Cyrus the Great (600-530 BC), king of Persia, is one of the most famous figures of Antiquity and is both mentioned in the Bible and in Classical literature. Herodotus is the earliest and not that reliable Greek source and Xenophon has made him immortal in his Cyropaedia, or the Education of Cyrus, a fictional biography of Cyrus serving as an example of good leadership. In that book Xenophon `reports’ what Cyrus has said on his death bed. Cicero made a translation of the part dealing with the immortality of the soul in his De Senectute.
Management guru Peter Drucker has once called the Cyropaedia the first and best management book ever written. I suggest that managers first of all turn to classical literature for their insights: it would free the world of lots of management books.
Cicero, Cato Maior de Senectute, 79-81
XXII. 79. Apud Xenophontem autem moriens Cyrus maior haec dicit: 'Nolite arbitrari, O mihi carissimi filii, me, cum a vobis discessero, nusquam aut nullum fore. Nec enim, dum eram vobiscum, animum meum videbatis, sed eum esse in hoc corpore ex eis rebus quas gerebam intellegebatis. Eundem igitur esse creditote, etiamsi nullum videbitis.
80. Nec vero clarorum virorum post mortem honores permanerent, si nihil eorum ipsorum animi efficerent, quo diutius memoriam sui teneremus. Mihi quidem numquam persuaderi potuit animos, dum in corporibus essent mortalibus, vivere, cum excessissent ex eis, emori, nec vero tum animum esse insipientem, cum ex insipienti corpore evasisset, sed cum omni admixtione corporis liberatus purus et integer esse coepisset, tum esse sapientem. Atque etiam cum hominis natura morte dissolvitur, ceterarum rerum perspicuum est quo quaeque discedat; abeunt enim illuc omnia, unde orta sunt, animus autem solus nec cum adest nec cum discedit, apparet. Iam vero videtis nihil esse morti tam simile quam somnum.
81. Atqui dormientium animi maxime declarant divinitatem suam; multa enim, cum remissi et liberi sunt, futura prospiciunt. Ex quo intellegitur quales futuri sint, cum se plane corporis vinculis relaxaverint. Qua re, si haec ita sunt, sic me colitote,' inquit, 'ut deum; sin una est interiturus animus cum corpore, vos tamen, deos verentes, qui hanc omnem pulchritudinem tuentur et regunt, memoriam nostri pie inviolateque servabitis.'
apud Xenophontem: in his Cyropaedia 8.19
discedo discessi discessum; to leave, depart, die
nusquam aut nullum fore: to be nowhere or nobody
gero gessi gestum: to perform
creditote: 2 pl fut imp, more formal than credidite
honores (honos/honor): tributes, honours
permaneo permansi: to last, remain
animi efficerent, quo diutius memoriam sui teneremus: i.e. the souls of famous men somehow interact with the living to retain the memory of them (sui, gen obj; each soul individual) longer (diutus) alive.
emori: to die utterly
insipiens –entis: senseless, without consciousness
admixtio –onis (f.): mingling (here with the connotation of defilement)
integer gra grum: uncontaminated
coepio coepi coeptum: to begin
ceterarum rerum: the other constituents
quo: where
perspicuus: clear, evident
illuc: to that place
orior ortus: to arise, come into being (probably Cicero means that the elements of which the body consists, water, fire, air and earth return to their respective forms.)
appareo apparui: to be visible
atqui: however, yet
remissus: unstrained
multa futura prospiciunt: see many future things (the idea that the future can be revealed in dreams is common in various cultures, also that the/a soul wanders away from a sleeping body, hence never wake someone suddenly as his or her soul may have not returned yet!)
vinculum: band, fetter
quales futuri sint: how they are in the future
colitote: venerate
sin: but if
una: together with
interiturus: will die (inter –eo)
vereor veritus: to fear, respect
puchritudo –tudinis (f.): beauty (i.e. the world)
tueor tutus: to watch, guard
pie inviolateque servabitis: you shall preserve piously and inviolably
Translation by Evelyn S. Shuckburgh (1909 -1914)
22. Once more in Xenophon we have the elder Cyrus on his deathbed speaking as follows:—
“Do not suppose, my dearest sons, that when I have left you I shall be nowhere and no one. Even when I was with you, you did not see my soul, but knew that it was in this body of mine from what I did. Believe then that it is still the same, even though you see it not. The honours paid to illustrious men had not continued to exist after their death, had the souls of these very men not done something to make us retain our recollection of them beyond the ordinary time. For myself, I never could be persuaded that soul while in mortal bodies were alive, and died directly they left them; nor, in fact, that the soul only lost all intelligence when it left the unintelligent body. I believe rather that when, by being liberated from all corporeal admixture, it has begun to be pure and undefiled, it is then that it becomes wise. And again, when man’s natural frame is resolved into its elements by death, it is clearly seen whither each of the other elements departs: for they all go to the place from which they came: but the soul alone is invisible alike when present and when departing. Once more, you see that nothing is so like death as sleep. And yet it is in sleepers that souls most clearly reveal their divine nature; for they foresee many events when they are allowed to escape and are left free. This shows what they are likely to be when they have completely freed themselves from the fetters of the body. Wherefore, if these things are so, obey me as a god. But if my soul is to perish with my body, nevertheless do you from awe of the gods, who guard and govern this fair universe, preserve my memory by the loyalty and piety of your lives.”
Tomb of Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae, Iran.
No comments:
Post a Comment