I have come across the grave epigraph of the Pyrrhonist Menecles, from the 1st century AD found at Ali-Aga in Phocea. I see the Greek is quoted in a few places on the web, but I cannot find any translation.
Maybe it is a difficult piece to translate, but it defeats my feeble knowledge of Ancient Greek.
If anyone could translate it for me, I would be very grateful.
A quick translation (I don’t have much experience with other dialects than Attic, so I might have gotten some forms wrong…):
The leader of song all over Greece,
an equal to anyone in speech
and to mortals in running the undisturbed road,
the Pyrrhonist Meneklees here, is who I am.
The verses (iambic trimeter) will be encapsulating the tenets of Pyrrhonism. αταραχον is clearly a reference to ataraxia, and ἐξισώσας (levelling, equalizing) ταν λογω (= τὰ ἐν λόγῳ rather than τὰν = Attic τὴν?) presumably refers to εποχη, suspension of judgment. The first verse is a bit of a stretch, if it really belongs.
Roughly:
The leader of song throughout Hellas,
the one who altogether leveled what is in word
and ran the untroubled course among mortals,
I the Pyrrhoniast Menecles am here.
@polemistes, I appreciate the text with the correct diacritics. I copied it out manually, only having images of it. I didn’t even realise it wasn’t Attic, but I suppose that since the grave is in Phocea it makes sense that it is Aeolic.
@mwh, you say ‘the first verse is a bit of a stretch’: do you mean the first line? If so, I agree, it seems out of place. And I like your identifying ‘leveling or equalizing the said’ with εποχη. Brilliant.
@mwh, you say ‘the first verse is a bit of a stretch’: do you mean the first line? If so, I agree, it seems out of place.
Yes. Glad you agree. “Song” seems out of keeping in the context of Pyrrhonism, and the guy evidently had no fame as a poet. But perhaps it’s a stock sort of laudatory opening, not to be pressed.
Incidentally, Πυρρωνιαστας in the last line is an interesting adaptation of the metrically intractable Πυρρωνιστας (nom.sing., of course).
Good old Sextus tells us in the big book of Pyrrhonism: “συστάσεως δὲ τῆς σκεπτικῆς ἐστιν ἀρχὴ μάλιστα τὸ παντὶ λόγῳ λόγον ἴσον ἀντικεῖσθαι”
Making me think, anyway, that this is obviously: ο παντα πασιν εξισωσας ταν λογῳ
“The one who has set equal everything in speech/reason to everything.”
So ισοσθενεια, I’d think, before εποχη.
Now in the next verse, if the article weren’t there, “καὶ ἀτάραχον ἐν βροτοῖς θεύσας ὀδὸν” would make perfect sense on its own, just like Michael says, and serve as a good reference to αταραξια. “And having run untroubled [slight pun] the mortal way”. But η αταραχος οδος is much more difficult to me. What is this untroubled way that we are supposed to know about? The Pyrrhonic way, as I suggested? Maybe not, but it’s a difficulty for me. Maybe “Ataraxic Way” is good enough though (but then εν βροτοις is a bit tacked on.)
The first verse is probably unrelated…but let’s remember that this guy is being punny. How does he understand “Μενεκλέης”? “Patient glory” seems correct, of course. Or…“Glorious Rage (μενις)”? Surely we can think of a glorious μενις that led the song throughout Hellas?
I like your suggestion that the second line is ισοσθενεια, rather than εποχη.
It is difficult to say without knowing what Menecles actually thought. Was he a follower of Pyrrho himself or early Pyrrhonism as Timon explains it? Or was he part of Aenesidemus’s revival, later Pyrrhonism, which Sextus wrote about later?
Since Menecles lived out in the boonies, as far as Athenian philosophy is concerned, it could be either.
The reason this is relevant is that for Pyrrho and early Pyrrhonism everything revolved around αταραξια - you did whatever you did, and thought whatever you thought, for the sake of the ‘untroubled way’, as in line #3.
On the other hand, ισοσθενεια and εποχη were concepts of later Pyrrhonism, not part of Pyrrho and Timon themselves. They were an attempt at justifying αταραξια, whereas for Pyrrho αταραξια needed no justification but was the starting point.
Or perhaps I am just overthinking it all. As you say, Menecles is being punny, and there are no references to him anywhere else that I know of, so he could have been saying anything with either deep understanding or with no understanding.