Πάρεργα (πρόλογος)
Εμμανουήλ Ροΐδης (1836–1904), 1893
Why one writer would rather read Spencer than write a page: a comic, sharp argument against Greece's language split. A witty, sharp-tongued essayistic voice moves with comic energy through a serious argument about language, identity and writing.
Feels like humor, wonder and dread. About power, art and identity.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy satirical polemic, language politics, and a learned writer mocking purist Greek while using it. The Greek is archaizing katharevousa, and the argument assumes some familiarity with Greece’s language split, so it can be slow going.
Why read it
It gives you a lively, contrarian look at how language purism shapes writing and national identity, delivered with wit rather than solemnity.
Pages from the book
The one triumph of language purists: making our living speech feel like a sea monster.
Μόνον κατόρθωμα τῶν δῆθεν διορθωτῶν τῆς γλώσσης ὑπῆρξε ν᾿ ἀτιμάσωσι καὶ νὰ καταστήσωσιν ἄχρηστον ἐν τῷ γραπτῷ λόγω τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς λαλουμένης, χωρὶς νὰ μεταδώσωσιν εἰς τοὺς ἐκταφέντας ἀττικισμοὺς ζωὴν πραγματικήν, ἥτις διὰ μόνου τοῦ στόματος, οὐχὶ δὲ καὶ τοῦ καλάμου, δύναται νὰ ἐμφυσηθῇ. Τὴν αὐτὴν δυσάρεστον αἴσθησιν κατήντησεν οὕτω νὰ προξενῇ εἰς ἡμᾶς καὶ ἡ προσθήκη καὶ ἡ παράλειψις τοῦ ἀναδιπλασιασμοῦ, καὶ ἡ χρῆσις καὶ ἡ ἀποφυγὴ τῆς δοτικῆς πλείστων ὀνομάτων, καὶ τὸ «σεῖς» καὶ «ὑμεῖς», καὶ ἡ «μύτη» καὶ ἡ «ρίς», καὶ τὸ «ἐπρόσφερα» καὶ τὸ «προσήνεγκον», καὶ τὸ «ἐδάγκασα» καὶ τὸ «ἔδηξα» καὶ ἀναρίθμητα ἄλλα, μεταξὺ τῶν ὁποίων ταλαντεύεται ὁ γράφων ὡς ναυτιῶν θαλασσοπόρος μεταξὺ Χαρύβδεως καὶ Σκύλλης. What happens to a tear when grammar gets in the way?
Ὁ γράφων νεοελληνιστὶ εὑρίσκεται οὕτω πρὸ τοῦ διλήμματος ἢ νὰ παραιτηθῇ τῆς μεταδόσεως πάσης αὐτοῦ ἰδέας τῆς μὴ δυναμένης νὰ ἐκφρασθῇ διὰ τῶν ὀλιγίστων ἀχρόων, ἤτοι κοινῶν τῇ ἀρχαίᾳ καὶ τῇ ὁμιλουμένῃ ὀνομάτων, ἢ ν᾿ ἀναμίξῃ τὸ γλωσσικὸν ζήτημα εἰς οἱονδήποτε πραγματεύεται θέμα, μολύνων διὰ τοῦ ρυπάσματος τούτου τὴν διαύγειαν πάσης ἐννοίας καὶ τὴν ζωηρότητα πάσης εἰκόνος. Πῶς δὲ νὰ συμβιβάσῃ μετὰ τῆς συγκινήσεως ἐξ οἱουδήποτε αἰσθήματος ἢ τῆς διεγέρσεως οἱουδήποτε πάθους, μετὰ λύπης ἢ γέλωτος, μετὰ χαρᾶς ἢ δακρύων, τὸν διχασμὸν τῆς προσοχῆς τοῦ ἀναγνώστου μεταξὺ τούτων καὶ τῆς τηρήσεως ἢ τῆς παραβάσεως γραμματικῶν κανόνων; Τοὺς δεδακρυσμένους ὀφθαλμοὺς ξηραίνει ὁ ἀναδιπλασιασμός, οἱ δὲ δακρυσμένοι ὄζουσιν ἀφορισμοῦ τῶν λογίων, δημοτικῆς ἐπιτηδεύσεως Ἑπτανήσου καὶ Λασκαράτου. A painter whose every colour is mixed with soot and mud.
