Why We Do Not Speak Ill of the Dead

Senator Lindsey Graham has died at 71.Have you ever wondered why we have a custom of not saying bad things about the dead? The rule can be traced back to Chilon of Sparta, a statesman who lived around 600 BCE. Ancient Greeks remembered him as one of the Seven Sages, thinkers celebrated for brief lessons about restraint, judgement, and conduct.About nine centuries later, the Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius preserved sayings attributed to Chilon in a work called Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Among them was the instruction, “Do not speak evil of the dead.” The saying began in Greek, not Latin.During the Renaissance, Italian scholar and monk Ambrogio Traversari translated the work of Diogenes into Latin. The instruction became De mortuis nil nisi bonum, which means, “Of the dead, say nothing but good.”The proverb survived all this time because it addressed a basic human problem. A dead person cannot answer accusations, explain past choices, or defend a reputation. Families and friends are also grieving, so restraint became a form of mercy.The rule was never a command to erase history. A person’s actions could still be recorded and examined honestly. The tradition governed personal conduct, especially during mourning. It asked the living to distinguish historical judgement from insult and to let death bring personal hostility to an end. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit quietcanines.substack.com/subscribe