RESPECT THE END!

I am having some fun with this entry’s title, which is my unorthodox translation of the familiar Latin phrase Finem Respice. Commonly translated as Consider the end or Look to the end, I find these usual translations inelegant at the least, and to convey the spirit of the phrase, I use the word respect, which is etymologically derived from respicere, the verb used in the Latin phrase. The new meaning, in my translation, corresponds best to the saying in Latin, not to mention the obvious fact that it possesses a superior literary elegance.

Why have I chosen this phrase in the first place? This is not an original Latin dictum, but a translation from Greek, with the original belonging to our next member of the hoi hepta sophoi club, Chilon of Sparta.

There are two references to Chilon in the Histories of Herodotus, both depicting him as a very wise man. In one of them, having interpreted a certain omen, he is advising a certain Hippocrates (no, not the Hippocrates!) not to have children, and should he have a son after all, to disown him in a hurry. Hippocrates naturally dismisses his advice and eventually gives birth to Pisistratus, the future tyrant of Athens, of rather controversial memory. The other reference is similarly somber: it is a certain prophesy about the island of Kythera, to play such a negative role for the future of Sparta that he wishes the island had sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Having already presented Chilon’s signature phrase Respect the end (which becomes self-explanatory, once we substitute outcome for the end) here are a few more of his didactic aphorisms for the reader to enjoy:

Honor old age. (This is a virtually universal adage. Was he the first to have it attributed to him?)

Do not speak evil of the dead. (Was de mortuis aut bene aut nihil adapted from Chilon’s Greek, or perhaps, were they both products of spontaneous generation?)

Restrain anger. (Good psychiatry, on occasion, but definitely relative to the circumstances.)

Obey the laws. (Is this morality of the Kantian categorical imperative, or prudence in an age of capable law enforcement?)

Prefer punishment to disgraceful gain; for the one is painful but once, but the other, for your whole life. (The moralist stands up and delivers…)

Do not laugh at a person in misfortune. (A good lesson in elementary human decency.)

Do not let your tongue outrun your sense, especially at a party. (Most useful advice, as we know that loose lips sink one’s own lifeboat.)

When you speak, do not gesticulate, for it is a sign of madness. (Does Dr. James Tyler Kent say it too?)

Do not make threats, leave this to women. (The most masculine advice ever given!)

Do not dislike divination. (Why not?)

Do not desire what is impossible. (Do not dream the impossible dream, ye who enter here!)

Do not make too much haste on your road. (Or, as the English rhymers used to rhyme, “haste makes waste.”)

If you are strong, be also merciful, so that your neighbors may respect you, rather than fear you. (Or, in other words, if you are really strong, don’t be a bully!)

Learn how to regulate your own house well. (This is too prosaic, for my aesthetic taste!)

Diogenes Laertius tells how he died a happy man, and, in this case, I see no reason to doubt his story: se non e vero, e ben trovato! Already a very old man, he was a spectator at the Olympic Games in which his son or grandson participated. Seeing him win the laurels, Chilon departed this world on the wings of happiness.