“Never take confidential counsel, Cyrnus, with a bad man when you would accomplish an important matter, but seek the counsel of the good, Cyrnus, even if it means much labor and a long journey.” Theognis, Elegies 69–72

“Sickness is an impediment to the body, but not to the will, unless will itself wishes it to be. Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to the will; and say this to yourself with regard to everything that happens. For you will find it to be an impediment to something else, but not truly to yourself.” Epictetus, The Handbook 9

"Do not fiddle with a good life, but rather keep it undisturbed; but you should stir the evil life till you ease it into safety." Theognis, Elegies 303–304

“If you love me and the heart within you is loyal, do not be my friend in word only, with heart and mind turned contrary; either love me with a whole heart, or disown me and hate me in open quarrel. Whosoever is in two minds with one tongue, he, Cyrnus, is a dangerous comrade, better as foe than friend.” Theognis, Elegies 87–92

Tonight is a full moon in Leo.

"Even though one takes a fancy to roam, wisdom has large and spacious retreats: we may investigate the nature of the gods, the fuel which feeds the constellations, or all the varied courses of the stars; we may speculate whether our affairs move in harmony with those of the stars, whether the impulse to motion comes from thence into the minds and bodies of all, and whether even these events which we call fortuitous are fettered by strict laws and nothing in this universe is unforeseen or unregulated in its revolutions. Such topics have nowadays been withdrawn from instruction in morals, but they uplift the mind and raise it to the dimensions of the subject which it discusses ..." Seneca, Letters 117

“If one praises you so long as he sees you, but speaks ill of you behind your back, such a friend, for sure, is not a very good friend—the man whose tongue speaks fair but whose mind thinks ill. But I would be friends with him who seeks to know his friend’s temper and bear with him like a brother. And you, friend, consider this well, and someday hereafter you will remember me.” Theognis, Elegies 93–100

“Never make the bad man your friend, but flee him ever like a harbor full of rocks.” Theognis, Elegies 113–114

There is an understandable impulse to defend classical spirituality (and Platonism in particular) from naysayers, but I recommend denying this impulse.

Our community is quite small, and we are ordinary people with jobs, families, etc. Thus, our resources are severely limited.

It is therefore in our strategic interest to focus our energy as efficiently as possible. Arguing with people who are never going to agree with us is a waste of our limited resources.

Our energy is much more productively utilized by targeted research and outreach. The reality is that traditional Platonism as a spiritual practice is not yet well understood and is virtually unknown outside of niche Internet circles. Addressing those two issues are of paramount importance.

Yes, it's fun to "own" them in arguments, but it is not a good use of our energy right now. There will likely come a time for high profile public defense, and at that time we will easily crush the ankle biters, but that time, I suggest, is not now.

Please consider picking a high priority research topic and focusing your energy on that instead. In the long run, that will be many times more impactful than arguing with someone who won't and, in some cases, can't understand you.

- CWT Admin

“Do not demand that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will do well.” Epictetus, The Handbook 8

"Since errors come from false opinion while the passions arise by an irrational impulse, I thought the first step was for a man to free himself from his passions; for these passions are probably the reason why we fall into false opinions. And there are passions of the soul which everybody knows: anger, wrath, fear, grief, envy, and violent lust. ... How, then, could a man cut out these passions if he
did not first know that he had them? But as we said, it is impossible to know them, since we love ourselves to excess. ... If you
find such a [good and excellent] man, summon him and talk with him one day in private; ask him to reveal straightway whatever of the above-mentioned passions he may see in you. Tell him you will be most grateful for this service and that you will look on him as your deliverer more than if he had saved you from an illness of the body. Have him promise to reveal it whenever he sees you affected by any of the passions I mentioned."

Galen, On the Passions and Errors of the Soul 3

Below is a list of classical music compositions which are based on or inspired by Greek or Roman mythology, religion, or philosophy.

Ludwig van Beethoven
The Creatures of Prometheus (ballet)

Hector Berlioz
The Trojans (opera: based on Virgil's Aeneid)

Francesco Cavalli
Hercules in Love (opera)

Luigi Cherubini
Medea (opéra-comique)

Claude Debussy
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (symphonic poem)

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
Six Symphonies After Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Gabriel Fauré
Prométhée (cantata)

César Franck
Psyché (symphonic poem)

Christoph Willibald Gluck
Alceste (opera)
Iphigenia in Tauris (opera)
Orpheus and Eurydice (opera)
Paris and Helen (opera)

Reynaldo Hahn
Andromeda Resigned (poem for piano)
Eros Hidden in the Woods (poem for piano)
Ouranos (poem for piano)
Prometheus Triumphant (choral poem)

G.F. Handel
Acis and Galatea (pastoral opera)
Acis, Galatea and Polyphemus (serenata)
The Choice of Hercules (oratorio)
Hercules (oratorio)
Semele (oratorio)

Gustav Holst
The Planets (orchestral suite)

Leonardo Leo
The Marriage of Iole and Hercules (cantata)

Franz Liszt
Symphonic Poem No. 4 "Orpheus"
Symphonic Poem No. 5 “Prometheus”

Jean-Baptiste Lully
Phaëton (opera)

Felix Mendelssohn
Oedipus at Colonus (incidental music for the Sophocles play)

