"Hinc illae lacrimae" (Latin for "hence [the reason for] those/these tears") is a line from the Roman poet Terence's well-known comedy, Andria (166 BC). The phrase has, since the time of the Roman Republic, been appropriated for use as a popular saying or quotation[1]—to be employed when an obscured cause or explanation, for some action(s) or behavior, is recognized; and esp. when a baser motivation is identified, contra an (initially-assumed) nobler one.[2]
In line 126 (Act 1, scene 1) of the comedy Andria (known in English as The Woman from Andros), Terence has his character Simo commenting to interlocutor Sosias on the tears of his son—Pamphilus—at the funeral of a neighbor. At first, Simo assumed that these were an expression of special sympathy for the deceased, and was pleased that Pamphilus was so evidently noble-hearted; but, upon seeing that the funeral procession included the deceased's pretty younger sister, he realized that his son's "grief" was only feigned in order to get closer to her—causing him (Simo) to erupt with: Hinc illae lacrimae, haec illast misericordia! ("Hence these tears—that is the reason for his pity!")[3]
The phrase was borrowed as early as 56 BC, by Cicero in his speech Pro Caelio ("In Defense of Caelius", 1:61),[4] and was used again in 20 BC by Horace, in the first book of his Epistulae ("Letters", 1.19:41);[5][6] and thus, with the popularity of the original play and the adoption by these luminaries of classical Latin literature, the line became a familiar quotation in the Western cultural sphere.[7]
Notable uses of or allusions to the phrase also occur, more recently, in the letters of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels,[8] and—in a play on the original (Hinc illae irae: "hence those rages"; also used in a letter of Marx's[9])—in Trollope's 1882 novel Phineas Redux.[10]
See also
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edit- ^ "Hackneyed Phrases of Yore". Merriam-Webster.com. Archived from the original on 2024-08-31. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
- ^ "Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary". Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
- ^ "Andria, Act 1 scene 1". Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. Archived from the original on 7 July 2024. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
Hence those tears, hence that sympathy.
- ^ "Cicero, Pro Caelio 61". Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. Archived from the original on 13 May 2024. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
Hence arose those tears.
- ^ "The First Book of the Epistles of Horace". Project Gutenberg. Archived from the original on 2024-06-25. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
Hence are these tears.
- ^ "Horace, Epistles 1.1:19". Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. Archived from the original on 2023-03-27. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
hinc illae lacrimae.
- ^ Knowles, Elizabeth M., ed. (1999). The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 768. ISBN 9780198601739.
- ^ Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1889). "177. Engels to Paul Lafargue, 10 April 1889". Marx & Engels: Collected Works. Vol. 48, Letters 1887-90. Lawrence & Wishart (published 2010). p. 296. ISBN 9781843279921.
According to Hyndman, the Possibilists were afraid of being chucked out of their own congress, hinc illae lacrimae!
- ^ Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1868). "122. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann, 5 December 1868". Marx & Engels: Collected Works. Vol. 43, Letters 1868-70. Lawrence & Wishart (published 2010). p. 173. ISBN 9781843279877.
Thereupon we—i.e. THE GENERAL COUNCIL—officially announced, in 6 lines in the Cigale, that F. Pyat had absolutely no connection with the 'International', of which he was not even a member. Hinc illae irae.
- ^ Trollope, Anthony (1882). "LXXV. THE TRUMPETON FEUD IS SETTLED.". Phineas Redux. Oxford University Press (published 2011). p. 531. ISBN 9780191620454. Archived from the original on 2024-05-02. Retrieved 2024-08-31.