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Notes on acceptance (ἡσυχία)
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The Ancient Greek word for the type of acceptance I've been thinking about is most closely related to "acquiescence." [I'll have to explain why I think that word is best.] But that word is from Latin, not Greek, so I started looking at the Greek words for "quiet" and "to become quiet."
I find: ἡσυχία, rest of quiet personified; to be at peace or rest
In the Loeb Classics, it shows up in a number of places, but most interestingly in Pindar's 8th Pythian Ode where it is offered as a proper name: Ἡσυχία. The translator flags it for footnoting: "Hesychia, peace within the polis, is the daughter of Justice."
“And you notice, I think, when people get into many other similar situations in which, when they’re in pain, they praise not the feeling of joy but not being in pain and the relief from that sort of thing as the most pleasant sensation.”
“Yes, this is perhaps what then becomes pleasant and desirable: the relief,” he said.
Robert A. Bauslaugh links the term to "neutrality," as in political inaction due to policy.
Other sources:
I find: ἡσυχία, rest of quiet personified; to be at peace or rest
In the Loeb Classics, it shows up in a number of places, but most interestingly in Pindar's 8th Pythian Ode where it is offered as a proper name: Ἡσυχία. The translator flags it for footnoting: "Hesychia, peace within the polis, is the daughter of Justice."
- Orthodox Eastern Christianity took over this term and changed it to me inner quiet, which leads to oneness with God
- There could be some classical antecedent in Philo’s On Flight and Finding: “To these inquiries the other gives the only right answer, “God will see for Himself”; for the third term is God’s special work. For it is by His taking thought for them that the mind apprehends, and sight sees, and every sense perceives.As for the words “A ram is found held fast,” this is reason keeping quiet and in suspense. For the best offering is quietness and suspense of judgement, in matters that absolutely lack proofs. The only word we may say is this, “God will see.” (ταῦτα πυνθανομένῳ δεόντως ἀποκρίνεται· “ὁ θεὸς ὄψεται ἑαυτῷ”· θεοῦ γὰρ ἔργον ἴδιον τὸ τρίτον. ἐπιφροσύνῃ γὰρ αὐτοῦ ὁ μὲν νοῦς καταλαμβάνει, ἡ δ᾿ ὅρασις ὁρᾷ καὶ πᾶσα αἴσθησις αἰσθάνεται.“κριὸς δ᾿ εὑρίσκεται κατεχόμενος,” τουτέστι λόγος ἡσυχάζων 136καὶ ἐπέχων. ἄριστον γὰρ ἱερεῖον ἡσυχία καὶ | [566]ἐποχὴ περὶ ὧν πάντως οὔκ εἰσι πίστεις. ῥητὸν γὰρ μόνον τοῦτο “ὁ θεὸς ὄψεται,”)
- There could be some classical antecedent in Philo’s On Flight and Finding: “To these inquiries the other gives the only right answer, “God will see for Himself”; for the third term is God’s special work. For it is by His taking thought for them that the mind apprehends, and sight sees, and every sense perceives.As for the words “A ram is found held fast,” this is reason keeping quiet and in suspense. For the best offering is quietness and suspense of judgement, in matters that absolutely lack proofs. The only word we may say is this, “God will see.” (ταῦτα πυνθανομένῳ δεόντως ἀποκρίνεται· “ὁ θεὸς ὄψεται ἑαυτῷ”· θεοῦ γὰρ ἔργον ἴδιον τὸ τρίτον. ἐπιφροσύνῃ γὰρ αὐτοῦ ὁ μὲν νοῦς καταλαμβάνει, ἡ δ᾿ ὅρασις ὁρᾷ καὶ πᾶσα αἴσθησις αἰσθάνεται.“κριὸς δ᾿ εὑρίσκεται κατεχόμενος,” τουτέστι λόγος ἡσυχάζων 136καὶ ἐπέχων. ἄριστον γὰρ ἱερεῖον ἡσυχία καὶ | [566]ἐποχὴ περὶ ὧν πάντως οὔκ εἰσι πίστεις. ῥητὸν γὰρ μόνον τοῦτο “ὁ θεὸς ὄψεται,”)
“And you notice, I think, when people get into many other similar situations in which, when they’re in pain, they praise not the feeling of joy but not being in pain and the relief from that sort of thing as the most pleasant sensation.”
