Several friends have replied to my question whether there was an ancient Greek equivalent to “resilience”. Some, like Gary Pence looked closely at Greek vocabulary:
“… Among synonyms or near synonyms are strength, doggedness, perseverance, fortitude, grit, self-reliance. If resilience is nowhere to be found in LSJ, how about some of these synonyms?
“There are words for perseverance like καρτερία, λιπαρία, μακροθυμία. When I look for fortitude I find εὐχέρεια, which combines “tolerance of or indifference to evil, danger, or hardship” combined with “ease, agreeableness, comfort” and “dexterity, skill (tho citation may be εὐχειρία).” Pretty close to resilience, but I wish I could find something more active, like πολύτροπος Odysseus, who could figure out how to manage any turn of events. Maybe the Greeks would encapsulate resilience in ἀνδρεία, brave manliness.
“Modern Greek for resilience is αντοχή, which in classical Greek meant adhesion or attachment, better ascribed to scotch tape than to people. But its related verb, ἀντέχω means “hold out against, withstand, endure, hold one’s ground.” It’s the same in modern Greek: be resistant, be hard-wearing, hold out, withstand. Modern αντοχή is akin to υπομονή, “endurance,” which may be the closest we can get to resilience in NT Greek.
“ … And how about πολυτλήμων Odysseus in the Odyssey?”
Dan Caner thinks along similar lines:
”… I know that several later texts (Christian Greek, but probably based on earlier Stoic tradition) use the combination "karteria kai hypomenē" - hard perseverence? which may come close.”
Comment: That reminded me of the modern Greek saying hypomone kai epimone Persistence and insistence. That’s close to what I have trying to get at – resilience not as a return to the status quo ante, but as coming back stronger as the result of a setback.
Charles Pazdernik also turned to the Odyssey:
“My first thoughts, too, went to the Homeric polutlas Odysseus as well as to Achilles' speech on Zeus and the two jars. But the Iliadic emphasis is on the enduring heart, tlêtos thumos, isn't it, and I guess endurance. (Archilochus' tlêmosunê as pharmakon is a flintier quality than resilience.. …. Isn't Odysseus received by Cynics and esp. Stoics as an archetype of resourcefulness and resilience?”
Andrew Ford agrees:
“This is indeed a fun question. Chuck is right, of course. Where ‘we’ speak of resilience, the Greeks would speak of endurance and adaptability to ever changing circumstances in a world in constant motion. The difference seems to be that ‘resilience’ implies the ability to bounce back and regain control of one’s life, whereas the ability to endure and adapt is required in a world gripped by dark and destructive forces beyond one’s control and beyond one’s understanding. In texts like Archil. fr. 130 W., there is also no suggestion that the person, upended by the gods’ blow, could get back on their feet again by themselves; it is the gods who could one day raise them up again from the misery they plunged them into. In the meantime, one has to adapt and endure."
So we segue from lexical to mythological and to Greek tragedy:
James McCaughey asks from Melbourne
“Can I suggest the closing sequences of the Heracles Mainomenos in answer to your question?”
This is a really important point and raises powerful questions about tragedy more generally: How often do these dramas depict strong resilience? But for the moment Homer keeps stealing the show - but which Homer? I think we find two distinct types of resilience in these epics: Odysseus toughing it out , one. challenge after another, and pretty boy Achilles, sulking in. his tent, until the one real devastation hits hin, the loss of Patroclus. Odysseus’ long suffering (and delights along the way) ends in a blood bath, into which the SOB drags his son. He has endured, but he has not grown. I hate that ending; no wonder some ancient critics objected to it.
What a contrast to Achilles, who finally, belatedly, grows up and in the meeting with Priam becomes a real Mensch. To me that is real resilience , more than endurance, the capacity to come out on the other side of loss a better human being.
I know, I know , there are other ways of reading those endings, but when I think of resilience this rings true to me.
Michael Lurie writes with some reservations:
“Very much like your reading of both endings, but whatever happens to Achilles in Iliad 24 has, in my view, nothing to do with the English word, and the concept of, resilience, which implies resistance to change. Do we need the notion of resilience to understand Achilles and the ending of the Iliad? Achilles changes because he understands that you are not in control of your life, that unbroken happiness is not possible, and that suffering is the defining feature of human existence. This insight does make him a better human being, and a pessimist, but is it resilience?”
Comment:
A lot depends, I guess, on whether we think of resilience as resistance to change or as the ability to learn from and adapt to setbacks; maybe I should call that “strong” resilience to distinguish it from endurance or toughing it out. It’s a rare quality, and a crucial one, I think. I wonder if it can be learned.
--
I better stop here, for the time being, but I can’t stop probing into resilience (and perhaps thereby into “tragic optimism”). If you have thoughts on these concepts please let me hear from you.
