#WingedWordsWindsday: 2022/08/31 -- Celebrating Ancient & Modern Scientists! :)

 WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 1, No. 44: August 31, 2022

 

 

Hippocrates, Aristotle, & Maxwell

 

Editor’s Note

This week, in honr of the new academic year, we salute scientific research both ancient and modern, featuring articles about the Classical Greek scientists Hippocrates and Aristotle, along with a poem by the Scottish mathematician, James Clerk Maxwell.

 

“Meet Dr. Hippocrates:

The Father of Western Medicine”

By Rob Chappell, M.A.

Adapted & Condensed from Cursus Honorum VI: 6 (January 2006)

                Hippocrates (ca. 460-380 BCE) is widely regarded as the “Father of Western Medicine” by historians of the medical sciences. He was apprenticed to a physician during his youth and spent most of his life on the Greek island of Kos. There stood the famous temple of Asclepius (the divine patron of medicine and healing in the Olympian pantheon), which attracted countless pilgrims seeking medical help for various illnesses and injuries. Having observed firsthand the medical practices of the temple’s physician-priests, Hippocrates resolved to banish superstition and magic from medicine. In his teaching and practice, he emphasized the role of observation (carefully examining patients) and asking patients detailed questions about their present condition and medical history. His treatments emphasized the need for proper nutrition and exercise and the use of remedies that had a proven record of success. Due to the effectiveness of his scientifically-based treatment methods, Hippocrates’ fame spread rapidly across the Mediterranean world, drawing both patients and would-be apprentices to his school.

                A collection of about sixty treatises on medicine and related subjects, based on Hippocrates’ observations and experiments, was compiled by his students and successors over several generations. These books transmitted Hippocrates’ teachings to future generations and ensured that he would be revered for millennia to come as a brilliant scientist and dedicated physician. The most famous of the Hippocratic treatises is the Hippocratic Oath, which most physicians still take (in one form or another) upon graduation from medical school. The Oath introduced the cardinal precept of the medical profession, “Primum non nocere” (Latin: “First, do no harm”), and it required physicians to guarantee their patients’ confidentiality. Moreover, the Oath sought to stamp out quackery by describing the apprenticeship that medical students must undergo to be qualified to practice medicine professionally and to train their own apprentices in turn.

                Hippocrates is a sterling example of how one scientist can change the world for the better through research, teaching, and writing. His entire lifetime was spent in the service of his fellow human beings, and his wisdom and insight still inspire young people to take up the challenge of improving the human condition through the scientific method that he pioneered.

 

A Hippocratic Webliography

·         http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Hippocrates.html -- A collection of English translations of the Hippocratic treatises, including the world-famous Oath.

·         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates -- Encyclopedia article about Hippocrates, the “Father of Western Medicine.”

·         https://iep.utm.edu/hippocra/ -- An introductory overview of Hippocrates’ life, teachings, and legacy.

 

“Aristotle: The Master of Those Who Know”

By Rob Chappell, M.A.

Adapted & Condensed from Cursus Honorum VI: 9 (April 2006)

                Before the rise of modern science, what is known today as the scientific enterprise was called “natural philosophy” – that is, “the study of Nature’s wisdom.” One of the foremost “natural philosophers” of Classical Greece was Aristotle (384-322 BCE), whose writings encompass such diverse subjects as physics, astronomy, geosciences, ethics, politics, logic, psychology, biology, rhetoric, and metaphysics. Aristotle was hailed as the “Master of Those Who Know” when European scholars rediscovered his writings and translated them into Latin during the 11^th century. As his writings were disseminated across Europe, he came to be regarded as “THE Philosopher” by his Scholastic admirers at Europe’s leading medieval universities.

                Born in 384 BCE at Stagira in northern Greece, Aristotle journeyed to Athens in his late teens and became a student (and later a teacher) at Plato’s Academy. After Plato’s death in 347 BCE, Aristotle traveled and conducted botanical research with Theophrastus, one of his students. In 343 BCE, Aristotle was invited by King Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor of Philip’s son and heir, Alexander the Great. After Alexander had ascended to the throne of Macedon and started his conquest of the Persian Empire, Aristotle returned to Athens, where he set up his own school of philosophy, the Lyceum. Over the next twelve years, he composed a great number of books on a wide variety of topics (including both the sciences and the humanities) until at last he retired to the Greek island of Euboea, where he died in 322 BCE.

