Gnothi seauton
Gnothi seauton ( ancient Greek Γνῶθι σεαυτόν know thyself , by elision also Γνῶθι σαυτόν Gnothi SAUTON "Know thyself!" / "Know what you are.") Is a much-quoted inscription on the temple of Apollo of Delphi , as the author Chilon of Sparta , one of the " Seven Wise Men " is considered. The requirement is ascribed to the god Apollon in ancient Greek thought . The instruction was adopted in Latin as nosce te ipsum or temet nosce .
origin
The first evidence for the thought can be found in a fragment by the philosopher Heraklit : "All people have the ability to recognize themselves and to think intelligently."
The saying stood - in addition to the wisdoms Ἐγγύα, πάρα δ 'ἄτα ( Engýa, pára d' áta “Guarantee, there is damage!”) And Μηδὲν ἄγαν ( Mēdén ágan “Nothing in excess”) - on a column the vestibule of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi . There he is at the latest by the middle of the 5th century BC. Has been attached. According to a fragment from the lost text “On Philosophy” by Aristotle , he was even at the previous building, the 548/547 BC. BC was destroyed by fire, but the credibility of this claim is uncertain.
In antiquity, the god Apollo himself was considered to be the originator of the invitation to human self-knowledge; What was disputed, however, was which person uttered the sentence first. Even before the beginning of the 4th century BC The three Delphic proverbs were traced back to the seven wise men . The gnothi seauton was mostly assigned to Chilon, but ascription to Thales , Solon and Bias von Priene also occurred in antiquity.
Theophrastus of Eresus , a student of Aristotle, describes the saying in his writing about proverbs as a proverb. Chamaileon assigns him to Thales in his book about the gods. Hermippus writes in his first book about Aristotle that a eunuch named Labys in Delphi, who was the temple guardian in the sanctuary, uttered this saying. Clearchus of Soloi claims that it was a commandment of the Pythian Apollo that Chilon was given as an oracle when he asked what people should most likely learn. Aristotle attributes gnothi seauton in his Dialogue on Philosophy to Pythia . Even Antisthenes claimed that the saying came from Phemonoe, the first Pythia at Delphi, and Chilon have only usurped it to be.
Different meanings
The demand to know oneself was originally aimed at insight into the limitations and fragility of man (in contrast to the gods). This meant his existence as a species; But one thought not only of humanity and the fundamental limits of what is achievable for humans, but the saying often served as a warning against overestimating individual possibilities. In numerous texts of the Greek classical period there is the interpretation that man should be aware of being mortal, imperfect and limited. The understanding of the saying as an indication of a natural weakness of mortals, which one should understand and whose knowledge leads to modesty , remained present throughout antiquity and was still common in the Roman Empire . In this sense, for example, the Roman stoic Seneca emphasized that it was a matter of realizing the physical and mental vulnerability of humans; not just a big storm, but even a minor tremor could shatter a person like a fragile vessel. In this context, a slightly different translation of the inscription conveys the essence of the divine requirement more clearly: "Know what you are.", Or also: "Stay within the limits set for you." The focus is on what man is as such: no god. That is the actual clue that Apollo sends to the stormy Diomedes with this command.
The Stoic tradition added a complementary accent by combining the demand gnothi seauton with its aim of classifying man in the natural context. The self-knowledge was embedded in the effort to "match to live with nature" ( homologoumenos tē physei Zen ) .
The idea of self-knowledge took a different development in Platonism . For Plato , the focus was on the aspect that man should gain knowledge of his own ignorance, so that he then strives for right insight and thereby refines his character. For Plato, striving for such self-knowledge was part of his central ethical project of caring for the soul , the well-being of which depended on its cultivation of virtue ( aretḗ ) . This paved the way for a change in meaning. In addition to the traditional, rather resigned understanding of self-knowledge, which emphasized the natural, insurmountable limits of what can be achieved, there was a more optimistic interpretation. She made the request for self-knowledge also the starting point for an insight into development possibilities that are given thanks to the unearthly origin and nature of the soul. Such ideas were worked out early in Platonism. Already in the Plato ascribed, in the 4th century BC. The dialog of Alcibiades I , which emerged in the 4th century BC, fully developed the anthropological concept of the soul's self-knowledge. According to the view presented there, the gnothi seauton says that man should recognize himself for what he is, namely an immortal and god-like soul that dwells and uses the body.
