"It is good even for old men to learn wisdom"
About this Quote
The line insists that the capacity to grow in understanding does not expire with age. Authority, status, and accumulated years do not guarantee wisdom; they can even harden people into habit and pride. Aeschylus, the earliest of the great Greek tragedians, repeatedly exposes the dangers of assuming that age alone confers right judgment. His dramas unsettle the audience’s trust in inherited certainties and invite a humility that listens, reflects, and changes course.
In Aeschylus’s world, hard-won insight often arrives through ordeal, the famous pattern of learning through suffering. That process does not spare elders. The chorus of old men in Agamemnon tries to read omens, debates what is just, and struggles to assess the cost of war and the authority of kings. Their age grants perspective but not infallibility; they must interpret events in real time, acknowledge misreadings, and revise their stance. The line pushes against the complacency that can accompany seniority, urging a lifelong apprenticeship to truth.
The Oresteia trilogy goes further by staging a civic education for the entire community. Blood vengeance yields to a new order of law in Athens, and even ancient powers like the Furies must be persuaded to accept deliberation, limits, and balance. Learning here is not merely private self-improvement. It is political and communal, a shift from primal anger to reasoned judgment. Old institutions and older gods are asked to learn wisdom so that the city may endure.
The statement also serves as a warning against hubris. Refusing to learn invites ruin, whether one is a young conqueror or a seasoned ruler. To be teachable is to remain open to correction, to facts that unsettle cherished beliefs, to voices previously ignored. Aeschylus affirms that such openness is not a concession of weakness but the mark of genuine maturity. If wisdom is a living practice rather than a possession, then the truly wise stay students to the end.
In Aeschylus’s world, hard-won insight often arrives through ordeal, the famous pattern of learning through suffering. That process does not spare elders. The chorus of old men in Agamemnon tries to read omens, debates what is just, and struggles to assess the cost of war and the authority of kings. Their age grants perspective but not infallibility; they must interpret events in real time, acknowledge misreadings, and revise their stance. The line pushes against the complacency that can accompany seniority, urging a lifelong apprenticeship to truth.
The Oresteia trilogy goes further by staging a civic education for the entire community. Blood vengeance yields to a new order of law in Athens, and even ancient powers like the Furies must be persuaded to accept deliberation, limits, and balance. Learning here is not merely private self-improvement. It is political and communal, a shift from primal anger to reasoned judgment. Old institutions and older gods are asked to learn wisdom so that the city may endure.
The statement also serves as a warning against hubris. Refusing to learn invites ruin, whether one is a young conqueror or a seasoned ruler. To be teachable is to remain open to correction, to facts that unsettle cherished beliefs, to voices previously ignored. Aeschylus affirms that such openness is not a concession of weakness but the mark of genuine maturity. If wisdom is a living practice rather than a possession, then the truly wise stay students to the end.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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