From akriman@darwin.helios.nd.edu Sun Mar 11 12:51:53 2001 Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.9]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.11.2+UW01.01/8.11.2+UW01.02) with ESMTP id f2BKppL31890 for ; Sun, 11 Mar 2001 12:51:51 -0800 Received: from mailspool.helios.nd.edu (mailspool.helios.nd.edu [129.74.250.7]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id MAA22407 for ; Sun, 11 Mar 2001 12:51:50 -0800 Received: from darwin.helios.nd.edu (darwin.helios.nd.edu [129.74.250.114]) by mailspool.helios.nd.edu (8.9.2/8.9.2) with ESMTP id PAA14317 for ; Sun, 11 Mar 2001 15:51:49 -0500 (EST) Received: (from akriman@localhost) by darwin.helios.nd.edu (8.10.1/8.10.1/ND-cluster) id f2BKpm717544 for classics@u.washington.edu; Sun, 11 Mar 2001 15:51:49 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 15:51:49 -0500 (EST) From: Alfred M Kriman Message-Id: <200103112051.f2BKpm717544@darwin.helios.nd.edu> To: classics@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: RFK & the Greeks, again. Diana Wright wrote > "Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: > to tame the savageness of man and to make gentle the life of this > world." [RFK, Indianapolis, 4/4/68] > > I'm sure this has been discussed here before, and more than once, but > can someone tell me just where the Greeks wrote it. There has never been a very satisfactory answer. It is certainly from Edith Hamilton, but whence and how freely she translated is unclear. There was a confusing thread on August 24 1997 [[1]] in which Raymond Cormier recalled [[2]] > "And he ended softly, almost in a > whisper: 'And as we look to the future I think we > all share a goal, put down in the words of > Aeschylus, a goal which my brothers used > to quote--'To tame the savageness of man > and make gentle the life of the world.'" Fred Zimmerman pointed out [[3,4]] > In his book 85 days: The last campaign of Robert Kennedy, Jules Witcover > quotes RFK speaking in Indianapolis the night Martin Luther King was shot: > "My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: 'In our sleep, pain which cannot > forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against > our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God." Later in the > speech, according to Witcover, RFK said: "Let us dedicate outselves to what > the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and to > make gentle the life of the world." (pp. 141-2) A year ago Jenny Strauss Clay wrote [[5]] > Can anyone give me the source of this "old inscription" cited by Edith > Hamilton in her book, The Ever-Present Past: > > An old Greek inscription states that the aim of mankind should be "to tame > the savageness of man and make gentle the life of the world." In a thread of June 1999, Judy Hallett wrote > The Lowell poem ... [quoted by Diana Wright to begin the thread] > ... poem begins MAKE GENTLE THE LIFE OF THIS WORLD:THE VISION OF > ROBERT F KENNEDY, edited and with an introduction by Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, > RFK's son (Harcourt Brace 1998). Several copies of this book were sent to the > spring CAAS meeting in Maryland two blocks from the DC line by Max' sister, > Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who could not attend and > participate in the after-dinner remarks on "Reflections on Robert F. Kennedy > and the Classics." She did, however, send a letter on the topic. I can quote > it on the list if people are interested (and if so do you want full text or > excerpts?).> > The speaker, Michael Knox Beran, author of THE LAST PATRICIAN: BOBBY KENNEDY > AND THE END OF AMERICAN ARISTOCRACY (St Martin's 1998) did, I believe, refer > to Lowell's poem (... ****************************************************************************** *> ... (my own remarks were all about Edith Hamilton and her 1957 *> CAAS address that "launched" "to tame the savageness of man and make gentle *> the life of this world"). ... ****************************************************************************** [[1]] Search on subject heads containing "Aeschylus quote" or "Kennedy" in gopher://140.142.56.13/1m/public/classics/classics.log9708e [[2]] gopher://140.142.56.13/0R14292-16776-/public/classics/classics.log9708e [[3]] 1999-01-28 gopher://140.142.56.13/0R411362-414689-/public/classics/classics.log9901e [[4]] 2000-03-06 gopher://140.142.56.13/0R95094-98092-/public/classics/classics.log200003b [[5]] 2000-03-06 gopher://140.142.56.13/0R81071-82930-/public/classics/classics.log200003b [[6]] Search on subject heads with "RFK" -- two in gopher://140.142.56.13/1m/public/classics/classics.log9906a and six in gopher://140.142.56.13/1m/public/classics/classics.log9906b [[7]] 1999-06-06 gopher://140.142.56.13/0R25466-29649-/public/classics/classics.log9906b AMK .