Benevolence, Beneficence, Munificence . . .

Benevolence (Be*nev"o*lence) (?), n.
[OF. benevolence, L. benevolentia. See Benevolent.]

The Benevolent Goddess, Kali

1. The disposition to do good; good will; charitableness; love of mankind, accompanied with a desire to promote their happiness. "The wakeful benevolence of the gospel." Chalmers.
2. An act of kindness; good done; charity given.
3. A species of compulsory contribution or tax, which has sometimes been illegally exacted by arbitrary kings of England, and falsely represented as a gratuity.

Synonyms -- Benevolence, Beneficence, Munificence. Benevolence marks a disposition made up of a choice and desire for the happiness of others. Beneficence marks the working of this disposition in dispensing good on a somewhat broad scale. Munificence shows the same disposition, but acting on a still broader scale, in conferring gifts and favors. These are not necessarily confined to objects of immediate utility. One may show his munificence in presents of pictures or jewelry, but this would not be beneficence. Benevolence of heart; beneficence of life; munificence in the encouragement of letters.
the above is from http://www.selfknowledge.com/9171.htm

I'll meet you at the Agora.

Ruins in Athens May Be an Ancient Market

March 3, 2007

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Archaeologists have discovered extensive remains of what is believed to be an ancient marketplace with shops and a religious center at the southern edge of Athens, the Culture Ministry said Friday. The finds, in the coastal neighborhood of Voula, date from the 4th or 5th century B.C.

"It is a very large complex," the ministry said. "It was a site of rich financial and religious activity, which was most probably a marketplace."

Marketplaces _ or agoras _ teemed with shops, open-air stalls and administrative buildings, and were the financial, political and social center of ancient Greek life.

Archaeologists believe the complex belonged to the municipality of Aexonides Halai, among the largest settlements surrounding ancient Athens.

The main building was a hollow square with a rock-cut reservoir in the center. The building had 12 rooms _ probably shops _ and a small temple with an open-air altar.

Finds included large quantities of pottery, coins and lead weights that would have been used in transactions by traders.

Last month, archaeologists discovered an ancient theater in the northwestern Athens suburb of Menidi.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

Munificent?

OK, we were talking about munificence as magnificent behaviour last Tuesday, weren't we? Don't be shy, I'm wrong more often than I'm right . . . and I'd rather be told I'm wrong before I find out the hard way.

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mu·nif·i·cent /myuˈnɪfəsənt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[myoo-nif-uh-suhnt]

–adjective

1.	extremely liberal in giving; very generous.

2.	characterized by great generosity: a munificent bequest.

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[Origin: 1575–85; back formation from L mūnificentia generosity, munificence, equiv. to mūnific(us) generous (muni-, comb. form of mūnus gift + -ficus -fic) + -entia -ence]

—Related forms

mu·nif·i·cence, mu·nif·i·cent·ness, noun

mu·nif·i·cent·ly, adverb

—Synonyms 1. bountiful, bounteous, lavish. See generous.

—Antonyms 1. niggardly.

mu·nif·i·cent adj. Very liberal in giving; generous. Showing great generosity: a munificent gift. See Synonyms at liberal. [Latin mūnificēns, mūnificent-, from mūnificus : mūnus, gift; see mei-1 in Indo-European roots + facere, to make; see fact.] mu·nif'i·cence n., mu·nif'i·cent·ly adv.

munificence

c.1425, from M.Fr. munificence, from L. munificentia, from comp. stem of munificus "generous, bountiful, liberal," lit. "present-making," from munus (gen. muneris) "gift or service, duty, office" (see municipal) + unstressed stem of facere "to do" (see factitious).

munificence

noun

liberality in bestowing gifts; extremely liberal and generous of spirit

munificence (n)

	Synonyms: generosity, largesse, benevolence, kindness, philanthropy, bounty, charity, magnanimousness Antonym: miserliness

munificent (adj)

	Synonyms: generous, bountiful, liberal, magnanimous, unstinting, unsparing, openhanded, freehanded, charitable Antonym: miserly

Hera Found!

Greek Archaeologists Find Hera Statue

March 1, 2007

By COSTAS KANTOURIS

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) - A 2,200-year-old statue of the goddess Hera has been found built into the walls of a city under Mount Olympus, home of Greece's ancient gods, archaeologists said on Thursday (Ed Note, Aristotle died 2,329 years ago). The headless marble statue was discovered last year during excavations in the ruins of ancient Dion, some 53 miles southwest of Thessaloniki.

