Encouragement for the unwounded

My friend died two weeks ago. It feels like yesterday and it feels like it didn’t happen. When I left at the end of August, she gave me Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin. The inscription said she hoped the title was inappropriate and that I would have not just one safe journey to Prague, but many. I have a postcard still to send her.

Below, a passage which she quoted in her book on the treatment of war wounds.

***

‘…Then the Macedonians turned the battle around against the barbarians and once they were defeated, they brought the city down on top of them. This was no help to Alexander, however. He was taken from the field along with the missile: the shaft of the arrow pierced his vital organs, and the arrow bound and fixed his breastplate to his body.

‘When they tried forcing it out from the root, as it were, of the wound, the iron would not yield to them. It was lodged in the solid part of his breast in front of the heart. They did not dare to saw off the part of the shaft that was projecting out for fear it would cause excruciating pain and a rush of internal bleeding if the bone were to be split by the force.

‘Having noticed the great difficulty and hesitation, Alexander himself tried to cut the arrow off close to his body using his dagger, but his hand was too weak and heavy with numbness due to the inflammation of the wound. So he encouraged them. He commanded the unwounded to take hold and not fear. He railed against those who were in tears with concern for him, while others he called out as deserters since they did not dare to help him. And to his companions he cried out: “Let no one be wretched on my account. It will not be believed that I do not fear death if you fear for my death.”’

ἐτρέψαντο μὲν οὖν τοὺς βαρβάρους οἱ Μακεδόνες, καὶ πεσοῦσιν αὐτοῖς ἐπικατέσκαψαν τὴν πόλιν. Ἀλεξάνδρῳ δ' οὐδὲν ἦν ὄφελος· <ἀν>ήρπαστο γὰρ μετὰ τοῦ βέλους, καὶ τὸν κάλαμον ἐν τοῖς σπλάγχνοις εἶχε, καὶ δεσμὸς ἦν αὐτῷ καὶ ἧλος τὸ τόξευμα τοῦ θώρακος πρὸς τὸ σῶμα. καὶ σπάσαι μὲν ὥσπερ ἐκ ῥίζης τοῦ τραύματος βιαζομένοις οὐχ ὑπήκουεν ὁ σίδηρος, ἕδραν ἔχων τὰ πρὸ τῆς καρδίας στερεὰ τοῦ στήθους· ἐκπρῖσαι δὲ τοῦ δόνακος οὐκ ἐθάρρουν τὸ προῦχον, ἀλλ' ἐφοβοῦντο, μήπως σπαραγμῷ σχιζόμενον τὸ ὀστέον ὑπερβολὰς ἀλγηδόνων παράσχῃ καὶ ῥῆξις αἵματος ἐκ βάθους γένηται. πολλὴν δ' ἀπορίαν καὶ διατριβὴν ὁρῶν αὐτὸς ἐπεχείρησεν ἐν χρῷ τοῦ σώματος ἀποτέμνειν τῷ ξιφιδίῳ τὸν οἰστόν· ἠτόνει δ' ἡ χεὶρ καὶ βάρος εἶχε ναρκῶδες ὑπὸ φλεγμονῆς τοῦ τραύματος. ἐκέλευεν οὖν ἅπτεσθαι καὶ μὴ δεδιέναι θαρρύνων τοὺς ἀτρώτους· καὶ τοῖς μὲν ἐλοιδορεῖτο κλαίουσι καὶ περιπαθοῦσι, τοὺς δὲ λιποτάκτας ἀπεκάλει, μὴ τολμῶντας αὐτῷ βοηθεῖν· ἐβόα δὲ πρὸς τοὺς ἑταίρους «μηδεὶς ἔστω μηδ' ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ δειλός· ἀπιστοῦμαι μὴ φοβεῖσθαι θάνατον, εἰ τὸν ἐμὸν φοβεῖσθ' ὑμεῖς.»

Plutarch, On the Fortune of Alexander, Moralia 344F–345B

More from Michael of Ephesus on dreams

Michael is again talking about his dreams.  Here, he comments on a passage from On prophesying by dreams. Aristotle says in this passage that dreams are more vivid when they involve things we are anxious or thinking about. Michael disagrees--dreams about our anxieties (or even our recent conscious thoughts) are not the only ones that can be extremely vivid. We can have dreams about things that are not on our minds, as well, that feel just as bright and real. As an example, he mentions a dream he had about a colleague who died when he was young, and whom he (curiously) distinguishes from his current, more famous, colleague and collaborator on ‘the discourses’. The names of both have been lost to time.

