-copied from 15, here.
See also the Latin proverb, here.
Andrea is a pagan whose deity is Fortuna. Apparently, a priestess kept the Roman temple of Fortuna clean and tidy but no prayers were offered there because fortune must be respected and cannot be entreated. I agree that chance governs life.
13 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And we see metaphors about chance and fortune being used by philosophers such as Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius' THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY. Have you read that work as well?
Ad astra! Sean
'Fraid not. Can't help noticing the title, of course.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And that surprises me, considering how influential Boethius' work was to Western philosophy. Alfred the Great made somewhat free translations of the CONSOLATION, for example, into Old English.
Ad astra! Sean
Boethius was not on Philosophy courses despite the word "Philosophy" being in his title.
Kaor, Paul!
And I regret that, because Boethius' works (original, translated, and commentaries) were enormously influential in shaping the Western philosophical tradition in Medieval and early Modern times.
Ad astra! Sean
SEan,
But Boethius was Platonist. Our course did cover Plato but not later writers influenced by him.
Paul.
"Fortes fortuna iuvat", but it would be just as accurate to say fortune favors the -prepared-.
A very good observation.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: But Boethius was at least as much an Aristotelian as he was a Platonist. In fact, his translations and commentaries laid down the foundations first for the continued knowledge of Aristotle for the first five centuries of the Middle Ages and then for the revived Aristotelianism of the High Middle Ages. Some critics go so far as to call Boethius the first of the Scholastics.
Mr. Stirling: I've recently finished reading Robert Zubrin's excellent and timely book THE CASE FOR SPACE and had been wondering what non fiction to read next. This discussion of Boethius has gotten me interested in rereading THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY and his THEOLOGICAL TRACTATES.
I was interested by you saying Boethius' words "Fortes fortuna iuvat" could be legitimately translated as "Fortune favors the prepared." I agree there is much truth in that line and it reminded of Flavius Vegetius said in his treatise DE RE MILITARI that "if you want peace prepare for war." That is preparation and being known as being prepared might intimidate or at least make your enemies wary of attacking you!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Bertrand Russell says that, apart from the CONSOLATION, some of the works attributed to Boethius are probably not by him.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Oh, I knew that, when I rechecked what I remembered about Boethius by looking him up in Wikipedia. But primary works, such as his THEOLOGICAL TRACTATES and the CONSOLATION, are accepted as being written by Boethius.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Sean!
I believe that “Fortes fortuna iuvat” means “Fortune favors the bold,” not “the prepared”, and Mr. Stirling’s point was that one could say that fortune favors the prepared, not that that is what the Latin words mean. If I recall my very rusty Latin correctly, “Fortune favors the prepared” would be “Paratos fortuna iuvat.”
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
My Latin is even rustier than yours! So, I have no hesitation accepting your correction.
Ad astra and regards! Sean
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