Pomegranate Seeds: Latin American Jewish Tales Book

Erasmus pulled together adages (sayings or proverbs), constantly revising, adding to, and using them as a point of departure for political, cultural and social commentary in his era. He drew almost exclusively from classical Greek and Latin sources. He was very well read and had access to many manuscripts and books. In all, he collected and published 4,151 adages with commentary.

For this volume, William Barker selected and introduced 119 of these adages. His effort is a perfect complement to the work Erasmus did. Barker contextualizes and provides detailed references to sources for each entry. His introduction is wonderful! He also includes a few of the misinterpretations or mistranslations Erasmus made, including one that has been passed down to our day: Pandora's "Box", which should have been translated as Pandora's "jar" from the original Greek.

Some of my favorite adages include: I ii 21: simile gaudet simili ("like rejoices in like"); I iii 86: omnium horarum homo ("a man for all hours"); I v 4: evitata Charybdi in Scyllam incidi ("having escaped Charybdis I fell into Scylla", i.e. between a rock and a hard place); I vii 17: in vino veritas ("wine speaks the truth"); I vii 28: plaustrum bovem trahit ("The cart before the horse"); II iv 17: tempus omnia revelat ("time reveals all things")

A very interesting one is I viii 46: convertere pollicem: "Thumbs down. Thumbs up." Barker suggests that today's meaning of this phrase has flipped from its original intent. In the gladiatorial games, a thumbs up was a sign to kill the victim. A thumbs down meant to put the weapon down and spare the victim. Another interesting adage is I viii 91: bis dat qui cito dat: "he that gives quickly gives twice". This means that the person who helps you out before being asked is twice as good as the person who helps when asked.

Erasmus brutally attacks those in the Catholic Church who abuse their positions to gain money and power and who act very un-Christian like. Of these, I ix 12: a mortuo tributum exigere ("to exact tribute from the dead") is an especially good condemnation, especially of priests demanding money for all of their official duties. Another is III iii 1: Sileni Alcibiadis ("The Sileni of Alcibiades"). This one talks of how the Church is for and about the followers, not the leaders and hierarchy. These could have been written today.

The entire book is worth the money and time just for adage IV i. 1 (pp. 317-356): dulce bellum inexpertis, which translates as "war is sweet for those who have not tried it." This is a fantastic antiwar piece where Erasmus hits each and every point with power and finesse. Like his comments on the Church, this essay could have been written a few days ago instead of the early 1500s. "It is remarkable how widely these days, how rashly, for what trivial reasons war is begun, how cruelly and barbarously it is waged..." (p. 319) and "war is now such an accepted thing that people are astonished to find anyone who does not like it" (p. 319). He talks of how nature created man defenseless, not armored; desirous of friendship, not hatred, etc. (p. 320). It's a wonderfully written and argued piece. Another, smaller, antiwar essay is in II v 1: Spartam nactus es, hanc orna ("Sparta is your portion; do you best for her").

I thoroughly enjoyed this work and it will be a welcome reference in the years to come.