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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (89490)	11/23/2004 11:58:15 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Hmm. Marcus Aurelius? I'm almost impressed. Did you get that from VeganVanguard.com? Do you think he was speaking of the morality of killing animals? You left out the part that said "and another when he has taken Sarmatians." Sarmatians, you see, were a Eurasian culture of around the 4th century BC to the 4th century AD who were said to raise their women to be strong warriors, even to the point of cauterizing their right breast in infancy to arrest its growth and divert strength to the right arm and shoulder. It is also written that Sarmatian women could not wed until they had killed a man in battle. They were thought by Greek writers to be decended from Amazons of Greek myth and Scythian men. Anyway, it seems to me, if one "has taken Sarmatians", which could be interpretted simply as having defeated them in battle as Marcus Aurelius did, one might feel pride, just as the spider, the fisherman, or the hunter might for their own accomplishments. Do you think, maybe, this is what Marcus Aurelius was speaking of - pride? The author I quote below thinks so, but in any case, I wonder how the reference to Sarmatians fits into your interpretation. Do you think he was speaking of cannibalism? "... But what is glory? Marcus Aurelius observes that "a spider is proud when it has caught a fly, a man when he has caught a hare, another when he has taken a little fish in a net, another when he has taken wild boars, another when he has taken bears, and another when he has taken Sarmatians;" [4] but this, if from one point of view it shows the vanity of fame, also encourages us with the evidence that every one may succeed if his objects are but reasonable. authorama.com Here's the whole paragraph from MA's Meditations, Book X, in case you haven't seen an unedited version: "A spider is proud when it has caught a fly, and another when he has caught a poor hare, and another when he has taken a little fish in a net, and another when he has taken wild boars, and another when he has taken bears, and another when he has taken Sarmatians. Are not these robbers, if thou examinest their opinions?" Makes for nice vegan marketing fodder if you edit it down enough, doesn't it?