“Yes, this is perhaps what then becomes pleasant and desirable: the relief,” he said.
Robert A. Bauslaugh links the term to "neutrality," as in political inaction due to policy.
Other sources:
- Plutarch, Moralia. Virtue and Vice: “Where, then, is the pleasure in vice, if in no part of it is to be found freedom from care and grief, or contentment or tranquillity or calm?” (Ποῦ τοίνυν τὸ ἡδὺ τῆς κακίας ἐστίν, εἰ μηδαμοῦ τὸ ἀμέριμνον καὶ τὸ ἄλυπον μηδ᾿ αὐτάρκεια μηδ᾿ ἀταραξία μηδ᾿ ἡσυχία)
- On the phrase, “Live Unknown”: “It is the same with a man’s character, which in the inaction of obscurity collects something like a clogging coat of mould. A repose of which nothing is heard and a life stationary and laid away in leisure withers not only the body but the mind; just as pools concealed by overshadowing branches and lying still with no outflow putrefy, so too, it would appear, with quiet lives: as nothing flows from them of any good they have in them and no one drinks of the stream, their inborn powers lose their prime of vigour and fall into decay.” (οὐ μόνον στέγος, ὥς φησι Σοφοκλῆς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἦθος ἀνδρός, οἷον εὐρῶτα καὶ γῆρας ἐν ἀπραξίᾳ δι᾿ ἀγνοίας ἐφελκόμενον. ἡσυχία δὲ κωφὴ καὶ βίος ἑδραῖος ἐπὶ σχολῆς ἀποκείμενος οὐ σώματα μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ψυχὰς μαραίνει· καὶ καθάπερ τὰ λανθάνοντα τῶν ὑδάτων τῷ περισκιάζεσθαι καὶ καθῆσθαι μὴ ἀπορρέοντα σήπεται, οὕτω τῶν ἀκινήτων βίων, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἄν τι χρήσιμον ἔχωσιν μὴ ἀπορρεόντων μηδὲ πινομένων φθείρονται καὶ ἀπογηράσκουσιν αἱ σύμφυτοι δυνάμεις.)
- Even though he is deliberating on the notion of “repose,” he seems to be discussing a certain kind of application of repose and shouldn’t therefore be read as dismissing the kind of “acceptance” I am talking about
- Even though he is deliberating on the notion of “repose,” he seems to be discussing a certain kind of application of repose and shouldn’t therefore be read as dismissing the kind of “acceptance” I am talking about
- In his “The Oracles at Delphi are no longer given in Verse”
- “When the Athenians sought advice about their campaign in Sicily, he directed them to get the priestess of Athena at Erythrae; the name which the woman bore was ‘Quiet.’” (Ἀθηναίοις δὲ περὶ τῆς ἐν Σικελίᾳ μαντευομένοις στρατιᾶς προσέταξε τὴν ἐξ Ἐρυθρῶν10 ἱέρειαν ἀνάγειν11 τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς· ἐκαλεῖτο δ᾿ Ἡσυχία τὸ γύναιον.)
- Footnote affixed to “Quiet” reads, “Cf. Life of Nicias, chap. xiii. (532 a), where it is explained that the god advised them τὴν ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν, “to keep Quiet.”
- Footnote affixed to “Quiet” reads, “Cf. Life of Nicias, chap. xiii. (532 a), where it is explained that the god advised them τὴν ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν, “to keep Quiet.”
- “When the Athenians sought advice about their campaign in Sicily, he directed them to get the priestess of Athena at Erythrae; the name which the woman bore was ‘Quiet.’” (Ἀθηναίοις δὲ περὶ τῆς ἐν Σικελίᾳ μαντευομένοις στρατιᾶς προσέταξε τὴν ἐξ Ἐρυθρῶν10 ἱέρειαν ἀνάγειν11 τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς· ἐκαλεῖτο δ᾿ Ἡσυχία τὸ γύναιον.)
