Suppliant: Gratitude in Grace

It is of critical importance that all of us learn to be gracious when we are the subjects of charity; we must remember to thank. A passage from a play written over 2,000 years ago illustrates how to render gratitude thus.

Thanks from the suppliant maidens directed at the argives:

"O come! let us render

recompense fair!

A token and tender

of thanks and a prayer

that good things be showered upon Argos.

benediction and laud and honor

In hymns to her praises sung

shall surely be doubled upon her;

for dear is an alien tongue

To zeus who cares for the stranger

and governs the counsels of Kings;

To an end free from harm and danger

May he lead our thanksgivings,

With good gifts shed upon Argos."

                                               -Aeschylus, The suppliant maidens

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Ancient_Greek_female_costume_-_illustrated_by_one_hundred_and_twelve_plates_and_numerous_smaller_illustrations%3B_with_descriptive_letterpress_and_descriptive_passages_from_the_works_of_Homer%2C_Hesiod%2C_%2814577379980%29.jpg