2-6. The Wise and Wisdom in Pindar

The wise man possesses a great eye--an “inborn eye.” He is on the hunt for prey, for truth or insight about the world, which is snatched up in one bold move from afar, from high up, or hit from afar as an archer hits his target. The art of seeing, of bringing out forgotten truths into the radiant light, in short, wisdom, is an inborn art, it is knowledge by nature or by the blood. By contrast those who have learned--whether it be the mass of the many who need interpreters--or their representatives, the “learned,” the mathontes, the pursuers of the didaktai aretai, that is, the try- hards and intellectuals who are utterly demotic and conventional; these produce mere chatter. Wisdom is a matter of silent insight from afar, an inborn skill; it is not a matter of discussion, endless words, the boisterous chatter of the envious.