May 22, 2021
“… Among synonyms or near synonyms are strength, doggedness, perseverance, fortitude, grit, self-reliance. If resilience is nowhere to be found in LSJ, how about some of these synonyms?
“There are words for perseverance like καρτερία, λιπαρία, μακροθυμία. When I look for fortitude I find εὐχέρεια, which combines “tolerance of or indifference to evil, danger, or hardship” combined with “ease, agreeableness, comfort” and “dexterity, skill (tho citation may be εὐχειρία).” Pretty close to resilience, but I wish I could find something more active, like πολύτροπος Odysseus, who could figure out how to manage any turn of events. Maybe the Greeks would encapsulate resilience in ἀνδρεία, brave manliness.
“Modern Greek for resilience is αντοχή, which in classical Greek meant adhesion or attachment, better ascribed to scotch tape than to people. But its related verb, ἀντέχω means “hold out against, withstand, endure, hold one’s ground.” It’s the same in modern Greek: be resistant, be hard-wearing, hold out, withstand. Modern αντοχή is akin to υπομονή, “endurance,” which may be the closest we can get to resilience in NT Greek.
“ … And how about πολυτλήμων Odysseus in the Odyssey?”
Dan Caner thinks along similar lines:
”… I know that several later texts (Christian Greek, but probably based on earlier Stoic tradition) use the combination "karteria kai hypomenē" - hard perseverence? which may come close.”
Comment: That reminded me of the modern Greek saying hypomone kai epimone Persistence and insistence. That’s close to what I have trying to get at – resilience not as a return to the status quo ante, but as coming back stronger as the result of a setback.
Charles Pazdernik also turned to the Odyssey:
“My first thoughts, too, went to the Homeric polutlas Odysseus as well as to Achilles' speech on Zeus and the two jars. But the Iliadic emphasis is on the enduring heart, tlêtos thumos, isn't it, and I guess endurance. (Archilochus' tlêmosunê as pharmakon is a flintier quality than resilience.. …. Isn't Odysseus received by Cynics and esp. Stoics as an archetype of resourcefulness and resilience?”
Andrew Ford agrees:
“This is indeed a fun question. Chuck is right, of course. Where ‘we’ speak of resilience, the Greeks would speak of endurance and adaptability to ever changing circumstances in a world in constant motion. The difference seems to be that ‘resilience’ implies the ability to bounce back and regain control of one’s life, whereas the ability to endure and adapt is required in a world gripped by dark and destructive forces beyond one’s control and beyond one’s understanding. In texts like Archil. fr. 130 W., there is also no suggestion that the person, upended by the gods’ blow, could get back on their feet again by themselves; it is the gods who could one day raise them up again from the misery they plunged them into. In the meantime, one has to adapt and endure."
So we segue from lexical to mythological and to Greek tragedy:
James McCaughey asks from Melbourne
“Can I suggest the closing sequences of the Heracles Mainomenos in answer to your question?”
This is a really important point and raises powerful questions about tragedy more generally: How often do these dramas depict strong resilience? But for the moment Homer keeps stealing the show - but which Homer? I think we find two distinct types of resilience in these epics: Odysseus toughing it out , one. challenge after another, and pretty boy Achilles, sulking in. his tent, until the one real devastation hits hin, the loss of Patroclus. Odysseus’ long suffering (and delights along the way) ends in a blood bath, into which the SOB drags his son. He has endured, but he has not grown. I hate that ending; no wonder some ancient critics objected to it.
What a contrast to Achilles, who finally, belatedly, grows up and in the meeting with Priam becomes a real Mensch. To me that is real resilience , more than endurance, the capacity to come out on the other side of loss a better human being.
I know, I know , there are other ways of reading those endings, but when I think of resilience this rings true to me.
Michael Lurie writes with some reservations:
“Very much like your reading of both endings, but whatever happens to Achilles in Iliad 24 has, in my view, nothing to do with the English word, and the concept of, resilience, which implies resistance to change. Do we need the notion of resilience to understand Achilles and the ending of the Iliad? Achilles changes because he understands that you are not in control of your life, that unbroken happiness is not possible, and that suffering is the defining feature of human existence. This insight does make him a better human being, and a pessimist, but is it resilience?”
Comment:
A lot depends, I guess, on whether we think of resilience as resistance to change or as the ability to learn from and adapt to setbacks; maybe I should call that “strong” resilience to distinguish it from endurance or toughing it out. It’s a rare quality, and a crucial one, I think. I wonder if it can be learned.
--
I better stop here, for the time being, but I can’t stop probing into resilience (and perhaps thereby into “tragic optimism”). If you have thoughts on these concepts please let me hear from you.
May 22, 2021