With a tip of the biretta to the great Fr. Hunwicke

Posted on 25 January 2021 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

With a tip of the biretta to the great Fr. Hunwicke.  o{]:¬)

On his indispensable blog, Fr H left me consoled even in the midst of multiple challenges, yea, even some tragedies: children spiritual and physical are being destroyed by the Left on all sides, in the secular and in the ecclesial realms alike.  Here is what Fr. H offered, though this is a somewhat fuller quotation:

πολλαὶ μορφαὶ τῶν δαιμονίων,
πολλὰ δ᾽ ἀέλπτως κραίνουσι θεοί:
καὶ τὰ δοκηθέντ᾽ οὐκ ἐτελέσθη,
τῶν δ᾽ ἀδοκήτων πόρον ηὗρε θεός.
τοιόνδ᾽ ἀπέβη τόδε πρᾶγμα.

This is used by the playwright in several works as a concluding chorus.

To modify a little an adage I’ve used here before, picked up from a frustrated auxiliary bishop many years ago about his own boss and other clergy he had to deal with,

“There are Medeas of both sexes.”

NB to you clerical Medeas: epilogues are not necessarily the end of a thing.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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5 Comments

  1. Kathleen10 says:
    25 January 2021 at 3:16 PM

    I don’t care if I sound like a curmudgeon, perhaps I am one, but there is nothing so disappointing in this world as the words and behavior of our fellow human beings. This is why someone had said, the more I see of people, the more I like my dog.

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  3. ocsousn says:
    26 January 2021 at 1:33 PM

    This carried me back in mind to my schoolboy days as a minor seminarian. (We started at 14 then!) It struck me then, reading and construing the ancient Greek and Latin authors, that little has changed in the human experience and in knowledge of what ultimately matters. Perhaps this is what made me even then so skeptical of the view of history that sees everything in terms of “progress.” Progress toward what? From where? Don’t misunderstand me. I am all for central heating and indoor plumbing (Of course the Romans actually had that!) and constantly use the technology that makes Fr. Z’s ministry possible. It really is great fun if you don’t over do it. (What was it the Greeks said about temperance?) I fear that much of the current existential angst among traditionalists and conservative actually comes from unwittingly accepting the outlook of our foes.
    They have no sense of the ironic and tragic nature of life; certainly no sense of humor or of divine providence.

  4. Sue in soCal says:
    29 January 2021 at 5:59 PM

    OK, I have to admit that I am not one of the cool kids who knows Greek. Greek tragedies, along with actual Greek, were not high on the academic list at the schools I attended. I actually got more Greek getting my two math degrees than I ever did in any of the mandated literature classes.

    Greek to English translators were no help, translating the Greek words from Fr. Hunwicke into a Greek script and translating the Greek script above into another style of Greek script (thanks, Google translate!). It took me a while to find the play online but, at last, it was found. The end chorus I found was this

    Zeus on Olympus,
    dispenses many things.
    Gods often contradict
    our fondest expectations.
    What we anticipate
    does not come to pass.
    What we don’t expect
    some god finds a way
    to make it happen.
    So with this story.

    So, I think I understand the point, maybe, provided I have found an adequate translation of Medea: expect the unexpected. Please, some cool kid, correct me if I’m wrong.

  5. Fr. John Zuhlsdorf says:
    29 January 2021 at 7:17 PM

    HEY! I posted the Greek!

    This is part of a floating epilogue, which appears in several of the plays of Euripides.

    He must have thought he was on to something.

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