Vida Yao 姚维达

Department of Philosophy, Rice University

6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005-1892

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      Morality: An Introduction
      Writing about moral philosophy should be a hazardous business, not just for reasons attendant on writing about any difficult subject, or writing about anything, but for two special reasons.

      The first is that one is likely to reveal the limitations and inadequacies of one's own perceptions more directly than in, at least, other parts of philosophy.

      The second is that one could run the risk, if one were taken seriously, of misleading people about matters of importance.

      While few writers on the subject have avoided the first hazard, very many have avoided the second, either by making it impossible to take them seriously, or by refusing to write about anything of importance, or both.

      Bernard Williams, xvii.
      Her knees failed,
      and her heart failed
      as she listened to the words,
      and all her power of speech went out of her.

      Tears came; but the rich voice would not come.

      Homer, Book IV, 730.

      Why has my child left me?
      "He had no need of those long ships on which men shake out sail to tug like horses, breasting miles of sea.
      Why did he go? Must he, too, be forgotten?

      Then Medon, a perceptive man, replied:

      "A god moved him -- who knows? -- or his own heart sent him to learn"

      Homer Book IV 758.
      Death is evil. So the gods decided.
      Otherwise they would die.

      Aristotle, Rhetoric, 1398B
      Now face to face
      the magical Kalypso recognized him,
      as all immortal gods know one another
      on sight - though seeming strangers, far from home.

      Homer
      My dear, I see the likeness as well as you do. Odysseus' hands and feet were like this boy's; his head, and hair, and the glinting of his eyes. Not only that, but when I spoke, just now, of Odysseus' years of toil on my behalf and all he had to endure -- the boy broke down and wept into his cloak.

      Homer
      And while he pondered, Helen came
      out of her centered chamber, a moving grace
      like Artemis,

      straight as a shaft of of gold.

      Homer
      Crazy woman
      why are you bragging to me about a ring?

      Sappho [5a incert.]
      Happiness
      Wealth without virtue is no harmless neighbor
      but by mixing both you are on the peak of joy.

      Sappho [148]

      Photo: Ulrika Carlsson
      Shall I?
      I don't know what to do.
      I think yes - and then no.

      Sappho [51]
      Why?
      为什么? (Chinese, simplified)

      --Sappho

      Why?
      为什么? (Chinese, simplified)

      --Homer
      Here were no coves or harborage or shelter,
      only steep headlands, rockfallen reefs and crags.

      Odysseus' knees grew slack, his heart faint,
      a heaviness came over him, and he said:

      "A cruel turn, this."
      Fury
      When anger is flooding through your chest

      Best to quiet your restless barking tongue

      Sappho, [158].
      Innocence
      I am not of a wounding spirit
      rather I have a gentle heart

      Sappho [120]
      All hands aboard;

      come, clear the beach and no one taste

      the Lotos, or you lose your hope of home.

      Homer, Book IX, 108.
      Seizure
      To me he seems equal to gods,
      the man who sits facing you
      and hears you near as you speak
      softly and laugh

      in a sweet echo that jolts
      the heart in my ribs. Now
      when I look at you a moment
      my voice is empty

      and can say nothing as my tongue
      cracks and slender fire races
      under my skin. My ears are dead to light, my ears...

      Yes I must suffer, even poor

      Sappho [31].


      Pleasure
      On a soft pillow
      I will lay down my limbs

      Sappho [46]
      I Shall
      As long as you want to

      Sappho [45]
      After these years, a helping hand? O goddess,
      what guile is hidden here?

      Homer, Book V, 183.
      Sacrifice
      To you I will pour wine

      over flesh of a white goat

      Sappho, [40 INCERT. (13)]
      Athena showered sleep that his distress should end, and soon, soon.

      In quiet sleep she sealed his cherished eyes.
      To Eros
      You burn us

      Sappho [38].


      When I was young I wove garlands

      Sappho [125].
      End of a Party
      Beautiful
      he throws peace into frenzy
      and exhaustion and dumbs the mind.
      Sitting

      But come, my friends.
      Soon daybreak.

      Sappho [43].

      [John Lawless, johnlawless.org; Chris Dorst, chrisdorst.com; Robert Smithson, robertsmithsonphilosophy.com, Craig Warmke, craigwarmke.com at the wedding of Samuel and Susan Reis-Dennis, in St.Louis.]
      Tell me why you should grieve so terribly... That was all gods' work, weaving ruin there so it should make for a song for men to come!...

      True it is, a wise friend can take a brother's place in our affection.

      Homer, Book VIII, 617.
      Of Those Unwilling to Take the Bitter with the Sweet
      I care for neither honey
      nor the honeybee

      Sappho [146].
      Endure
      Bring about?

      I want
      to hang on
      she said

      Sappho [76].
      So he appealed to them, one after another,
      going from left to right, with open palm,
      as though his life time had been spent in beggary.
      And they gave him bread, for pity -- wondering, though,
      at the strange man. Who could this beggar be,
      where did he come from?

      Homer, Book XVII, 475.
      Walking to a Wedding
      Yes you were once a child
      come sing these things
      talk to us and give us
      your grace

      Sappho [27].
      Time of Youth
      You will
      remember
      we did these things
      in our youth,


      many and beautiful things.

      Sappho [24, a, b, c]
      Yet I love refinement and Eros has got me
      brightness and the beauty of the sun.

      Sappho [58c (lines 25-26)].
      Moses Hall; adultery-theft-falsewitness-covetingcovetingcoveting
      She could not close her eyes till all was told.

      Homer, Book XXIII, 347.
      Handsome man
      Stand and face me, my love,
      & scatter the grace in your eyes

      Sappho [138].
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