Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §6.18.1

The Folly of Seeking Fame from Posterity Instead of Contemporaries

Passage 155 of 486 · Greek

Summary

The author points out the contradiction of people who refuse to praise their contemporaries but desperately desire praise from future generations whom they will never see, comparing it to the absurdity of being grieved because past generations did not praise them.

§6.18.1Οἷόν ἐστιν ὃ ποιοῦσι.
How strange is what they do!
τοὺς μὲν ἐπὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ χρόνου καὶ μεθ’ ἑαυτῶν ζῶντας ἀνθρώπους εὐφημεῖν οὐ θέλουσιν, αὐτοὶ δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν μεταγενεστέρων εὐφημηθῆναι, οὓς οὔτε εἶδόν ποτε οὔτε ὄψονται, περὶ πολλοῦ ποιοῦνται.
They do not wish to praise the people who live at the same time and with themselves, yet they themselves highly value being praised by posterity, whom they have never seen nor will ever see.
τοῦτο δὲ ἐγγύς ἐστι τῷ λυπηθῆναι ἄν, ὅτι οὐχὶ καὶ οἱ προγενέστεροι περὶ σοῦ λόγους εὐφήμους ἐποιοῦντο.
But this is close to being grieved because the ancestors did not also make speeches of praise about you.

Notes

  1. §6.18.1Οἷόν ἐστιν — The adjective οἷος is used exclamatorily, making the whole clause express "How strange/absurd is what they do."
  2. §6.18.1περὶ πολλοῦ ποιοῦνται — The idiom consisting of the preposition περί with the genitive πολλοῦ and the middle verb ποιοῦνται means "to value highly" or "to prize." Here it takes the preceding infinitive εὐφημηθῆναι as its object.
  3. §6.18.1λυπηθῆναι ἄν — The infinitive, governed by the dative article τῷ, is accompanied by the particle ἄν, representing the conclusion of a past contrary-to-fact condition ("the act of being grieved, as one would have been").

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §6.18.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:6.18.1

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