Re: Ignatius to Polycarp 2.3
Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Mon, 14 Jul 1997 15:10:41 -0400
At 9:22 AM -0400 7/14/97, dmills@creighton.edu wrote:
>On Sun, 13 Jul 1997, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>
>> At 10:04 AM -0400 7/13/97, dmills@creighton.edu wrote:
>> >I am having some trouble understanding this sentence: hO KAIROS APAITEI
>> >SE, hWS KYBERNHTAI ANEMOUS KAI hWS CEIMAZOMENOS LIMENA, EIS TO QEOU
>> >EPITUXEIN. I have translated as follows: The time demands you, as pilots
>> >[demand] winds and one tossed by storms [demands] a harbor, in order to
>> >attain God. Is Polycarp being compared to favorable winds and a harbor?
>> >What attains to God? KAIROS? If so, I find it a little puzzling how "the
>> >time" would attain God.
>>
>> Reminds me of Horace 2.16 OTIUM DIVOS ROGAT IN PATENTI/PRENSUS AEGAEO ...
>>
>> Perhaps KAIROS here has more the sense of "this moment," this critical
>> moment in time's long passage", and maybe hO here has demonstrative force.
>> Then, "This moment cries out for you, as pilots cry out for winds and the
>> storm-tossed (sailor) at sea cries out for harbor, in order to attain God."
>> Perhaps (but I donn't know the context) "this moment" means something like
>> "the world today"?
>>
>Actually the context isn't very helpful here because the sentence is a
>rather isolated saying. If hO KAIROS means something like "the world
>today," it seems to be a rather innovative metaphorical use (or is it?) of
>hO KAIROS. Of course, part of vocabulary learning is learning which words
>are used metaphorically and how they are used metaphorically. For
>instance, we often speak of time in terms of money -- waste time, spend
>time, etc. So, more specifically, is "the season" often used to refer to
>the people living at that season? If hO KAIROS were left out, I would
>expect to find something like hH hAUTH GENEA.
Well, you shouldn't ever find hH hAUTH GENEA anywhere in respectable Greek,
though you might very well find hAUTH hH GENEA or hH GENEA hAUTH as in Mk
13:30 (the demonstrative is always predicative in position). But hO KAIROS
could very well express the sense of "this time in human history"--and
that's what I had in mind above.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(704) 675-4243
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