Wolfgang Mozart
Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter" (note: "Jupiter" is a nickname and not the title given by Mozart himself)
Apollo and Hyacinthus

Claudio Monteverdi
The Coronation of Poppaea (opera: features numerous Roman gods as well as the philosopher Seneca)
L'Orfeo (opera)
The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland (opera)

Jacques Offenbach
Daphnis et Chloé (operetta)

Carl Orff
Antigone (opera)

Henry Purcell
Dido and Aeneas (opera)

Jean-Philippe Rameau
Hippolytus and Aricia (opera)

Maurice Ravel
Daphnis et Chloé (ballet)

J.F. Rebel
Ulysses (opera)

Albert Roussel
Bacchus and Ariane (ballet)

Erik Satie
Socrates (symphonic drama)

Alexander Scriabin
Prometheus: The Poem of Fire (tone poem)

Gaspare Spontini
The Vestal Virgin (opera)

Johann Strauss II
Echoes of Rhadamantus (waltz)

Richard Strauss
Ariadne on Naxos (opera)
The Love of Danae (opera)
Daphne (opera)

Igor Stravinsky
Apollo (ballet)
Oedipus Rex (opera)

Karol Szymanowski
Myths (violin & piano)
The Fountain of Arethusa
Narcissus
Dryads and Pan

Antonio Vivaldi
Hercules in Thermodon (opera)

“It is well to be guest at a feast and sit beside a good man who knows all learning; you should listen to him when he says any truth, so that you may learn and go home with so much gained.” Theognis, Elegies 563–566

Mozart wrote a one-act opera based on Cicero's Dream of Scipio.

“Therefore, no athlete is so called upon to train his body as is a king to train his soul; for not all the public festivals in the world offer a prize comparable to those for which you who are kings strive every day of your lives.” Isocrates, To Nicocles 12

"The things that go towards the maintenance of human life can be classified as follows: Certain of them are inanimate, for example gold and silver and the products of the earth and other objects of the same kind. Others are animate, endowed with their own impulses and appetites. Some of these animate objects are rational, others irrational. The irrational subdivision includes horses, oxen and other animals which labour for the service and subsistence of mankind. The rational category is divided into two sections, gods and men. The gods will be satisfied if one lives a devout and pure life. Next to the gods, and after them, the greatest contribution to the lives of mankind is made by men themselves. And if we then turn to things of the opposite type, those which can hurt and damage human beings, and if we attempt a similar classification here, we have to record our belief that the gods are not capable of doing harm to mortals. They, therefore, must be left out of account in this connexion; and it has to be concluded that the greatest source of harm to man is man."

-Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), On the Good Life.
Image by The Chad Pastoralist.

“Mere reputation is a great ill, trial is best; many have a reputation for good who have never been tried.” Theognis, Elegies 571–572

"Let everyone dearly love his lawful wife and beget children by her. But let none shed the seed due his children into any other person, and let him not disgrace that which is honorable by both nature and law. For nature produced the seed for the sake of producing children, and not for the sake of lust.

A wife should be chaste and refuse impious connection with other men, for otherwise she will subject herself to the vengeance of the daimons, whose office it is to expel those to whom they are hostile from their house, and to produce hatred."

Preface to the Laws of Charondas the Catanean

“As for sexual pleasure, abstain as far as you can before marriage, but if you do indulge in it, do it in a way that is lawful. Do not, however, be disagreeable to those who indulge in these pleasures, or reprove them, and do not often boast that you don’t indulge in them yourself.” Epictetus, The Handbook 33

"You will also find in Homer other principles and origins of all-various names, which are considered by the stupid as nothing more than fables, but are regarded by the philosopher as realities. There is also in him the principle of virtue, but it is called Minerva, and is present with its possessor in all-various labours. There is likewise the principle of love, but it is ascribed to Venus, who presides over the cestus, and imparts desire. The principle of art too is to be found in him, but it is Vulcan who governs fire and communicates art. But with him Apollo rules over the choir, the Muses over the song, Mars over war, Aeolus over the winds, Ocean over rivers, and Ceres over fruits; and there is nothing in Homer without deity, nothing without a ruler, nothing without a principle, but all things are full of divine speeches, and divine names, and divine art."

Maximus Tyrius, Dissertation 16

And if someone assumed that the origin of love was the longing for beauty itself which was there before in men's souls, and their recognition of it and kinship with it and unreasoned awareness that it is something of their own, he would hit, I think, on the truth about its cause. For the ugly is opposed to nature and to God. For nature when it creates looks towards beauty, and it looks towards the definite, which is "in the column of the good"; but the indefinite is ugly and belongs to the other column. And nature has its origin from above, from the Good, and obviously, from Beauty.

Plotinus, Enneads 3.5.1

"One after another the roots prevail as the cycle goes around,
Fading into one another and increasing as their appointed turn arrives.
For they are just themselves, and by running through one another
They become men and all the other kinds of creatures,
Now being brought together by love into a single orderly arrangement,
Now being borne asunder by the hostility of strife,
Until they grow together as one and the totality is overcome.
Thus, in that they have learnt to become one from many
And turn into many again when the one is divided,
In this sense they come to be and have an impermanent life;
But in that they never cease from alternation,
They are for ever unchanging in a cycle."

Empedocles, fragment DK 31B26