Life advice from the Greek Anthology

I was doing some reading for my dissertation the other day and found myself searching through the Greek Anthology for a poem referenced in whatever I was reading. To my irritation, the footnote was wrong: the poem wasn’t where it was meant to be. However, a small poem did catch my eye:

Ἓξ ὧραι μόχθοις ἱκανώταται· αἱ δε μετ αὐτας

γράμμασι δεικνύμεναι ΖΗΘΙ λέγουσι βροτοῖς.

“6 hours are most fitting for toil; and those that follow,

when shown in letters, tell us: LIVE!”

(10.43, Anonymous)

The poem works off the conception of Greek numerals as being ascribed to letters. Thus, A =1, B=2, Γ = 3 etc. Therefore, going back to our poem, the first 6 hours are for working and “those that follow” (7,8,9,10) spells out Ζῆθι, an imperative meaning “LIVE!”.

So, remember this key piece of life advice… If an ancient anonymous poem tells you to take a break, you’d best take that break.

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