18 April 2013

Notes - (for 17 April 13 - a day late a dollar short) Grand Canyon / Plutarch bio / The Moralia


        After breakfast you drove up Oak Canyon to I-17 then connected to I-40 West to the Grand Canyon exit. You arrived about 1400 hours. Carol and Alta went shopping at the nearby Fred Harvey Trading Company while you and Craig shored up your adjoining rooms 7150 and 7151 at Yavapai Lodge on the South Rim. You have no Internet service except at the Canyon Cafe at the Yavapai Lodge [Xanterra South Rim].

         1509 hours. Everything is in place. The room is quite pleasant though not nearly so fancy as last night's stay. We have a large window looking at the pine forest to the east. These buildings (we are number 7) are set up rather rustically with about 8 or 9 rooms per building. It felt like we were driving into a brand new work camp as we drove by the scattered other single floor motel--like buildings in our area. We have a fan and very comfortable hot water radiated heat but no air (not needed during our stay as it is in the 40's).  We also have a refrigerator, flat screen TV and a nice toilet and bath with electric heat if needed. Time to read the USA Today before the girls return. 

         1911 hours. We took the bus to the Rim Lodges and stopped at the El Tovar where Carol and Alta shopped for some shirts and books for the grandchildren. Craig and I decided to have breakfast at the El Tovar tomorrow.



Snow Cloud below Grand Canyon Rim

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         Tonight one of the shopkeepers at El Tovar suggested The Arizona Room down near Bright Angel Lodge. The meals were quite good.



Dinner at The Arizona Room G. C.


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History

The new [El Tovar] hotel was built before the Grand Canyon was a formally protected Federal park, following on the heels of President Theodore Roosevelt's 1903 visit to the canyon. During his visit Roosevelt said about the Grand Canyon:
I want to ask you to do one thing in connection with it in your own interest and in the interest of the country – to keep this great wonder of nature as it is now ...I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loveliness and beauty of the Canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve upon it . . .

The hotel was built as a "destination resort", providing a high level of comfort and luxury standing literally on the edge of the wilderness, 20 ft from the rim of the canyon. The El Tovar was one of the first such hotels in national parks, part of a trend in which railroads would build large hotels in newly-accessible scenic locations like Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks . . .
Roosevelt returned to stay at the El Tovar in 1906, and again in 1913, writing a book about his 1913 trip.

Edited from: Wikipedia Offline - El Tovar

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         2017 hours. We downloaded selected today's photos onto the MacAir. Not only do we not have Internet service, we have no phone service.

         Take a break and if you wish we can work on Dead 17. - Amorella

         2027 hours. I moved to the comfortable armchair, propped my naked feet up on the bed, dropped a couple pillows on my lap for the MacAir's setting and I am ready.

         Carol is watching live CNN with low audio on the Boston bombing which you find conflicting with my reception. Let's do this instead, we'll edit your research for use in this segment. First, set up a new work document to drop this material into. - Amorella

         You have selected five hundred words and some words for which to write an introduction to Pythia. Now let's go to Plutarch on Wikipedia Offline and enclose it here. - Amorella

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Plutarch (Ancient Greek: Πλούταρχος, Ploútarkhos,  then named), on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Μέστριος Πλούταρχος), c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea, Boeotia, a town about twenty miles east of Delphi.

Early life

Plutarch was born in 46 AD in the small town of Chaeronea, in the Greek region known as Boeotia. His family was wealthy. The name of Plutarch's father has not been preserved, but it was probably Nikarchus (), from the common habit of Greek families to repeat a name in alternate generations. The name of Plutarch's grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in Moralia and in his Life of Antony. His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are frequently mentioned in his essays and dialogues, where Timon is spoken of in the most affectionate terms. Rualdus, in his 1624 work Life of Plutarchus, recovered the name of Plutarch's wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not give way to excessive grief at the death of their two-year old daughter, who was named Timoxena after her mother. Interestingly, he hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation.

The exact number of his sons is not certain, although two of them, Autobulus and second Plutarch, are often mentioned. Plutarch's treatise De animae procreatione in Timaeo is dedicated to them, and the marriage of his son Autobulus is the occasion of one of the dinner-parties recorded in the 'Table Talk.' Another person, Soklarus, is spoken of in terms, which seem to imply that he was Plutarch's son, but this is nowhere definitely stated. His treatise on marriage questions, addressed to Eurydice and Pollianus, seems to speak of her as having been recently an inmate of his house, but without enabling us to form an opinion whether she was his daughter or not.

Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens under Ammonius from 66 to 67. He had a number of influential friends, including Quintus Sosius Senecio and Fundanus, both important senators, to whom some of his later writings were dedicated. Plutarch travelled widely in the Mediterranean world, including central Greece, Sparta, Corinth, Patrae (Patras), Sardes, Alexandria, and two trips to Rome.

At some point, Plutarch took up Roman citizenship. As evidenced by his new name, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, his sponsor for citizenship was Lucius Mestrius Florus, a Roman of consular status whom Plutarch also used as an historical source for his Life of Otho.
He lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo. However, his duties as the senior of the two priests of Apollo at the Oracle of Delphi (where he was responsible for interpreting the auguries of the Pythia) apparently occupied little of his time. He led an active social and civic life while producing an extensive body of writing, much of which is still extant.

For many years Plutarch served as one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the site of the famous Delphic Oracle, twenty miles from his home. By his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman Empire, yet he continued to reside where he was born, and actively participated in local affairs, even serving as mayor. At his country estate, guests from all over the empire congregated for serious conversation, presided over by Plutarch in his marble chair. Many of these dialogues were recorded and published, and the 78 essays and other works, which have survived are now known collectively as the Moralia.

Work as magistrate and ambassador

In addition to his duties as a priest of the Delphic temple, Plutarch was also a magistrate in Chaeronea and he represented his home on various missions to foreign countries during his early adult years. Plutarch held the office of archon in his native municipality, probably only an annual one, which he likely served more than once. He busied himself with all the little matters of the town and undertook the humblest of duties. . . .

According to the 10th century historian George Syncellus, late in Plutarch's life, emperor Hadrian appointed him nominal procurator of Achaea – a position that entitled him to wear the vestments and ornaments of a consul himself.
Plutarch died between the years AD 119 and 127.

Edited with selected underling, from Wikipedia Offline - Plutarch

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         You also found references to "The Moralia" in Wikipedia Offline, also include this material here. - Amorella

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The Moralia (ancient Greek Ἠθικά — loosely translatable as Matters relating to customs and mores) of the 1st-century Greek scholar Plutarch of Chaeronea is an eclectic collection of 78 essays and transcribed speeches. They give an insight into Roman and Greek life, but often are also fascinating timeless observations in their own right. Many generations of Europeans have read or imitated them, including Montaigne and the Renaissance Humanists and Enlightenment philosophers.

The Moralia include On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great — an important adjunct to his Life of the great general — On the Worship of Isis and Osiris (a crucial source of information on Egyptian religious rites), and On the Malice of Herodotus (which may, like the orations on Alexander's accomplishments, have been a rhetorical exercise), in which Plutarch criticizes what he sees as systematic bias in the Father of History's work; along with more philosophical treatises, such as On the Decline of the Oracles, On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance, On Peace of Mind and lighter fare, such as Odysseus and Gryllus, a humorous dialog between Homer's Odysseus and one of Circe's enchanted pigs. The Moralia were composed first, while writing the Lives occupied much of the last two decades of Plutarch's own life.

Some editions of the Moralia include several works now known to be pseudepigrapha: among these are the Lives of the Ten Orators (biographies of the Ten Orators of ancient Athens, based on Caecillius of Calacte), The Doctrines of the Philosophers, and On Music. One "pseudo-Plutarch" is held responsible for all of these works, though their authorship is of course unknown. Though the thoughts and opinions recorded are not Plutarch's and come from a slightly later era, they are classical in origin and have value to the historian.
The book is famously the first reference to the problem of the Chicken and the egg.

Moralia asserts a belief in reincarnation:

"The soul, being eternal, after death is like a caged bird that has been released. If it has been a long time in the body, and has become tame by many affairs and long habit, the soul will immediately take another body and once again become involved in the troubles of the world. The worst thing about old age is that the soul's memory of the other world grows dim, while at the same time its attachment to things of this world becomes so strong that the soul tends to retain the form that it had in the body. But that soul which remains only a short time within a body, until liberated by the higher powers, quickly recovers its fire and goes on to higher things." (From The Consolation.)

Mind

Mind or Nous (iconˈnuːs, Greek: νοῦς) is a philosophical term for intellect. In Moralia, Plutarch agrees with Plato that the soul is more divine than the body while nous is more divine than the soul. The mix of soul and body produces pleasure and pain; the conjunction of mind and soul produces reason, which is the cause or the source of virtue and vice. (From: “On the Face in the Moon”)

Selected and edited from Wikipedia Offline - [Plutarch's] Moralia

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         2148 hours. This is interesting material and I assume enough needed for Dead 17.

         This is enough for tonight. Again, your absorbing intensity on the material is much more important to me than an attempt to memorize, something you would not, for obvious reasons, contemplate doing. Post when politely plausible. - Amorella

         [We may be a day or two behind until we return to civilization.]



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