Sunday, September 18, 2005
I Feel Your Pain
Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 58-64 (tr. Richard C. Jebb):
In English we have two words for fellow feeling:
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My piteous children, I know quite well the desires with which you have come: I know well that you all are sick, and though you are sick I know well that there is not one of you who is as sick as I. Your pain comes on each of you for himself alone, and for no other, but my soul is in pain at once for the city, for myself, and for you.Such sentiments from our leaders always ring a bit false, although in the end Oedipus did suffer his share of pain.
In English we have two words for fellow feeling:
- compassion, from Latin com- (with) and passio (suffering)
- sympathy, from Greek syn- (with) and pathos (suffering)