"And in fact [we have vivid dreams] even if something else should appear to us, [something] which we are not [currently] thinking about. Like the time I saw my colleague in a dream—not my famous [colleague], who is alive and working with me on the discourses (τοὺς λόγους), but another one who, because of the quick approach of death, wrote down only a few works in philosophy—anyway, I saw the one who died long ago in a dream; he was discussing things with me which I had not thought about during that whole month, or even the month before, [but which I] had thought about a lot in earlier times. For both my questions to him and his answers to me were about the soul."

καὶ γὰρ κἂν ἄλλο τι ἡμῖν φαίνηται, οὗπερ οὐ φροντίζομεν· ὥσπερ ἐμοὶ ἰδόντι τὸν ἐμὸν ἑταῖρον, οὐχὶ τὸν κλεινόν μοι τουτονί, ὅστις ἔτι μοι ζῶν συμπονεῖ περὶ τοὺς λόγους, ἀλλ' ἄλλον ὀλίγους ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ πόνους καταβεβληκότα διὰ τὴν τοῦ θανάτου σύντομον προσέλευσιν, ἐγὼ γοῦν ἐκεῖνον πάλαι θανόντα εἶδον καθ' ὕπνον διαλεγόμενόν μοι, περὶ ὧν ἐγὼ κατ' ἐκεῖνον ὅλον τὸν μῆνα καὶ ἔτι τὸν πρὸ ἐκείνου οὐκ ἐφρόντισα, πρότερον πολλὰ φροντίσας· ἦσαν γὰρ περὶ ψυχῆς αἱ ἐμαί τε πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ἐρωτήσεις κἀκείνου πρός με αἱ ἀποκρίσεις.

Michael of Ephesus, In parva naturalia commentaria, CAG 22.1, 85,3-11 Wendland

A Neoplatonist’s Hymn

“I once heard someone singing

Two souls were passing on, and one said to the other, where must we go?* 

Some time later, I heard another person singing the tune and the rhythm to which Two souls were passing on was sung, but the words and the meaning were not the ones from before. Instead they were

The First Reason leads me and again downward brings me.**

Like I said, both this song and the earlier song were sung to the same rhythm. When [my soul] had been moved here and there by [this] rhythm, I remembered the place I had first heard it, then [I remembered] the man who sang it, and then the [lyrics] ‘Two souls were passing on’ and the rest. There are, then, certain traces in the soul which follow one another by necessity, in which it is impossible that [the memories] that come next will not follow once [the soul] is set in motion.”

πάλιν ἤκουσά του ᾄδοντος “δύο ψυχαὶ ἐξήρχοντο, καὶ μία πρὸς ἄλλην ἔλεγε, ποῖ πορευτέον”.* μετὰ δέ τινας χρόνους ἤκουσα ἄλλου ᾄδοντος τὸ μὲν μέλος καὶ τὸν ῥυθμὸν ἐκεῖνον, καθ' ὃν ᾔδετο τὸ “δύο ψυχαὶ ἐξήρχοντο”, ἡ δὲ λέξις καὶ ἡ ἔννοια οὐκ ἐκείνη, ἀλλ' ἦν ὅτι “ὁ νοῦς ὁ πρῶτος ἄγει με καὶ πάλιν κάτω φέρει”. ᾔδετο οὖν, ὥσπερ εἶπον, τῷ αὐτῷ ῥυθμῷ καὶ ταῦτα καὶ ἐκεῖνα· ἀφ' οὗ ῥυθμοῦ πρῶτον ἀνεμνήσθην κινηθεὶς ὧδε κἀκεῖσε τὸν τόπον, ἐν ᾧ ἤκουσα τοῦ ῥυθμοῦ, εἶτα τὸν ᾄδοντα ἄνθρωπον, καὶ τότε τὸ “δύο ψυχαὶ ἐξήρχοντο” καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. εἰσὶ μὲν οὖν τύποι τινὲς ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἀκολουθοῦντες ἀλλήλοις, ἐν οἷς ἀδύνατόν ἐστι τούτου κινηθέντος μὴ ἕπεσθαι καὶ τὸν ἑξῆς.

Michael of Ephesus, In parva naturalia commentaria, CAG 22.1, 24,23-25,3 Wendland

*This song does not come up with a TLG search, except for the paraphrase in “Themistius” (Sophonias?), in Parva Naturalia, CAG 5.6 8,25.

**I haven’t found this song in a TLG search either, except for the “Themistius” paraphrase: in PN CAG 5.6 8,27-8.