Aeschylus: Quotes about God

Aeschylus was ancient Athenian playwright. Explore interesting quotes on god.

Aeschylus: 238 quotes10 likes

“Zeus, who guided mortals to be wise,
has established his fixed law—
wisdom comes through suffering.
Trouble, with its memories of pain,
drips in our hearts as we try to sleep,
so men against their will
learn to practice moderation.
Favours come to us from gods
seated on their solemn thrones—
such grace is harsh and violent.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Variant translations: Zeus has led us on to know, the Helmsman lays it down as law that we must suffer, suffer into truth. We cannot sleep, and drop by drop at the heart the pain of pain remembered comes again, and we resist, but ripeness comes as well. From the gods enthroned on the awesome rowing-bench there comes a violent love. Robert Fagles, The Oresteia (1975) God, whose law it is that he who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despite, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way (1930), pp. 61 and 194 ( Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=D3QwvF3GWOkC&lpg=PA61&ots=BacvHvGm6e&dq=%22And%20in%20our%20own%20despite%2C%20against%20our%20will%2C%20Comes%20wisdom%22%20-kennedy&pg=PA194#v=onepage&q=%22our%20own%20despite%22&f=false) Robert F. Kennedy quoted these lines in his speech announcing the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on 4 April 1968. His version http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/rfkonmlkdeath.html: Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God. Variant translations of πάθει μάθος: By suffering comes wisdom. The reward of suffering is experience. Wisdom comes alone through suffering. Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 176–183, as translated by Ian Johnston ( Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=qz1HpBZ1fTwC&lpg=PA13&ots=C7aohrZRF1&dq=Drips%20in%20our%20hearts%20as%20we%20try%20to%20sleep%2C&pg=PA13#v=onepage&q=Drips%20in%20our%20hearts%20as%20we%20try%20to%20sleep,&f=false)

“Learn to know thy heart,
And, as the times, so let thy manners change,
For by the law of change a new God rules.”

Aeschylus Prometheus Bound

Source: Prometheus Bound, lines 309–310 (tr. G. M. Cookson)

“Good fortune is a god among men, and more than a god.”

Aeschylus The Libation Bearers

Variant translation: Success is man's god.
Source: Oresteia (458 BC), The Libation Bearers, line 59

“But when a man
speeds toward his own ruin,
a god gives him help.”

Aeschylus The Persians

Source: The Persians (472 BC), line 742 (tr. Janet Lembke and C. J. Herington)

“A speech well-mouthed
In th' utterance, and full-minded in the sense,
As doth befit a servant of the gods!”

Aeschylus Prometheus Bound

Source: Prometheus Bound, lines 953–954 (tr. Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

“God on high
Looks graciously on him whom triumph's hour
Has made not pitiless.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 951–952 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)

“Of all the gods, Death only craves not gifts:
Nor sacrifice, nor yet drink-offering poured
Avails; no altars hath he, nor is soothed
By hymns of praise. From him alone of all
The powers of heaven Persuasion holds aloof.”

Aeschylus

Fragment 146 (trans. by Plumptre), reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Praise not, O man, the life beyond control,
Nor that which bows unto a tyrant's sway.
Know that the middle way
Is dearest unto God, and they, thereon who wend,
They shall achieve the end.”

Aeschylus Eumenides

Guard well and reverence that form of government Which will eschew alike licence and slavery; Guard well and reverence that form of government Which will eschew alike licence and slavery; And from your polity do not wholly banish fear. For what man living, freed from fear, will still be just? Hold fast such upright fear of the law’s sanctity, Source: Phillip Vellacott, The Oresteian Trilogy, Penguin 1973 ( Google Books https://books.google.com.au/books?id=tuRiOESBVjkC) source: Oresteia (458 BC), Eumenides, lines 526–530 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead) Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Aeschylus / Quotes / Oresteia (458 BC) / Eumenides

“God's mouth knows not how to speak falsehood, but he brings to pass every word.”

Aeschylus Prometheus Bound

Source: Prometheus Bound, lines 1032–1033

“True, but the strength of god is mightier still,
And oft, in direst strait,
It lifteth from the lowest depths of ill
Him who, with cloud-veiled eyes, was desperate.”

Aeschylus

Source: Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), lines 226–229 (tr. Anna Swanwick)

“I pray the gods will give me some relief
And end this weary job. One long full year
I've been lying here, on this rooftop,
The palace of the sons of Atreus,
Resting on my arms, just like a dog.
I've come to know the night sky, every star,
The powers we see glittering in the sky,
Bringing winter and summer to us all,
As the constellations rise and sink.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

opening lines
Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon

“God’s best gift Is a mind free from folly”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Phillip Vellacott, The Oresteian Trilogy, Penguin 1973 ( Google Books https://books.google.com.au/books?id=tuRiOESBVjkC) Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon