退廃した

DEGENERATEたいはいした[/dɪˈdʒɛnərət/]形容詞

解説

祖先よりも目立って立派ではないこと。

ホメロスの同時代人は退廃の典型で、トロイ戦争の英なら一人で持ち上げられる岩や騒乱を、十人がかりでやっと起こせた。
ホメロスは「堕落した時代の人々」と嘲り続け、彼らも仕返しに彼を物乞いの身に甘んじさせた。

もし物乞いを禁じていたら確実に彼は餓しただろう。

付記

なし。

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Original

Less conspicuously admirable than one's ancestors. The contemporaries of Homer were striking examples of degeneracy; it required ten of them to raise a rock or a riot that one of the heroes of the Trojan war could have raised with ease. Homer never tires of sneering at "men who live in these degenerate days," which is perhaps why they suffered him to beg his bread—a marked instance of returning good for evil, by the way, for if they had forbidden him he would certainly have starved.

Additional notes

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