Gnome (seal)
The gnome (plural: gnomes ; from ancient Greek γνώμη gnṓmē , German 'cognition, understanding, reason, spirit' ; in the sense as here only in the plural ancient Greek γνῶμαι gnōmai , German 'sayings, rules of life for wise men expressed in short verses' ) is a short one Motto . It contains in a short, concise form a practical wisdom, a general remark, an experience, a rule or a principle, mostly in the metric form of a one-line ( monostitch ) or a two-line ( distich ). A collection of gnomes is called a gnomology or gnomologion , a collector is called a gnomologist and the authors of gnomes are called gnomics , the genus accordingly as gnomics .
In a narrower sense, gnomics only means the ancient poetry, more recent examples of this kind are more likely to be called motto, motto, proverb or similar. A more precise delimitation of the content compared to related forms such as epigram , aphorism , apophthegma , sentence, etc. is not possible and hardly makes sense, since the ancient gnomologies did not make such distinctions either, but rather represent a sometimes colorful flower picking more or less instructive sayings. Likewise, the delimitation of the Gnomologion from the Florilegium is difficult in individual cases , whereby the Florilegium usually summarize longer excerpts. In general, the smallest forms of instructive content are also called gnomic forms .
Gnomics is primarily understood to mean ancient poetry, although corresponding forms in bound and unbound speech have been documented in all ancient literature in all literature since the beginning of tradition, such as the Hebrews (this is where the Old Testament poetry belongs ), Indians , Persians , Arabs , Scandinavians , etc.
Gnome poetry flourished in Greece from the 6th century BC. Also in the oldest Greek poetry by Homer and Hesiod there are numerous examples of individual verses which in antiquity became popular words and an integral part of the fund of rules of life. The best-known gnomologies are the “Golden Proverbs” of Solon written in hexameters , the gnomes of Theognis of Megara in elegiac distiches , those of Phokylides of Miletus and the Monostichoi of Menander . The gnomic forms include the Akusmata of Pythagoras , which clad his teachings in brief question and answer, and the gnomic literature, the elaborations of a motto called Chrie , which were part of the ancient rhetoric lessons . In Latin literature there are the sentences of Publilius Syrus , the collection of hexametric distiches of Dionysius Cato known as Monosticha or Dicta Catonis and the Gnomologion of Favorinus from the 2nd century, in late antiquity the collections of Orion von Thebes and Johannes Damascenus .
Than comparable collections in medieval and modern times are: free Danks modesty (1215-1230), the late medieval Priameldichtung that Alexandrians -Zweizeiler from the Cherubinischem Wanderer of Angelus Silesius (1657), Friedrich Rückert wisdom of the Brahmins (from 1835), Leopold Schefers Laienbrevier (1834) and the Stern des Bund by Stefan George (1914).
Examples
Famous gnomes from antiquity, some of which are still common today, are the sayings attributed to the Seven Wise Men :
“ Γνῶθι σεαυτόν. ”
"Recognize yourself!"
“ Μηδὲν ἄγαν. ”
"Nothing too much!"
"Guarantee, - there is already disaster."
“ Γίγνωσκε καιρόν. ”
"Know the right moment!"
"Most of them are bad."
“ Μέτρον ἄριστον. ”
"Measure is the best."
" Μελέτη τὸ πᾶν "
"Have the whole thing in mind."
Newer example for gnomes:
"The strong are most powerful alone."
literature
- Ernst Ahrens: Gnomes in Greek poetry: Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus. Triltsch, Halle 1936.
- RP apRoberts, PS Baker: Gnomic Poetry. In: Roland Greene, Stephen Cushman et al. (Ed.): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. 4th edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2012, ISBN 978-0-691-13334-8 , p. 547 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- Karl Bielohlawek: Mortgage and Gnome. Study of the Greek wisdom poetry of the pre-Hellenistic period. Dieterich, Leipzig 1940.
- Otto Knörrich: Lexicon of lyrical forms (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 479). 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-520-47902-8 , p. 84.
- Oliver Overwien: The Gnomologium, the Gnomologium Vaticanum and the Tradition . In: Göttingen Forum for Classical Studies 4 (2001) pp. 99–131, PDF (213 kB).
- Gero von Wilpert : Subject dictionary of literature. 8th edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-520-84601-3 , p. 315.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Pape , Max Sengebusch (arrangement): Concise dictionary of the Greek language . 3rd edition, 6th impression. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig 1914 ( zeno.org [accessed June 12, 2019]).
- ↑ Bruno Snell : Lives and Opinions of the Seven Wise Men. Greek and Latin sources explained and translated . Munich 1938. Snell points out that the Seven Wise Men thought primarily of their sayings.
