Plutarch’s Lives was written almost two thousands years ago and it’s lovely to see that side by side with iron age anachronisms there are human behaviours and human nature that we would encounter in our times.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Reading notes on the Dryden translation edited by Arthur Hugh Clough

Theseus

An example of treatment of women by iron age standards. After Theseus killed her father, Perigune hides. “But Theseus calling upon her, and giving her his promise that he would use her with respect and offer her no injury, she came forth, and in due time bore him a son, […]; but afterwards was married to Deioneus […], Theseus himself giving her to him.”

Family intrigues. “The sons of Pallas, who before were quiet upon expectation of recovering the kingdom after Aegeus’s death, who was without issue, as soon as Theseus appeared and was acknowledged the successor, highly resenting that Aegeus first, an addopted son only of Pandion, and not at all related to the family of Erechtheus, should be holding the kingdom, and that after him, Theseus, a visitor and stranger, should be destined to succeed to it, broke out into open war.”

The unexpected logical question interlude. “The ship […] was preserved by the Athenians […] for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same”

On the reliability of historical testimonies. “Nor is it to be wondered at, that in events of such antiquity, history should be in disorder.”

On the challenges of ruling people that lost their motivation. “and the minds of the people were so generally corrupted, that, instead of obeying commands with silence, they expected to be flattered into their duty.”