Menin aeide thea Peleiadeo Achileos

Namaste. Logos. Gravitas. We use ancient words sometimes because they indicate better than any word in English the ideas we are trying to communicate. But there is something more to it than that, I think. It would not be that difficult for a lay linguist such as myself to find very suitable translations of the above words in Modern English that convey the same ideas with similar nuance and depth. (Greetings. Word. Dignity.) No, I believe that we turn to these old words primarily because they are old. There is something noble, sanctifying, in the utterance, the movement of the lips and the tongue. I look over the first line of The Iliad and I silently mouth the words.

Menin aeide thea Peleiadeo Achileos

I hardly know how these words relate to each other; I speak them and they register to my brain like it was baby talk. Meaningless. But they do register to me, somewhere beyond words, in my heart. These words come to me already sanctified by the reading of millions before me. I join them when I say these words. This is my Arabic, my Koran. It gives me the chills.