Hinc illae lacrimae explained

"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]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Hackneyed Phrases of Yore . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20240831074640/https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/hackneyed-phrases-of-yore . 2024-08-31 . 2024-08-31 . Merriam-Webster.com . en.
  2. Web site: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary . 2024-08-31 . Merriam-Webster.com.
  3. Web site: Andria, Act 1 scene 1 . Perseus Digital Library . Tufts University . 31 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240707033736/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0113%3Aact%3D1%3Ascene%3D1 . 7 July 2024. English . Hence those tears, hence that sympathy. . live.
  4. Web site: Cicero, Pro Caelio 61 . Perseus Digital Library . Tufts University . 31 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240513103554/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0020%3Atext%3DCael.%3Asection%3D61 . 13 May 2024 . English . Hence arose those tears. . live.
  5. Web site: The First Book of the Epistles of Horace . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20240625003259/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14020/14020-h/14020-h.htm#THE_FIRST_BOOK_OF_THE_EPISTLES_OF_HORACE . 2024-06-25 . 2024-08-31 . Project Gutenberg . Hence are these tears..
  6. Web site: Horace, Epistles 1.1:19 . Perseus Digital Library . Tufts University . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230327203447/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0539%3Abook%3D1%3Apoem%3D19 . 2023-03-27 . 2024-08-31 . hinc illae lacrimae..
  7. Book: The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations . Oxford University Press . 1999 . 9780198601739 . Knowles . Elizabeth M. . 5th . 768 . en.
  8. Book: Marx . Karl . Karl Marx . Marx & Engels: Collected Works . Engels . Friedrich . Friedrich Engels . Lawrence & Wishart . 1889 . 9781843279921 . 48, Letters 1887-90 . 2010 . 296 . en . 177. Engels to Paul Lafargue, 10 April 1889 . According to Hyndman, the Possibilists were afraid of being chucked out of their own congress, hinc illae lacrimae!.
  9. Book: Trollope, Anthony . Anthony Trollope . Phineas Redux . Oxford University Press . 1882 . 9780191620454 . 2011 . 531 . en . LXXV. THE TRUMPETON FEUD IS SETTLED. . 2024-08-31 . https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18640/18640-h/18640-h.htm#c75 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240502123053/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18640/18640-h/18640-h.htm . 2024-05-02 . live.
  10. Book: Marx . Karl . Karl Marx . Marx & Engels: Collected Works . Engels . Friedrich . Friedrich Engels . Lawrence & Wishart . 1868 . 9781843279877 . 43, Letters 1868-70 . 2010 . 173 . en . 122. Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann, 5 December 1868 . 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.}})—in Trollope's 1882 novel Phineas Redux.[9]

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