                Aristotle was a keen observer of the natural world. Some of his theories have been disproved since the Scientific Revolution, such as his geocentric model of the Solar System and his belief in the spontaneous generation of living organisms. Nonetheless, he made meticulous observations of both living and nonliving things, and based on those observations, he devised a logically consistent system of scientific classifications that endured for two millennia.

 

“Mine is the first step and therefore a small one, though worked out with much thought and hard labor. You, my readers or hearers of my lectures, if you think I have done as much as can fairly be expected of an initial start, will acknowledge what I have achieved and will pardon what I have left for others to accomplish.” à Aristotle

 

                Aristotle was also interested in what we would call the humanities. His writings on ethics and political science display his deep insights into human nature and the social order. He is often regarded as the first Western literary critic because of his writings on the aesthetics of poetry and rhetoric. Aristotle also ventured into the realm of metaphysics: his reasoned speculations about the nature of ultimate reality have exercised a profound influence on Western philosophy ever since.

 

Resources for Further Exploration:

Aristotle and His World of Ideas

·         http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Aristotle.html à English Translations of Aristotle’s Works from the Internet Classics Archive

·         https://iep.utm.edu/aristotl/ à Article from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

·         https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/ à Article from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

 

In this detail from Raphael’s The School of Athens (1509), Aristotle (at right) is pictured with his teacher, Plato (at left). (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

“A Student’s Evening Hymn”

By James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

 

Now no more the slanting rays

With the mountain summits dally,

Now no more in crimson blaze

Evening’s fleecy cloudless rally,

Soon shall Night front off the valley

Sweep that bright yet earthly haze,

And the stars most musically

Move in endless rounds of praise.

 

While the world is growing dim,

And the Sun is slow descending

Past the far horizon’s rim,

Earth's low sky to heaven extending,

Let my feeble earth-notes, blending

With the songs of cherubim,

Through the same expanse ascending,

Thus renew my evening hymn.

 

Thou that fills our waiting eyes

With the food of contemplation,

Setting in thy darkened skies

Signs of infinite creation,

Grant to nightly meditation

What the toilsome day denies —

Teach me in this earthly station

Heavenly Truth to realize.

 

Give me wisdom so to use

These brief hours of thoughtful leisure,

That I may no instant lose

In mere meditative pleasure,

But with strictest justice measure

All the ends my life pursues,

Lies to crush and truths to treasure,

Wrong to shun and Right to choose.

 

Then, when unexpected Sleep,

O’er my long-closed eyelids stealing,

Opens up that lower deep

Where Existence has no feeling,

May sweet Calm, my languor healing,

Lend note strength at dawn to reap

All that Shadows, world-concealing,

For the bold enquirer keep.

 

Through the creatures Thou hast made

Show the brightness of Thy glory,

Be eternal Truth displayed

In their substance transitory,

Till green Earth and Ocean hoary,

Massy rock and tender blade

Tell the same unending story —

"We are Truth in Form arrayed."

 

When to study I retire,

And from books of ancient sages

Glean fresh sparks of buried fire

Lurking in their ample pages —

While the task my mind engages

Let old words new truths inspire —

Truths that to all after-ages

Prompt the Thoughts that never tire.

 

Yet if, led by shadows fair

I have uttered words of folly,

Let the kind absorbing air

Stifle every sound unholy.

So when Saints with Angels lowly

Join in heaven’s unceasing prayer,

Mine as certainly, though slowly,

May ascend and mingle there.

 

Teach me so Thy works to read

That my faith — new strength accruing, —

May from world to world proceed,

Wisdom's fruitful search pursuing;

Till, thy truth my mind imbuing,

I proclaim the Eternal Creed,

Oft the glorious theme renewing

God our Lord is God indeed.

