Today

I finished Plato's Apology in Greek today. It was wonderful! I must admit, at times in the middle I felt very muddled and inept. But it was so very worthwhile. There really is nothing like reading something in the actual language in which it was written. You bond with the work in a special way, and it will forever be different for you. It's message will sink deeper, and it's words will be set apart from others in your minds.

Here is the very end of the Apology; it's truly beautiful. Though Socrates claimed he wasn't an orator, he is a master of rhetoric.

ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἤδη ὥρα ἀπιέναι, ἐμοὶ μὲνἀποθανουμένῳ, ὑμῖν δὲ βιωσομένοις: ὁπότεροι δὲ ἡμῶνἔρχονται ἐπὶ ἄμεινον πρᾶγμα, ἄδηλον παντὶ πλὴν ἢ τῷ θεῷ.

It means: "But indeed it is already the hour to leave, for me to die, but for you to live; but which of us two goes to a better way of life is unknown to all except the god."

I pray that I will be able to face my own death with such composure, such magnanimity - the kind which comes from knowing I go to a better place.