Ὁ διὰ τούτων διωρθωμένων λέξεων ἀναγκαζόμενος νὰ ἐκφράζῃ τὰ διανοήματα αὐτοῦ εὑρίσκεται εἰς τὴν θέσιν ζωγράφου τοῦ ὁποίου πάντα τὰ χρώματα ἤθελον εἶναι μεμιγμένα μετ᾿ αἰθάλης καὶ βορβόρου. Οὐδὲν ἄλλο τῷ ὄντι ἢ αἰθάλη καὶ βόρβορος εἶναι ἡ προσθήκη εἰς τὴν σημασίαν πάσης λέξεως χροιᾶς σχολαστικότητας ἢ χυδαϊσμοῦ. Ἄλυτον δι᾿ ἐμὲ αἴνιγμα εἶναι πῶς διέφυγε τὸν φιλόσοφον νοῦν τοῦ Κοραῆ ὅτι καὶ αὐτὴ ἡ μετὰ μέτρου καὶ κρίσεως διόρθωσις τῶν τύπων τῆς λαλουμένης ἤθελεν ἔχει ἄφευκτον ἀποτέλεσμα νὰ διχοτομῇ τὴν προσοχὴν τοῦ ἀναγνώστου μεταξὺ τῆς γενομένης διορθώσεως καὶ τοῦ σημαινομένου τῆς λέξεως, καθιστῶσα ἀδύνατον τὴν ἀποκλειστικὴν ἐκείνην εἰς μόνην τὴν ἔννοιαν προσήλωσιν ἄνευ τῆς ὁποίας ὄζει πᾶν ἀνάγνωσμα γυμνάσματος μαθηματικοῦ. Εμμανουήλ Ροΐδης.Roïdis wrote in a learned katharevousa while attacking the purists, and his satirical novel 'I Papissa Iouanna' scandalised Athens.
Books that feel like this
More by Εμμανουήλ Ροΐδης
Αι εξοχαί των Αθηνών
Εμμανουήλ Ροΐδης, 1896
A sharp-eyed walker tours Athens' forgotten outskirts in the 1890s, mourning the streams and trees that progress has buried under dust.
Τα εφήμερα
Εμμανουήλ Ροΐδης, 1888
A katharevousa essayist falls asleep by the Kifissos and overhears mayflies, who live four hours, philosophise about sex, death and reputation. Satire disguised as natural history.
Η Πάπισσα Ιωάννα
Εμμανουήλ Ροΐδης, 1866
An irreverent, learned satire in which a clever girl from Mainz climbs to St Peter's chair — and every institution along the way is mocked in polished, delicious prose. 30 words max.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Πάρεργα (πρόλογος) for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy satirical polemic, language politics, and a learned writer mocking purist Greek while using it. The Greek is archaizing katharevousa, and the argument assumes some familiarity with Greece’s language split, so it can be slow going.
- What is Πάρεργα (πρόλογος) like?
- A witty, sharp-tongued essayistic voice moves with comic energy through a serious argument about language, identity and writing. Feels like humor, wonder and dread. About power, art and identity.
- What should I read after Πάρεργα (πρόλογος)?
- If you liked Πάρεργα (πρόλογος), try Ulysses (James Joyce), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll) and The Taming of the Shrew (William Shakespeare).
A taste of the feed
A dog on a beach is not looking for anything it can name.
Their dog ambled about a bank of dwindling sand, trotting, sniffing on all sides. Looking for something lost in a past life. Suddenly he made off like a bounding hare, ears flung back, chasing the shadow of a lowskimming gull. The man’s shrieked whistle struck his limp ears. He turned, bounded back, came nearer, trotted on twinkling shanks. On a field tenney a buck, trippant, proper, unattired. At the lacefringe of the tide he halted with stiff forehoofs, seawardpointed ears. His snout lifted barked at the wavenoise, herds of seamorse. They serpented towards his feet, curling, unfurling many crests, every ninth, breaking, plashing, from far, from farther out, waves and waves.
Ulysses · James Joyce
She scolds herself so well it brings her to tears.
“Come, there’s no use in crying like that!” said Alice to herself, rather sharply; “I advise you to leave off this minute!” She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. “But it’s no use now,” thought poor Alice, “to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!”
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · Lewis Carroll
Being starved by someone who calls it love.
The more my wrong, the more his spite appears: What, did he marry me to famish me? Beggars, that come unto my father’s door, Upon entreaty have a present aims; If not, elsewhere they meet with charity: But I, who never knew how to entreat, Nor never needed that I should entreat, Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep, With oaths kept waking and with brawling fed: And that which spites me more than all these wants, He does it under name of perfect love; As who should say, if I should sleep or eat, ’Twere deadly sickness or else present death.
The Taming of the Shrew · William Shakespeare
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