 

Give me love aright to trace

Thine to everything created,

Preaching to a ransomed race

By Thy mercy renovated,

Till with all thy fulness sated

I behold thee face to face

And with Ardor unabated

Sing the glories of thy grace.

 

 

Happy New Years: Egyptian (8/29) & Byzantine (9/1)!

Hello everyone – 

This week, we remember the ancient Egyptian New Year’s Day (TODAY, 8/29) and the medieval Byzantine New Year’s Day (Thursday, 9/1). Summer is definitely on the wane, and fall is about to arrive (but not quite yet). Here are some poems that I recall from my elementary school days that encapsulate my thoughts and memories of this amazing time of year!

 

“Back to School” by Helen H. Moore

Summer's almost gone now,

And on the streets we see

School buses filled with children

Where ice cream trucks should be.

 

“Fall Is Here” by Helen H. Moore

Fall is here. Another year is coming to an end.

Summer’s finished, summer’s gone, winter’s round the bend.

Fall is piles of crunchy leaves, orange, gold, and red.

Fall is sweaters with long sleeves and blankets on the bed.

Fall is football, fall is pumpkins, fall’s where summer ends;

And fall is coming back to school, and seeing all my friends.

 

“A Calendar of Sonnets: September”

By Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

O golden month! How high thy gold is heaped!

The yellow birch-leaves shine like bright coins strung

On wands; the chestnut's yellow pennons tongue

To every wind its harvest challenge. Steeped

In yellow, still lie fields where wheat was reaped;

And yellow still the corn sheaves, stacked among

The yellow gourds, which from the earth have wrung

Her utmost gold. To highest boughs have leaped

The purple grape, -- last thing to ripen, late

By very reason of its precious cost.

O Heart, remember, vintages are lost

If grapes do not for freezing night-dews wait.

Think, while thou sunnest thyself in Joy's estate,

Mayhap thou canst not ripen without frost!

 

“September” by Helen Hunt Jackson

The golden-rod is yellow;

The corn is turning brown;

The trees in apple orchards

With fruit are bending down.

The gentian’s bluest fringes

Are curling in the sun;

In dusty pods the milkweed

Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest,

In every meadow nook;

And asters by the brook-side

Make asters in the brook.

From dewy lanes at morning

The grapes’ sweet odors rise;

At noon the roads all flutter

With yellow butterflies.

By all these lovely tokens

September days are here,

With summer’s best of weather,

And autumn’s best of cheer.

But none of all this beauty

Which floods the earth and air

Is unto me the secret

Which makes September fair.

‘Tis a thing which I remember;

To name it thrills me yet:

One day of one September

I never can forget.

 

WPA Poster from 1940 (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

Happy September – and Happy Reading to one and all! 😊

 

Rob

 

#WingedWordsWindsday: 2022/08/24 -- Happy Egyptian New Year on 8/29!

 

WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 1, No. 42: August 17, 2022

 

 

Happy Ancient Egyptian New Year on August 29!

 

“Egypt” (1882)

By Gerald Massey (1828-1907)

Egypt! How I have dwelt with you in dreams,

So long, so intimately, that it seems

As if you had borne me; though I could not know

It was so many thousand years ago!

And in my gropings darkly underground

The long-lost memory at last is found

Of motherhood – you mother of us all!

And to my fellowmen I must recall

The memory too; that common motherhood

May help to make the common brotherhood.

Egypt! It lies there in the far-off past,

Opening with depths profound and growths as vast

As the great valley of Yosemite;

The birthplace out of darkness into day;

The shaping matrix of the human mind;

The cradle and the nursery of our kind.

This was the land created from the flood,

The land of Atum, made of the red mud,

Where Num sat in his Teba throned on high,

And saw the deluge once a year go by,

Each brimming with the blessing that it brought,

And by that waterway, in Egypt’s thought,

The gods descended; but they never hurled

The deluge that should desolate the world.

There the vast hewers of the early time

Built, as if that way they would surely climb

The heavens, and left their labors without name –

Colossal as their carelessness of fame –

Sole likeness of themselves – that heavenward

Forever look with statuesque regard,

As if some vision of the eternal grown

Petrific, was forever fixed in stone!

