An evening seminar on Marcus Aurelius" Meditations is being offered at the local University. I'm thinking of signing up -- I attended a "teaser" lecture last week and the first session is tonight (it costs $120 for 5 seminars). I've been reading "Meditations" to make a decision.
Marcus seems a cold (almost icy) philosopher. I understand (for example) his point that sins committed in anger (or passion) are more pardonable than those committed from desire, but does he really think that it's not worse to kill you friend's wife than to sleep with her? Of course Marcus is admirable in that he strives to be a good person. But I'm unsure of his notion that "to be remembered is worthless, Like fame. Like everything." Or that we are, "minuscule, transitory, insignificant." Art? Marcus rejects it as frippery. Although there is a wintry logic to such pronouncements, why should we encourage and harbor them? The Christian (and hence modern) perspective is that some things -- love, hope, and faith -- are eternal. This may be a fiction -- but it seems to me that encouraging such fictions in ourselves is more likely to lead to a better world for ourselves and others than Marcus' cold pronouncements. If there is no God, there may still be romance; if there is no eternal life, there may still be truths, emotions, or states of being that transcend time and space.
The lecturer (I believe he's more of a literature expert than Classicist) did point out some interesting issues in every translation (Marus wrote the original in Greek). For example, every translation of the first book, in which Marcus offers tribute to those who have influenced him, uses the first person: "Of my grandfather Verus I have learned to be gentle and meek....." The professor pointed out that in the Greek, there is not "I learned"; Marcus says simply "Of Verus" or "From Verus". The lack of egotism is interesting, if perhaps not of major importance.
If I sign up for the class, I'll post more.