On Effeminancy

[OldGreyEagle]

There is at least one Scout that I knew that could never be a man

[WHEELER]

To the answer that there is no clear understanding of the Greek word malakos, examples from Aristotle are provided.

 

From the Athenian Constitution.

 

Kings were no longer chosen from the house of Codrus, because they were thought to be luxurious and to have become SOFT.

 

The Greek reads trufan kai malakous yeyonenai. (1)

 

some of the Kings proved cowardly in warfare

 

The Greek reads ta polemia malakous. (2)

 

From the Eudemian Ethics.

 

Hence some people who are even very soft about certain things,

 

The Greek reads dio kai sfodra tives ovtes malakoi. (3)

 

From On Virtues and Vices.

 

Cowardice is accompanied by softness, unmanliness, faint-heartedness

 

The Greek reads malakia. (4)

 

The concomitants of uncontrol are softness and negligence

 

The Greek reads malakia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1) The Athenian Constitution, Aristotle, Loeb Classical Library, Vol 285, Fr 7; pg 13.

 

(2) Ibid, pg 15

 

(3) Eudemian Ethics, same volume, pg 316

 

(4) On Virtues and Vices, same volume, pg 497

 

(5) Ibid, pg 499

 

[firstpusk]

"There is at least one Scout that I knew that could never be a man"

Nailed it. Bumps.

[NJCubScouter]

I'm wondering what the original Greek is for "incredibly stubborn."

[firstpusk]

"I'm wondering what the original Greek is for 'incredibly stubborn.'"

 

When you are always right and know all, there is no need to consider the opinion of another. Oh, to be so blest...

[WHEELER]

Effeminacy is the greatest scourge of our time. Look at the spread of "gay marriages". There are over 60 million Roman Catholics in this country sufficient numbers to hold a big majority in any election and other Christian denominations, yet gay marriages are spreading. Why? Because of the "weakness" of church leaders and bishops to preach and teach the truth and to discipline. The leaders are soft, the people are soft. Softness is every where. There is no rule of law. Rule of law requires hardness. Effeminacy is the rule of the day.

[WHEELER]

"In Pericles' Funeral Speech Thucydides defines the attitude of the Athenian state to the new culture: though he places much importance of the cultivation of the mind, he limits 'philosophoumen' by the warning 'anev malakias: the ideal is intellectual culture without effeminacy." (1)

 

An old educational treatise from the mid 1800's that I picked up in the college library had this "educating without effeminacy" in one of its chapters. In Colonial America and Victorian England this 'anev malakias' was in everybodies' minds. This was a common term and a common term in educational circles.

 

(1) Paideia, The Ideals of Greek Culture, Werner Jaeger, Vol I, pg 319.