Τετέλεσται has been part of the Starry Bull vocabulary for almost as long as the tradition has existed, for some of the reasons discussed in the previous post and others I reserve for private conversation. The only gnōmē (if that’s the correct term, and I suspect it is not) that possibly predates it is Γινέσθω! (“May it be so!” or “Make it so!” depending on the translation) which comes from a legal document bearing Queen Kleopatra Philopatōr’s signature and that note written in the margin. Although she is credited with authoring numerous books and treatises on subjects ranging from perfumes and cosmetics, to poisons and alchemy, and even military strategy and a mirror for princes (ancient apocrypha is fascinating) this clipped command is the only piece of writing we can be absolutely certain came from her own hand. (Academic debate notwithstanding.) Within the Starry Bull Γινέσθω has become our version of the istiṯnāʾ.

I am currently making my way through a pirated PDF of Henry Chadwick’s collection of the Sentences of Sextus, the Precepts of Kleitarchos, and the Gnōmai of Pythagoras with what appears to be an AI produced translation. Wherever possible I’m going back to originals to confirm both the Greek and English, which is long and tedious work. But it’s helping me flesh out a document I will be using as part of the ethical training and character formation portion of our introductory paideia, so it’s worth it.

At first I was on the fence about including this one in the collectiom:

Ἀνανεούσθω σοι ὁ περὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν λόγος καθ᾽ ἡμέραν μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ σῶμα τοῖς σιτίοις.
Let the discourse concerning good things be renewed for you each day, more than the body is renewed by food.
Pythagorean Sentences 1

But then I noticed  something important hiding in the Greek: 

Ἀνανεούσθω = let it be renewed/made new again

Boom! I just discovered the counterpoint to Τετέλεσται. 

Τετέλεσται.
It has been accomplished, fulfilled, completed. It has reached its τέλος.

Against:

Ἀνανεούσθω.
Let it be renewed. Let it become new again.

These are not simple binary oppositions, either. Completion becomes the condition of renewal. Renewal moves toward another cycle culminating in fulfillment. The τέλος isn’t merely where movement stops; it can be the threshold at which another movement becomes possible.

Which puts us right back into:

Ἄνω κάτω.
The way up is the way down.

And Paul’s:

ὃ σπείρεις οὐ ζῳοποιεῖται ἐὰν μὴ ἀποθάνῃ.
What you sow is not made alive unless it dies.

And Plutarch’s:

τελευτᾶν καὶ τελεῖσθαι
to die / to be initiated.

And now we have:

Τετέλεσται → Ἀνανεούσθω.
It is accomplished → Let it be renewed.

That’s almost a liturgical hinge in itself.

And there’s something particularly beautiful about the grammatical movement.

Τετέλεσται announces something already accomplished: the perfect tense looks backward upon an act whose completion remains consequential in the present.

Ἀνανεούσθω is an imperative: it turns toward what must happen now and continue happening.

One voice announces completion.

The other commands renewal.

Put a pregnant silence between them and you practically have a rite.

I also love that this emerged accidentally from the harvest. I wasn’t setting out to find a counterpoint to Τετέλεσται. The Pythagorean sentence simply walked into the symposion carrying one.

This exercise is giving me a chance to put the virtue of patience into practice, and producing rewards when I succeed. No grape ever ripened through force. Nor can you coerce fermentation. You establish the conditions, tend it, wait—and transformation occurs in darkness.

Just like with initiation.