Post by joustos on Apr 15, 2018 16:13:21 GMT
I wish to welcome and to apologize to a very recent member whose name I do not remember, but I was impressed by her tag, "Be humble for you are made of earth; be noble for you are made of stars".
I searched over the internet and found conflicting views as to whether the proverb is Serbian or not. Anyway, one author gave the wording in (Proto or Church) Serbian, "Budi skroman... Budi plemenit..." whose correctness I am not in a position to judge.
Whether originally Serbian or not, the proverb drew my attention to its ancient, very ancient, content, namely Orphic ideas: Man has two origins, the Earth (which gives him a mortal body) and the stars (which give him an immortal soul). Some gold tablets used to be interred with dead bodies (in Greek southern Italy), with embossed inscriptions to instruct the dead persons: When you reach Hades and you are thirsty, do not drink from the River Lethe, the River of Oblivion (which would be your end). Rather, say to the Attendant, I am from the stars and I have come to claim my birthright [to be among the immortals].
Perhaps somewhere there is more information about the history of the proverb, which can be called an "Orphic proverb".
