SINCE YOU'RE MORTAL . . .

One-liners from Athens.

Our knowledge of Greek drama encompasses only a fraction of the scores of plays that must have been produced in Athens’ Golden Age. The tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, as well as the comic work of Aristophanes and the later Greek writer, Menander, offered moral advice to their audiences while moving, entertaining, and provoking them through some of the greatest literary characters ever imagined. This anthology by classics scholar Romm draws on the work of the 5th-century C.E. Greek-speaking Balkan writer known today as Stobaeus (literally, the man from the city of Stobi). Stobaeus collected maxims from the ancient dramatists to offer guidance to his own son, and his work survived the eddies of medieval manuscript transmission to come down to us today, not only as a collection of quotations but as a wonderful advisory manual. Stobaeus and his contemporaries preserved the meaty teachings of the ancients, while the bodies of their plays decayed to skeletons, lost by later copyists. Romm’s book, therefore, offers many firsts: the first translation into English of Stobaeus’ collection; the first anthology of fragments from the lost plays; and the first book of its kind for the general reader. We encounter many memorable lessons here: “Oaths sworn in lust are not enforceable”; “Humanity: an adequate cause of disaster”; “The truly happy man should never leave home”; “No wedding cake is baked among the dead”; “Blessed is the one who has both wealth and sense.” This book should be in the pocket of anyone who wants a riposte for an argument, a pick-me-up on a bad day, or an email signoff from a father to a child.

A hard-to-resist collection of ancient advice, bristling with lessons for the modern reader tossed on life’s seas.