Thucydides in Times of Trouble

July 5, 2020 3:20 PM

What the historian’s account of an ancient plague taught me when my father died 8,000 miles away "In the slow, turbid dive of the pandemic, Thucydides’ account of the Athenian plague has been my distance line through the compound shocks of public catastrophe and private bereavement. And in the still greater depths of the urgent, unfinished history of racism that kills with both sly neglect and dehumanizing violence, I recall Thucydides’ interpretation of another epidemic as a metaphor for the health of the body politic. "
posted by hippybear (5 comments total)

Thank you for sharing this.
posted by Kitchen Witch at 3:27 PM on July 5, 2020

This is really valuable, thanks. We lose a lot when ancient histories are written off as myth (and myths as 'just stories'), or discarded as irrelevant due to age.
posted by unearthed at 3:47 PM on July 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've been thinking a lot about Pompeii recently, both the account by Pliny the Younger and the song by Bastille.
posted by bq at 7:10 PM on July 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

Thanks for sharing this wonderful piece of writing.
posted by Balthamos at 11:43 PM on July 5, 2020

Thank you @hippybear, I appreciate this today. I find myself reading a Rex Warner translation of Thucydides every 10 years or so. Good to make this connection.
posted by elkevelvet at 10:16 AM on July 6, 2020