' in Latin) I've a few irons in the fire
Max
No comments:
Post a Comment