Archaeologist Dimitris Pantermalis said the life-sized _ by human dimensions _ statue had been used by the early Christian inhabitants of Dion as filling for a defensive wall.

He said the 2nd century B.C. find appeared to have originally stood in a temple of Zeus, head of the ancient Greek gods _ whose statue was found in the building's ruins in 2003 and after whom Dion was named.

"We have reached the conclusion that the statue of Hera stood next to that of Zeus in the temple," said Pantermalis, a Thessaloniki University professor who has headed excavations at Dion for more than three decades.

Hera was the long-suffering wife of Zeus, a notorious philanderer, according to ancient mythology.

"The statue represents a female form seated on a throne, and is made of thick-grained marble like the one of Zeus," Pantermalis said. "It shows exactly the same technique and size, which led us to link the two statues beyond doubt."

Pantermalis said that, if confirmed, it would be the first time two statues of different gods have been located from a single temple in Greece. He said it was also possible that a statue of Athena, goddess of wisdom, could have stood in the temple of Zeus, and expressed hopes it might be discovered during future excavations.

Dion was a major religious center of the ancient Macedonians. Alexander the Great offered sacrifices there before launching his victorious campaign against the Persian Empire in the 4th century B.C.

Excavations so far have revealed temples, theaters and a stadium, city walls, a hotel, baths and streets with an elaborate drainage system, as well as many statues.

The area was first inhabited during the Iron Age, and survived into early Christian times when it was the seat of a bishop.

Pantermalis will present the find on Friday, during a three-day archaeological conference that opened in Thessaloniki Thursday.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Magnificence?

mag·nif·i·cence (măg-nĭf'ĭ-səns)
noun, definition

1. Greatness or lavishness of surroundings; splendor.
2. Grand or imposing beauty.

3. splendid or imposing in size or appearance
   Synonyms: impressiveness, grandness

4. the quality of being magnificent or splendid or grand
   Synonyms: brilliance, splendor, splendour, grandeur, grandness

synonyms

Brilliant, showy splendor: brilliance, brilliancy, glitter, glory, gorgeousness, grandeur, grandness, resplendence, resplendency, sparkle, splendour, sumptuousness.
See beautiful/ugly.

antonyms
cheapness, tawdriness

This ain't what we're talking about . . . or is it? Are we talkin' beneficence? No . . . but let's take a look at beneficence anyway . . .

. . . from the Encyclopedia of Public Health (information is everywhere):

Beneficence

In public health, the governing ethical theory is utilitarianism, meaning "doing the greatest good for the largest number of people." Beneficence is strongly tied to the utilitarian theory of ethics. It is one of four principles considered in medicine and public health under the principle-based approach to ethical analysis. The other three principles are: respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, and distributive justice. Beneficence is the professional duty to do or produce good. By "good" is meant the performance of acts of kindness and charity. "Doing good" is considered virtuous conduct. Ultimately, beneficence is the duty to do more good than harm through public health actions because, in practice, no action in public health will have exclusively beneficial effects. For example, if a public health agency becomes aware of a person infected with a bacterium that could be spread through the air, then, there is, on the one hand, a duty to respect the person's right to confidentiality and freedom of movement. But, on the other hand, there is a greater duty to prevent the spread of the bacterium to other people. Thus, more good would be achieved by protecting the public health, which can be accomplished only by breaching the duty to maintain the infected person's confidentiality and freedom of movement. Such breaches would occur only to reduce the risk associated with permitting the infectious person to put others at risk of infection (e.g., through quarantine or confinement, with a consequent loss of privacy in terms of the diagnosis). The ethical dilemma for decision makers in public health lies in weighing the pros and cons between at least two conflicting options: protecting the individual's rights or protecting the public health. Such breaches of an individual's rights are rare in public health and are undertaken only with maximum discretion.

(SEE ALSO: Autonomy; Ethics of Public Health; Nonmaleficence; Paternalism)

Bibliography

Beauchamp T. L., and Childress, J. F. (1994). Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 4th edition. New York: Oxford University Press.

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So . . . where am I? Magnificence . . . somebody, anybody?