The Platonic interpretation of the saying, which emphasized positive aspects of self-knowledge, had a considerable aftereffect in ancient times. In this sense, Cicero expressed in a letter to his brother Quintus that the meaning of the saying was not limited to curbing presumptuousness, but also a request to recognize the good that is peculiar to us ( bona nostra ) .
The Neoplatonists related human weakness and frailty to the body, and godlikeness to the spiritual achievements of the soul. They interpreted the requirement of the Delphic maxim as an invitation to self-knowledge of the soul with regard to its divine origin, nature and destiny. The redeeming truth is not to be found in the outside world, but in the reflection of the soul on itself. The Neo-Platonist Porphyrios wrote a multi-volume work on the Gnothi seauton , which has only been preserved in fragments. In late antiquity , Macrobius spread the Neoplatonic interpretation of the saying in his very influential commentary on Cicero's Somnium Scipionis . He quoted a verse by the satirist Juvenal , according to which the Gnothi seauton "came down from heaven". Juvenal had written this not in a religious but in an ironic context and related the maxim to a wise decision of life and everyday questions. In the Middle Ages and into the 17th century, the Juvenal verse was often quoted in connection with the Neoplatonic interpretation of the saying.
Christian authors of antiquity such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen claimed that the idea originally came from the Old Testament and that it came from the Jews to the Greeks. Petrus Abelardus used the demand as the title of his ethics (Ethica seu scito se ipsum) and thereby emphasized the importance of reason and conviction as the basis of moral action.
literature
- Pierre Courcelle : Connais-toi toi-même de Socrate à Saint Bernard . Etudes Augustiniennes, 3 volumes, Paris 1974–1975
- Eliza Gregory Wilkins: The Delphic Maxims in Literature . University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1929
- Hermann Tränkle : Gnothi seauton. On the origin and history of interpretation of the Delphic saying. In: Würzburg Yearbooks for Classical Studies , New Series, Vol. 11, 1985, pp. 19–31
Remarks
- ↑ Marcus Tullius Cicero , De finibus bonorum et malorum 5.44: Iubet igitur nos Pythius Apollo noscere nosmet ipsos - "So the Apollo of Delphi commands us to recognize ourselves".
- ↑ DK 22 B 116. Doubts sometimes expressed in research about the authenticity of this fragment are unfounded; see Serge N. Mouraviev: Heraclitea , Vol. 3.BI, Sankt Augustin 2006, p. 295f .; Vol. 3.B.III, Sankt Augustin 2006, p. 136.
- ^ Hermann Tränkle: Gnothi seauton. In: Würzburg Yearbooks for Classical Studies , New Series, Vol. 11, 1985, pp. 19–31, here: 20; on the question of the exact location p. 21.
- ^ Hermann Tränkle: Gnothi seauton. In: Würzburg Yearbooks for Classical Studies , New Series, Vol. 11, 1985, pp. 19–31, here: 20.
- ^ Hermann Tränkle: Gnothi seauton. In: Würzburg Yearbooks for Classical Studies , New Series, Vol. 11, 1985, pp. 19–31, here: 22–24.
- ↑ Günther Hansen: Rulers Cult and Peace Idea . In: Environment of early Christianity . 4th edition. tape 1 . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 1975, p. 130 .
- ^ Plato, Apology 23b.
- ↑ Cicero, Ad Quintum fratrem 3,5,7.
- ↑ Macrobius, In somnium Scipionis 1.9.
- ↑ Juvenal, Satires 11:27: E caelo descendit γνῶθι σεαυτόν .