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| BERGER |
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| MUGGERIDGE |
I
find myself stumped as to what to say about ‘ideas of success in
antiquity’ on
live radio next Wednesday night at 2200 pm. I've been invited to help mark
the 50th anniversary of a famous BBC radio broadcast when ‘the nature of
success in contemporary society’ was discussed by an (of course all white
male) team: one hero of mine—the Marxist intellectual & art historian
John Berger—the self-appointed pontificator Malcolm Muggeridge, and actor
Michael Redgrave. I dread to think which one I am supposed to be the substitute
for.
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| REDGRAVE |
While I can happily explain to the BBC
listenership the rather bland Latin root verb succedo, which can mean all kinds of different movement through
space, time, systems and procedures, my problem is that there was no ancient Greek word for ‘success’. There are words for material prosperity, excellence,
military or athletic victory, glory won on the battlefield, immortal fame, good
luck and for happiness. Aristotle spend his life trying to work out what defined
the ‘Good Life’ and how to achieve it permanently. But there was no simple way
of translating ‘success’ in sentences like ‘Alan Sugar is a success’ or 'Alan Sugar has enjoyed success.'
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| EXCELLENCE |
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| EUDAIMONIA |
I wonder whether my planned interlocutors,
academic Peter Francopan and theatre director Kwame Kwei-Armah, will agree with
me that success is intimately related to capitalism, entrepreneurship
and accumulation of material goods. Having only recently paid off a
longstanding mortgage, and feeling ecstatic freedom from pressure to work-for-money
if I don’t want to that I have not felt for quarter of a century, my own
sympathies lie with Bob Dylan. Neither fame nor fortune has made him happy, and
he says, ‘A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at
night, and in between he does what he wants to do.’ Success is freedom. It is
not having to be at someone else’s beck and call in order to survive. On this
definition, a universal basic income
would make successes of us all.
But that is not how the word is generally used. A man (and this is gendered) is a ‘success’ if he has
wads of cash, a luxury home, a prestige-brand car and can buy/marry high-value
sexual partners. In ancient Greek thought, people who accumulated money and the
concomitant access to unlimited physical pleasures were often very far from ‘successes’
if their lives were taken in the round: Midas’ obsession with gold resulted in
death from starvation; the fabulously wealthy Croesus of Lydia, far from being
the happiest man in the world, as he believed, lost his son, his wife and his
kingdom.
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| SUCCESS STORY? |
Alexander the Great was a successful
imperialist, but dying of drink in his thirties surely disqualifies him. Medea
was a successful pharmacist, but led rather an unstable life. Pericles begins
to get there for me, having made a good speech, planned some nice buildings
and enjoyed a rich personal life. But must have died, probably in agony from
the plague, knowing that he was leaving the Athenian democracy in trouble.
So please help! Is there anyone out
there who can help me with a ‘faithful’ translation of SUCCESS into an ancient
Greek concept, or think of a classical myth, hero, text, historical figure who
could illuminate the idea of SUCCESS for a 21st-century audience? I
will be eternally grateful!
I don't know if this helps, but there's the greater emphasis in ancient Greece upon the present. One example: the Classical Greek tragedies are still performed today, but at first they weren't written with any thought about long-lasting fame. There was intense competition among the tragedians, and prestigious prizes were given to those judged to be best, but until the early 4th century BC, each tragedy was only performed ONCE.
ReplyDeleteOlympic (and other games) victors were given laurel crowns and, sometimes at least, were lauded in their home cities, even with statues and inscriptions. This doesn't seem to have happened to the same extent to the winners of poetry or music festival contests, though poets tend t suggest that their works can make their subjects famous for ever (that's more Roman than Greek?). The philosophers, from Plato onwards, saw the 'good life' in terms of balance and restraint - 'nothing in excess' - which makes their idea of success (if that's what it is) very different from Donald Trump's.
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ReplyDeleteThat's the thing - how success is measure has changed. I am sure that if today's success was the same in Ancient Greece they would definitely have a word for it. A similarity and connection with the ancient world is perhaps Dionysus. Nowadays it seems to a lot of younger people success is going our on a Friday and/or Saturday and become almost insensible through drink in the shortest possible time. This causes a loss of control and a loosening of the grasp of reality often culminating in a brush with authority or a fight (Pentheus anyone?). If only they knew they success is a mirror from a Greek tragedy. So as Steve above has said not only Greek plays being performed but the are enacted.
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