They watched the moon re-orb, the stars go round,

And drew the circle; thought’s primordial bound.

The heavens looked into them with living eyes

To kindle starry thoughts in other skies,

For us reflected in the image-scroll,

That night by night the stars for aye unroll.

The royal heads of language bow them down

To lay in Egypt’s lap each borrowed crown.

The glory of Greece was but the afterglow

Of her forgotten greatness lying low;

Her hieroglyphics buried dark as night,

Or coal deposits filled with future light,

Are mines of meaning; by their light we see

Through many an overshadowing mystery.

The nursing Nile is living Egypt still,

And as her lowlands with its freshness fill,

And heave with double-breasted bounteousness,

So doth the old hidden source of mind yet bless

The nations; secretly she brought to birth,

And Egypt still enriches all the earth.

 

“Imhotep: The World’s First Polymath”

By Rob Chappell, M.A.

Adapted & Condensed from Cursus Honorum VIII: 9 (May/June 2008)

                According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, a polymath is a person of encyclopedic learning, and the first polymath in recorded history is Imhotep (fl. 27th century BCE), an Egyptian scientist who was greatly revered both during and after his lifetime. Born a commoner, he rose through the ranks of Egyptian society through his profound learning in many fields of study until he was appointed Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) to Pharaoh Djoser, the best-known king of Egypt’s Third Dynasty. Djoser commissioned Imhotep to build a splendid royal tomb, and what resulted was the first Egyptian pyramid – the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, which became Djoser’s final resting place. It was the largest building on Earth at that time and served as a prototype for all subsequent pyramid construction throughout Egypt’s long history.

                Imhotep was not only a capable administrator and an innovative architect; he also served as High Priest of Heliopolis, a chief city of the realm. A major aspect of his priestly occupation was the practice of medicine, which included herbal remedies as well as highly advanced surgical techniques. Imhotep recorded his vast knowledge of the surgical arts in a treatise contained on the Edwin Smith Papyrus, thus preserving his knowledge for future generations.

                Imhotep’s dedication to the healing arts led to a profound reverence for his memory among the Egyptian populace. Within a few centuries of his death, he became the first mortal to be added to the Egyptian pantheon as a demigod, and he served as the prototype for the Greek demigod Asclepius – who, like Imhotep, was regarded as a divine patron of medical science. As Asclepius, Imhotep also appeared in the Hermetic literature of late antiquity, which preserved Egyptian esoteric traditions about the origin of the cosmos and humankind’s place within it. In these treatises, Imhotep (as Asclepius) is a dialogue partner of Hermes Trismegistus (the Greek version of the Egyptian deity Thoth), a legendary alchemist, physician, and astronomer who transmitted his knowledge to his disciples for the benefit of human beings.

                Imhotep, history’s first known polymath, is a superb role model for today’s young scientists. Unwilling to lock himself up in an ivory tower or to hoard knowledge solely for himself, he freely shared his wisdom with others so that their lives could be enriched through architecture, education, medicine, science, and statecraft. Imhotep’s example also serves to remind us that no matter what field of study we may choose to specialize in, it is important to acquire a good working knowledge of several subjects so that we can wear many hats throughout our lifetime and be as useful as possible to our society. As long as we read his books and follow his example, Imhotep will live on in human memory as our history continues to unfold – even though his tomb remains undiscovered to this very day!

 

Recommended Reading

·         http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/woe/index.htm à The Wisdom of the Egyptians by Brian Brown (1923) provides an introductory overview of ancient Egyptian history, mythology, philosophy, and science.

·         https://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/imhotep.html à Read an overview of Imhotep’s life and legacy at Ancient Egypt Online.

 

The Greek and Roman constellation Ophiuchus (above) was based on the legendary Greek physician Asclepius (fl. ca. 1250 BCE), who in turn was based on the ancient Egyptian physician Imhotep (fl. ca. 2700 BCE). Ophiuchus is depicted holding a serpent (the constellation Serpens, a symbol of healing, like the caduceus) in this illustration from Urania's Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in London ca. 1825 by Sidney Hall. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

“The Riddle of the Sphinx”

From Apollodorus of Athens (2^nd Century BCE): Bibliotheca 3.5.8

·         Question: "Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?"

