OPPOSITES ATTRACT

Youth

For:
Hesiod

I see no hope for the future of our people
if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today,
for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words.
When I was a boy,
we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders,
but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.





Against:
Mimnermus

Short-lived is treasured youth,
like a dream.
And soon the painful and ugly old age
looms above our heads,
hated and despised alike,
takes over men deforming and making them unrecognizable,
damaging the sight, and mind.


Hesiod, the author of Theogony and Works and Days, was a Greek oral poet believed to have lived around 8th century B.C. Mimnermus was a Greek elegiac poet most famous for his erotic love elegies, mostly written to a flute player named Nanna. Both men were, at one time, young.