CHORUS: But fairy tales that scare us humans
are useful for religion.[ΧΟΡΟΣ: φοβεροὶ δὲ βροτοῖσι μῦ-
θοι κέρδος πρὸς θεῶν θεραπεί-
αν.]Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Electra [Ἠλέκτρα], l. 743ff, Antistrophe 2 (c. 420 BC) [tr. Wilson (2016)]
(Source)
Following recounting of a story in which Zeus made the sun move backwards in the sky to punish Thyestes for his treachery.
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:Fresh strength is added to religion's base
By fables which man's breast with terror fill.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]But tales that frighten men are profitable for service to the gods.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]But stories terrible to mortals are a gain for the worship of the gods.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]Yet it may be the tale liveth, soul-affraying,
To bow us to Godward in lowly obeying.
[tr. Way (1896)]Once, men told the tale, and trembled;
Fearing God.
[tr. Murray (1905)]Such shocking myths are for the good of men, to frighten them into believing in the gods.
[tr. Theodoridis (2006)]But tales which terrify mankind
are profitable and serve the gods.
[tr. Johnston (2009)]
Quotations about:
fable
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
But it was much earlier even than that when most people forgot that the very oldest stories are, sooner or later, about blood. Later on they took the blood out to make the stories more acceptable to children, or at least to the people who had to read them to children rather than the children themselves (who, on the whole, are quite keen on blood provided it’s being shed by the deserving), and then wondered where the stories went.
For Fiction is Truth’s elder sister. Obviously. No one in the world knew what truth was till somebody had told a story.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer
A Book of Words, ch. 24 “Fiction” (1928)
Every nation, like every individual, walks in a vain show — else it could not live with itself — but I never got over the wonder of a people who, having extirpated the aboriginals of their continent more completely than any modern race had ever done, honestly believed that they were a godly little New England community, setting examples to brutal mankind.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer
Something of Myself, ch. 15 (1937)
And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1823-04-11) to John Adams
(Source)
