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Question 59: Discite justitiam moniti, et non temnere divos?

Q.  I'm looking for a translation from Isak Dinesen's "The Monkey," in Seven Gothic Tales of the Latin phrase: "Discite justitiam moniti, et non temnere divos."

A.

• Literal translation: "Learn the justice of watchfulness, and don't tempt the gods."
• Source: Virgil, Aeneid (19 BCE), Book VI, verse 620. Translated by John Dryden (1631-1700):
 
And wretched Phlegyas warns the world with cries
(Could warning make the world more just or wise):
'Learn righteousness, and dread th' avenging deities.'
 
• Meaning: Don't take justice into your own hands; wait for fate to wreak its own wrath. If you attempt to wage your own revenge, you will bring everlasting doom upon yourself.

 
• Background:

"Phlegyas avenged his daughter Coronis, raped by Apollo, by burning down the god's temple at Delphi for which he was condemned to Tartarus. In the Aeneid vi 618-620 he issues a warning against scorning the gods."

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Inferno, Canto VIII:1-30. He is the ferryman of the marsh in the Fifth Circle. Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867), Notes, verse 8.019: "Phlegyas was the father of Ixion and Coronis. He was king of the Lapithae, and burned the temple of Apollo at Delphi to avenge the wrong done by the god to Coronis. His punishment in the infernal regions was to stand beneath a huge impending rock, always about to fall upon him. Virgil, Aeneid, VI, says of him: 'Phlegyas, most wretched,is a monitor to all and with loud voice proclaims through the shades, "Being warned, learn righteousness, and not to condemn the gods.'"
 

• Victor Hugo, Le dernier jour d'un condamné, préface (1832)(in decrying judges and their corrupt court judgments): "Vous, dans votre intérieur, vous n'êtes pas bien sûrs de ne pas être des assassins. Apprenez à connaître la justice et à ne pas mépriser les dieux (VIRGILE, Énéide, liv. VI, v. 620)." [You, in your consciences, are not really sure that you are not murderers. Learn to recognise justice and not to scorn the gods.]

Edgar A. Poe, Marginalia (1844-49): "One of the most deliberate tricks of Voltaire, is where he renders, by Soyez justes, mortels, et ne craignez qu'un Dieu [Be just, mortels, and fear but one God.], the words of Phlegyas, who cries out, in Hell, Dicite justitiam, moniti, et non temnere Divos. He gives the line this twist, by way of showing that the ancients worshipped one God. He is endeavoring to deny that the idea of the Unity of God originated with the Jews."


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