GRICE E ZOPIRO: ARMA VIRVMQVE CANO -- LA RAGIONE CONVERSAZIONALE A ROMA -- LUIGI SPERANZA PEL GRUPPO DI GIOCO DI H. P. GRICE, THE SWIMMING-POOL LIBRARY, VILLA SPERANZA

 

Grice e Zopiro: arma virumque cano -- la ragione conversazionale a Roma – filosofia italiana – l’arma del filosofo a Cumae -- Luigi Speranza (Taranto). Filosofo italiano. Pythagorean. Giamblico. He appears to specialise in mechanical matters, and in particular the design and construction of weapons. His skills are evidently in demand and there are reports of him working in places as far apart as Miletus and Cumae. Grice: “That he is of ‘Hellenic’ – so-called, and thus not properly Roman -- origin is evident by the fact that his name starts with a ‘Z,’ a letter which Catone managed to expel from the Latin alphabet. Catone would say: ‘z’ is the sound a corpse makes just before it becomes one’ – rudely. He probably knew. Giamblico, of Calcide, seems to have been very familiar with Italian geography, since he lists all these ‘Pythagoreans,’ who managed to settle (while the sect was banned in Crotone) all over the place. Taranto is close enough, but it seems indeed that Zopiro’s skills led him as far as Cumae. Recall taxis or ubers were unknown then!’. The concept of a weapon was well known to Aeneas and Hemingway --. In Anglo-Saxon, a weaponed man meant a man, i. e. a man (gender-neutral) with a penis. For Grice’s Play-Group. The Swimming-Pool Library.