Why it is that all who have turned out to be outstanding men of

Why it is that all who have turned out to be outstanding men of
science or politics or literature or the arts are apparently of
melancholic temperament. - Seneca, claiming Aristotle said it
300 years before but no corroborating proof from Aristotle's
time remains...

would be more accurate... but that's not the kind of thing
that's sharable in Meme form... and really, the form we have
inherited is close enough. I like the emphasis in the original
on "black biled" which means today's "manic-depressive". I like
that better than "madness". ===== Crap. It was Seneca the
younger, about 300 years AFTER Aristotle died who said that
Aristotle said something similar. Dang it. _so close_... *dang
it*. Ben Jonson the playwrite trusted Seneca at his word.... but
it was already 1600 years later and 1900 since Aristotle... so
it's forgivable I suppose... but now we're 2300 years past
Aristotle... *sigh*.
[1]http://www.translatum.gr/forum/index.php?topic=9564.0
No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness
(Seneca/"Aristotle"). -> Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura
dementiae fuit / ???te? ?s?? pe??tt?? ?e???as?? ??d?e? fa????ta?
*e?a???????? ??te?.
* Reply #2 on: 02 May, 2007, 05:37:48 *
At long last, harrisimo02, thanks to the kindness of an old
friend (Prof. Edwin Floyd at the University of Pittsburg), we're
able to give you the text of "Aristotle" that you requested.
Introducing his 30th "problem," the author raises the question,
??? t? p??te? ?s?? pe??tt?? ?e???as?? ??d?e? ? ?at? f???s?f?a? ?
p???t???? ? p???s?? ? t???a? fa????ta? *e?a???????? ??te? "Why
it is that all who have turned out to be outstanding men of
science or politics or literature or the arts are apparently of
melancholic temperament."
[In those days, "melancholic" (literally, "black-biled") meant
pretty much what we mean by "depressive" or "manic-depressive"
today.]
Boiling the sentence down to its core, we have the statement
that Seneca focused on, and that you wanted to discover: All who
have turned out to be outstanding men are apparently of
melancholic temperament which, in Greek, is

p??te? ?s?? pe??tt?? ?e???as?? ??d?e? fa????ta? *e?a????????
??te?, or, in caps,
?????S ?S?? ???????? G?G???S?? ?????S F???????? ????G???????
????S ==== O_O a _potentially_ accurate meme! [2]#yay
[3]https://archive.org/.../benjonsonlhomme00castgoog_djvu.txt
"Ben Jonson: l'homme et l'oeuvre (1572-1637)."

My faith in Memes is slightly restored! After fighting bad Tesla
quotes for days... _so nice_ to see a potentially accurate one!
smile emoticon

References

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1. http://www.translatum.gr/forum/index.php?topic=9564.0
2. https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/yay?hc_location=ufi
3. https://archive.org/stream/benjonsonlhomme00castgoog/benjonsonlhomme00castgoog_djvu.txt