Soren Kierkegaard

his “body was wet with the dew of the heavens and his hair became as long
as the feathers of eagles and his nails like the claws of birds” (Daniel 4:33).
The next-to-last of the inserted pieces also combines wisdom and wild-
ness. It is titled “The Reading Lesson,” and it tells of Periander, the son of
Cypselus, tyrant over Corinth. Periander was noteworthy for his gentleness
and his justice toward the poor; his wisdom was legendary. “Daring were
his undertakings, and this was his motto: Diligence accomplishes every-
thing.” Thus was Periander. But this was not the whole truth because just
“beneath his gentleness smoldered the fire of passion, and right up to the
final moment, words of wisdom concealed the madness of his actions....
Periander was transformed. He did not become another person, but he
became two who could not be contained within a single person: the wise
man and the tyrant, which is to say he became an inhuman monster.” For
these reasons posterity linked Periander’s name to this saying, that he “al-
ways spoke as a wise man and always acted as a madman.” Periander did
not merely have a sexual relationship with his own mother, Cratia; in a fit
of jealousy he also kicked to death his own pregnant wife, Lysida, whom
he called Melissa. The two motherless sons, Cypselus and Lycophron, then
fled to their maternal grandfather, Procles, who one day told them who it
was who had murdered their mother. Cypselus resigned himself to the situa-
tion, but Lycophron chose to show his contempt for his father by remaining
silent: “Upon his return home to the house of his fathers he never deigned
to speak to his father. Then Periander became embittered and drove him
away, and finally by prying at Cypselus with many questions, he learned
what Lycophron was concealing with his silence. Then his wrath pursued
the one he had driven away, and no one was to harbor him.” Only when
Periander had become “an old man” did he seek out Lycophron, who had
sought refuge on Corcyra. The two, father and son, then ended up “divid-
ing up the estate between themselves, not as father and son divide an estate
in love, but as deadly enemies divide things: They decided to exchange
places of residence. Periander would live on Corcyra, and Lycophron was
to be the ruler of Corinth.”
The relationship between the two brothers, Lycophron and Cypselus,
reflects the asymmetry that characterized the relationship between Søren
Aabye and Peter Christian. The older brother was obedient and peaceable,
while the younger refused to yield to the father and transformed himself
into an unspeaking monolith. Exile from one’s homeland is a metaphor for
repudiation, while the exchange of places of residence is an indication of a
shared fate, a connection that exists despite everything.
Kierkegaard’s knowledge of Periander came from two of his favorite clas-
sical Greek authors, Herodotus and Diogenes Laertius. Kierkegaard read