Around 600 BC, carved into the temple of Apollo at Delphi, were three maxims: know thyself, nothing in excess, surety brings ruin. There was also an enigmatic letter E, whose meaning is a puzzle for modern scholars, as it was for Plutarch in the first century AD.

We don’t actually know any of this for certain; the temple was destroyed in AD 390 at the order of the Roman emperor Theodosius I. Instead, we must rely on the references to the maxims by the great minds of antiquity, who were doing the same thing that I am now – reflecting on the statements and trying to use them to live a better life.

Wilkins’ The Delphic Maxims in Literature is a study of the history of the maxims and the evolution of thought around them. The second and third are given one chapter apiece: “nothing in excess” was relatively unambiguous and similar to other sayings du jour that encouraged moderation; “surety brings ruin” has been variously translated and was interpreted very differently by the Greeks (danger of overconfidence) and the Romans, the latter of whom had the more prosaic interpretation that we should avoid giving financial guarantees (or even that we should avoid pledging ourselves in marriage!).

The majority of the book is rightfully devoted to gnothi seauton – know thyself – which reflects the relative importance of that first maxim to literary and philosophical minds over three millennia. Wilkins explores the subtle evolution in interpretation over the centuries, from the individualistic self-knowledge of the Greeks (knowing strengths and weaknesses) to the more holistic and humanist understanding encouraged by thinkers in the 18th century. I am deeply reminded of Hegel’s philosophy of history, wherein the intellectual soul of humanity (the geist) is yearning to grow its rationality, freedom, and power, and trying to approach ultimate self-consciousness – the “becoming of Man”.

My preferred interpretations of the three maxims are as follows:

• Know Thyself: understand your motivations, strengths, and weaknesses. Be conscious and deliberate.
• Nothing too much: “everything in moderation, including moderation”
• Surety brings ruin: avoid overconfidence.

Wilkins also discusses how this self-knowledge may be achieved, beautifully summarising it thus:

Education in the fullest sense, literary, historical, scientific; the experiences of life, such as work, and love, and sorrow, and contact with our fellows generally.

The Delphic Maxims in Literature is hard to recommend as it is rather arcane, with many references to obscure authors whose literary importance may have waned to nothingness in the century since Wilkins wrote his treatise. But in one’s quest for self-knowledge, it is heartening to know that one is in the company of many of the great minds from history.

Key ideas

• The Delphic Maxims:

  • Know Thyself – Gnothi seauton (Γνῶθι σεαυτόν)
  • Nothing in Excess – Meden agan (Μηδὲν ἄγαν)
  • Surety Brings Ruin – Eggua para d’ate (Ἐγγύα πάρα δ' Ἄτη)

• Origins of the maxims:

  • Carved on the temple of Apollo at Delphi, around 600BC.
  • There was also a letter E on the temple, whose meaning is not known. Some interpretations:
    • “Thou art” – remember you are conscious
    • “Come”: welcome
    • “He said”: remember that these are the words of Apollo

• Meden agan: similar to various other Ancient Greek sayings that encourage moderation, e.g. Hesiod’s “due measure is best” (kairos ariotos)

• Interpretations of Eggua para d’ate (heavily debated, even in antiquity)

  • Be careful vouching for people / guaranteeing their loans (Latin authors prefer this meaning)
  • Diogenes Laertius: “ it is shown that trouble attends him who affirms anything in strong terms and confidently”
  • Avoid committing to one course

• Interpretations of Gnothi seauton:

  • Know your limitations, e.g. Croesus after his defeat to Cyrus claims that his defeat was because he did not know himself.
  • Know thyself means that we should know our good points (Cicero).
  • As a memento mori (Seneca and other stoics).

  

  • Knowing our faults (stoics)
  • Knowing our God-given soul (Calvin): “the knowledge of ourselves consists first, in considering what was bestowed on us at our creation, and the favours we continually receive from the divine benignity, that we may know how great the excellence of our nature would have been, if it had retained its integrity”.
  • Knowing human nature: in the 18th century, “know thyself” started shifting to “knowing human nature” and knowing our place in society.
    • “the man who would know himself adequately […] must know his fellow-men and his relation to them”.
    • Social consciousness rather than individualism

• How to know thyself:

  • Plato: socratic dialectic
  • Aristotle: by observing our friends, since they reflect our charactrierstics
  • Galen: unbiased friends point out our flaws
  • Lucian: the arts – theatre and literature demonstrate the spectrum of human characteristics, by which we can recognise our own behaviour
  • Nietzche: adversity. “From the Military School of Life.—Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger”.
  • Nietzche: studying history. “Immediate self-observation is not enough, by a long way, to enable us to learn to know our-selves. […] We need history, for the past continues to flow through us in a hundred channels”.
  • “Education in the fullest sense, literary, historical, scientific; the experiences of life, such as work, and love, and sorrow, and contact with our fellows generally”.

• Mystics on how to approach oneness with God:

  • Purgative: “reflection and recognition of sins, which leads to exceeding sorrow and confession”
  • Illuminative: contemplation of the goodness of God, which leads to further realisation of sinfulness. Penance, fasting, and self-inflicted pain are tools to enable illumination.
  • Unitive/”ecstatic”: the soul loses all sense of self and achieves oneness with god.

• Sophrosyne (σωφροσύνη): soundness of mind and excellence of character, leading to temperance, self-control, and decorum.