If you’ve clicked into the ‘Story I’ button, you’ve become versed in the tale of two philosophically inclined brothers who tapped into a deep vein of meditations — as timely as they are timeless, some whimsical, some profound, some unsettling, some soaring, some all of these at once — and along the way cultivated a closer connection with one another.

But some of you surely have asked: Is this really the true story? After all, many of their pithy philosophical meanderings would fit in seamlessly with those composed by the rarefied group of pre-Socratic philosophers whose discovered fragments continue to prompt deep thinking and wondrous wondering.

Indeed, a goodly number of us (including yours truly), after coming across their aphoristic exchanges posted on Facebook and elsewhere — all signed either ‘Sinz’ or ‘Esinz,’ with no other biographical information provided – were moved to do thorough Google searches to find out who in the world these authors could possibly be. Surely, we surmised, they were lamentably unheralded philosophers of yesteryear, and just as surely, judging from their style and content, their writings were Hellenic Greek-steeped and preceded the ages of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

So, you may be open to an alternative explanation of how Sinz-Esinz came to be:

In Athens, Greece, Emmou Street is well known as a shopping mecca for the world’s well-to-do. During one particularly heavy August rain in 2016, the roof of one store, praised for its outrageously overpriced handbags (many of them purchased by a former U.S. First Lady), collapsed. Shoddy construction was determined to be the culprit. But before the roof could be replaced, a sinkhole opened up beneath the and swallowed the rest (what are the odds?) of the premises, handbags and all (fortunately after 6 pm, after the store closed for the day, with all employees safely off the premises.

A series of crews – rescue, emergency, archeological, axiological, existential, construction, what have you — arrived on the scene to begin sifting through the wreckage. Lo and behold, just a few meters under the ground, they came upon some astonishing finds from antiquity, including philosophical fragments that carbon dating showed to be from the era of the renowned pre-Socratic philosophers, comprised of the likes of Thales, Anaximander, Xenophanes of Colophon, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and Zeno of Elea.

The recent construction work on Aeolus Street in Athens has uncovered some astounding archaeological treasures from ancient Greece, on which the Ministry of Culture has now begun restoration (top photo).

The news of the recent discovery of the head of the Greek god Hermes, lying since antiquity at a depth of just 1.3 meters (4 feet 4 inches) under the feet of Athenians as they went about their daily business, was reported around the world.

One of the discovered fragments read (translated from the original Hellenic Greek):

“The philosophy of men is flawed by the tangibles of weakness. To say to do, is profound in corruptness.  I’m assured in confusion, sanctified in the truth of derision, and I quantify my existence, rather than qualify my subsistence.” And it was mysteriously signed, ‘Sinz.’

Things only got curioser and curioser when still another fragment was unearthed. This one read: “The truth of quantification is buried in the minutia of qualities beyond our imaginations. To seek is to be.”

It was enigmatically signed, ‘Esinz.’

Over time, scores more such fragments have been discovered, with high hopes that still more will eventually be dug up. This site features the one and only comprehensive compilation of the fragments of these two philosophically inclined souls as translated from the original Greek. Compelling conjecture has it that they were not only brothers , but perhaps joined together Janus-like, so connected are their wise words