- On the phrase, “Live Unknown”: “It is the same with a man’s character, which in the inaction of obscurity collects something like a clogging coat of mould. A repose of which nothing is heard and a life stationary and laid away in leisure withers not only the body but the mind; just as pools concealed by overshadowing branches and lying still with no outflow putrefy, so too, it would appear, with quiet lives: as nothing flows from them of any good they have in them and no one drinks of the stream, their inborn powers lose their prime of vigour and fall into decay.” (οὐ μόνον στέγος, ὥς φησι Σοφοκλῆς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἦθος ἀνδρός, οἷον εὐρῶτα καὶ γῆρας ἐν ἀπραξίᾳ δι᾿ ἀγνοίας ἐφελκόμενον. ἡσυχία δὲ κωφὴ καὶ βίος ἑδραῖος ἐπὶ σχολῆς ἀποκείμενος οὐ σώματα μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ψυχὰς μαραίνει· καὶ καθάπερ τὰ λανθάνοντα τῶν ὑδάτων τῷ περισκιάζεσθαι καὶ καθῆσθαι μὴ ἀπορρέοντα σήπεται, οὕτω τῶν ἀκινήτων βίων, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἄν τι χρήσιμον ἔχωσιν μὴ ἀπορρεόντων μηδὲ πινομένων φθείρονται καὶ ἀπογηράσκουσιν αἱ σύμφυτοι δυνάμεις.)
- Dio Chrysostom, “Twentieth Discourse: Retirement”: “However, you will object, there is none of these occupations that concentrates the mind, steadies it, and causes it to look with disdain upon all other things; and education, apparently, and philosophy, which best accomplish this, do require great seclusion and retirement; and, just as the sick, unless there is silence and quiet all about them, are unable to get any sleep, so, you see, it is with seekers after learning—unless everybody about them is quiet, and unless there is nothing distracting to be seen or heard, their mind will find it impossible to give attention to its own affairs and to concentrate on these.” (Καίτοι τούτων οὐδέν ἐστι τῶν ἔργων ὃ συνάγει τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ καθίστησι καὶ καταφρονεῖν ποιεῖ τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων. παιδεία δέ, ὡς ἔοικε, καὶ φιλοσοφία, αἳ μάλιστα τοῦτο διαπράττονται, πολλῆς ἐρημίας τε καὶ ἀναχωρήσεως τυγχάνουσι δεόμεναι· καὶ ὥσπερ τοῖς νοσοῦσιν, εἰ μὴ πανταχόθεν ἐστὶ σιωπή τε καὶ ἡσυχία, οὐ δυνατὸν ὕπνου μεταλαβεῖν, οὕτως ἄρα καὶ τοῖς φιλολόγοις· εἰ μὴ πάντες ὑποσιγήσουσιν αὐτοῖς καὶ μήτε ὅραμα μηδὲν ἄλλο ἔσται μήτε ἀκούσματος ἀκούειν μηδενός, οὐκ ἄρα οἵα τε ἔσται ἡ ψυχὴ τοῖς αὑτῆς2 προσέχειν καὶ περὶ ταῦτα γίγνεσθαι.)
- The environmental dimension of this phrase is becoming clear. The place to where one removes oneself can possess ἡσυχία. If ἡσυχία is a precondition for the type of acceptance I am discussing, might I be able to say that acceptance is tantamount to its precondition, to its environment? Not in the case of an external environment but in terms of a type of comportment?
- Similar “environmental” quiet found in Euripides’ Alcestis: “What means this stillness before the palace? Why is the house of Admetus wrapped in silence?” (τί ποθ᾿ ἡσυχία πρόσθεν μελάθρων; τί σεσίγηται δόμος Ἀδμήτου)
- The environmental dimension of this phrase is becoming clear. The place to where one removes oneself can possess ἡσυχία. If ἡσυχία is a precondition for the type of acceptance I am discussing, might I be able to say that acceptance is tantamount to its precondition, to its environment? Not in the case of an external environment but in terms of a type of comportment?
- Galen, “The Art of Medicine”: “When the body needs relaxation, rest is healthy but exercise is morbid.” (ὑγιεινὸν μὲν ἡ ἡσυχία, νοσερὸν δὲ τὸ γυμνάσιον)
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