[lit-ideas] Re: "Irreversible" -- a notion the Greeks lacked
- From: Michael Chase <goya@xxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 10:48:54 -0700
Le 12 ao=FBt 04, =E0 07:39, Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx a =E9crit :
> <snip>
>
> One problem here is that Greek lacked a word for 'irreversible' (or
> 'reversible' for that matter)? Surely some processes are irreversible.
M.C. There is no entry s.v. "irreversible" in S.G. Wodehouse's=20
usually-valuable English-Greek Dictionary (London 1910, 2nd ed. 1932,=20
reprinted 1954). But I would suggest *astreptos*, *adiastrophos*,=20
*anallaktos*. Interestingly, this last term occurs only once, so far as=20=
I know: in an Orphic fragment quoted by Clement of Alexandria and=20
Eusebius (who is quoting Clement). I cannot resist quoting it, even if=20=
only in the antiquated version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers=20
(http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/anf02/cache/anf02.html3):
=93Ruler of Ether, Hades, Sea, and Land,
Who with Thy bolts Olympus=92 strong-built home
Dost shake. Whom demons dread, and whom the throng
Of gods do fear. Whom, too, the Fates obey,
Relentless though they be. O deathless One,
Our mother=92s Sire I whose wrath makes all things reel;
Who mov=92st the winds, and shroud=92st in clouds the world,
Broad Ether cleaving with Thy lightning gleams,=97
Thine is the order =92mongst the stars, which run
As Thine unchangeable [-*anallaktoisin* - MC] behests direct.
Before Thy burning throne the angels wait,
Much-working, charged to do all things, for men.
Thy young Spring shines, all prank=92d with purple flowers;
Thy Winter with its chilling clouds assails;
Three Autumn noisy Bacchus distributes.=94
Then he adds, naming expressly the Almighty God:=97
=A0
=93Deathless Immortal, capable of being
To the immortals only uttered! [Incorrect translation : the text=20
actually says =93=A0sayable only by the immortals" - MC]
Come,
Greatest of gods, with strong Necessity.
Dread, invincible, great, deathless One,
Whom Ether crowns.=94 =85
Are some processes irreversible=A0? As usual, the answer depends =
on whom=20
you ask. But if the old saw is correct that the Greeks *generally=20
speaking* had a cyclical concept of time, as opposed the linear one=20
preferred by Judaeo-Christian thought and Roman pagan thought after=20
Virgil, we can understand why the Greeks would be less interested in=20
such an idea.
Best, Mike.
>
Michael Chase
(goya@xxxxxxxxxxx)
CNRS UPR 76
7, rue Guy Moquet
Villejuif 94801
France
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