Alcaeus: Not even our hairs fall if God does not want it

In this post we present and analyze a very interesting excerpt from Alcaeus, the lyric poet.

Αncient Greek: ‘το γαρ εμμόρμενον Όρφευς εβιάσδετο πάρφαις άνδρεσι τοίς γεινομένοισιν θάνατον φυγήν, αι πάνται σοφός ήι και φρεσί πύκναισι κεκασμένος. νήπιος, παρά μοίραν Δίος ουδέ τρίχες έρρυεν’

English: ‘Orpheus violated ‘fate’ (the word is ‘μοίρα‘, actually meaning ‘the share, the allotment of life set for him’ -obviously, from God/the Divine Being), with fraud, he escaped death, common for all people that are born, even though he’s been wise in everything and exceptional in mind. The fool. If it is not set by Δίας ( = Zeus/Deus)*, not even our hairs fall’

NovoScriptorium: Many times people put great effort to achieve extreme things, often close enough to the ‘supernatural’. It has always been a secret desire of man to extent his living on Earth. And he does everything to achieve it;

a) We know about relevant weird experiments that some authoritarian regimes attempted in the Past – atrocities in which both animals and humans participated

b) Ways of extending ‘life’ through mechanical and eletronic means are still studied

c) We know of rich and famous people today who systematically pay great amounts of money in an attempt to extend their life (e.g. organ transplants, daily hemodialysis, etc.)

But, how vain all these are! ‘Foolish‘ are called by the ancient poet. Even though they use all the ‘wisdom’ of Man and his greatest achievements. Not even our hairs fall if God does not want it! The more Humanity’s apostasy from God/the Divine Being grows, and the more Humanity insists on the ‘deification’ of her own achievements, then she is condemned to suffer the consequences of such an ‘Ύβρις‘/Hubris [meaning: insult, abuse, excessive pride or self-confidence, (in Greek tragedy) excessive pride towards or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis].

Because, as Alceus describes it, this is a ‘foolish’ choice. And ‘foolish’ choices bring predictable and awaited consequences in various levels. Instead of struggling to let go (in an active, not a passive way, of course) of ourselves to the Divine Will, we deify our own! We people look really ridiculous when conceit and pride are dominant among us; let’s visualize the bigger picture, when we do the same, not now towards another human being but, towards God/the Divine Being.

*About the words ‘Ζεύς, Δεύς/Δίας’ (Zeus, Deus) and their meaning please read here.

Research-Analysis for NovoScriptorium: Isidoros Aggelos