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| Date: | Thu, 6 Oct 2011 10:57:54 -0700 |
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On Oct 6, 2011, at 9:28 AM, Manfred Kropp wrote:
>
> Just a very pedestrian correction of the Latin citation (probaby of Chilon of Sparta;http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilon_von_Sparta):
> de mortuis nil nisi bene (not: bonum)
>
And even more pedantically. If Chilon of Sparta said it, and Diogenes Laėrtius who quoted it, it certainly wasn't in Latin.
However the Latin was then and is now "de mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est" where bonum is an adjective acting as a noun and NOT an adverb which is what bene is. Bene would be correct only if the phrase was something like "speak only well of the dead", which is certainly the intent of the phrase
My Latin is I fear rather rusty as it is now 60 years ago I first started learning Latin in the class of Father John Flynn SJ, of whom we freshman were rightly terrified. Still, there are somethings which stick even now.
Still, if we wish to have a good Latin phrase to honor Steve, the lines on the tomb of Christopher Wren come to mind. "Si momentum requires, circumspice" (If you require a monument, look around."
rich
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Rich Hansen
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