·         Answer: "The human being — who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and then uses a walking stick in old age.”

 

“The Sphinx”

By Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

 

The Sphinx is drowsy,

The wings are furled;

Her ear is heavy,

She broods on the world.

"Who'll tell me my secret,

The ages have kept?--

I awaited the seer,

While they slumbered and slept;--

 

"The fate of the man-child;

The meaning of man;

Known fruit of the unknown;

Daedalian plan;

Out of sleeping a waking,

Out of waking a sleep;

Life death overtaking;

Deep underneath deep?

 

"Erect as a sunbeam,

Upspringeth the palm;

The elephant browses,

Undaunted and calm;

In beautiful motion

The thrush plies his wings;

Kind leaves of his covert,

Your silence he sings.

 

"The waves, unashamed,

In difference sweet,

Play glad with the breezes,

Old playfellows meet;

The journeying atoms,

Primordial wholes,

Firmly draw, firmly drive,

By their animate poles.

 

"Sea, earth, air, sound, silence,

Plant, quadruped, bird,

By one music enchanted,

One deity stirred,--

Each the other adorning,

Accompany still;

Night veileth the morning,

The vapor the hill.

 

"The babe by its mother

Lies bathed in joy;

Glide its hours uncounted,--

The sun is its toy;

Shines the peace of all being,

Without cloud, in its eyes;

And the sum of the world

In soft miniature lies.

 

"But man crouches and blushes,

Absconds and conceals;

He creepeth and peepeth,

He palters and steals;

Infirm, melancholy,

Jealous glancing around,

An oaf, an accomplice,

He poisons the ground.

 

"Outspoke the great mother,

Beholding his fear;--

At the sound of her accents

Cold shuddered the sphere:--

'Who has drugged my boy's cup?

Who has mixed my boy's bread?

Who, with sadness and madness,

Has turned the man-child's head?'"

 

I heard a poet answer,

Aloud and cheerfully,

"Say on, sweet Sphinx! thy dirges

Are pleasant songs to me.

Deep love lieth under

These pictures of time;

They fad in the light of

Their meaning sublime.

 

"The fiend that man harries

Is love of the Best;

Yawns the pit of the Dragon,

Lit by rays from the Blest.

The Lethe of nature

Can't trace him again,

Whose soul sees the perfect,

Which his eyes seek in vain.

 

"Profounder, profounder,

Man's spirit must dive;

To his aye-rolling orbit

No goal will arrive;

The heavens that now draw him

With sweetness untold,

Once found,--for new heavens

He spurneth the old.

 

"Pride ruined the angels,

Their shame them restores;

And the joy that is sweetest

Lurks in stings of remorse.

Have I a lover

Who is noble and free?--

I would he were nobler

Than to love me.

 

"Eterne alternation

Now follows, now flied;

And under pain, pleasure,--

Under pleasure, pain lies.

Love works at the centre,

Heart-heaving alway;

Forth speed the strong pulses

To the borders of day.

 

"Dull Sphinx, Jove keep thy five wits!

Thy sight is growing blear;

Rue, myrrh, and cummin for the Sphinx--

Her muddy eyes to clear!"--

The old Sphinx bit her thick lip,--

Said, "Who taught thee me to name?

I am thy spirit, yoke-fellow,

Of thine eye I am eyebeam.

 

"Thou art the unanswered question;

Couldst see they proper eye,

Alway it asketh, asketh;

And each answer is a lie.

So take thy quest through nature,

It through thousand natures ply;

Ask on, thou clothed eternity;

Time is the false reply."

 

Uprose the merry Sphinx,

And crouched no more in stone;

She melted into purple cloud,

She silvered in the moon;

She spired into a yellow flame;

She flowered in blossoms red;

She flowed into a foaming wave;

She stood Monadnoc's head.

 

Through a thousand voices

Spoke the universal dame:

"Who telleth one of my meanings,

Is master of all I am."

 

The Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt, constructed during the reign of Pharaoh Khafre in the 26^th century BCE. (Photo Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)