Plutarch, Quomodo adolescens poetas audire debeat, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 13

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[13] Chrysippus has rightly indicated how the poet’s statements can be given a wider application, saying that what is serviceable should be taken over and made to apply to like situations. For when Hesiod ¹ says,

Nor would even an ox disappear were there not a bad neighbour,

he says the same thing also about a dog and about an ass and about all things which in a similar way can disappear. And again when Euripides ² says,

What man who recks not death can be a slave?

we must understand that he makes the same statement also about trouble and disease. For, as physicians who have learnt the efficacy of a drug adapted to one malady take it over and use it for every similar malady, so also when a statement has a general and universal value, we ought not to suffer it to be fixed upon one matter alone, but we ought to apply it to all the like, and inure the young men to see its general value, and quickly to carry over what is appropriate, and by many examples to give themselves training and practice in keen appreciation; so that when Menander says,

Blest is the man who has both wealth and sense,³

they may think of the statement as holding good also about repute and leadership and facility in speaking; and so also that when they hear the rebuke which was administered by Odysseus to Achilles as he sat among the maidens in Scyrus,

Dost thou, to dim the glory of thy race, Card wool, son of the noblest man in Greece? ⁴

they may imagine it to be addressed also to the profligate and the avaricious and the heedless and the ill-bred, as, for example,

Dost drink, son of the noblest man in Greece,

or gamble, or follow quail-fighting, ⁵ or petty trading, or the exacting of usury, without a thought of what is magnanimous or worthy of your noble parentage?

Speak not of Wealth. I can’t admire a god Whose ready favour basest men secure.⁶

Therefore speak not of repute, either, or of personal beauty, or the general’s cloak, or the priestly crown, to all which we see the worst of men attaining.

For ugly is the brood of cowardice,⁷

and the same we may also aver of licentiousness, superstition, envy, and all the other pestilent disorders. Most excellently has Homer said

Paris, poor wretch, excelling in looks,⁸

and

Hector, excelling in looks ⁹

(for he declares the man deserving of censure and reproach who is endowed with no good quality better than personal comeliness), and this we must make to apply to similar cases, thereby curtailing the pride of those who plume themselves on things of no worth, and teaching the young to regard as a disgrace and reproach such phrases as excelling in wealth and excelling in dinners and excelling in children or oxen, and in fact even the use of the word excelling in such a connexion. For we ought to aim at the pre-eminence which comes from noble qualities, and we should strive to be first in matters of first importance, and to be great in the greatest: but the repute which comes from small and petty things is disreputable and paltry.

This illustration at once reminds us to consider carefully instances of censure and commendation, particularly in Homer’s poems. For he gives us expressly to understand that bodily and adventitious characteristics are unworthy of serious attention. For, to begin with, in their greetings and salutations, they do not call one another handsome or rich or strong, but they employ such fair words as these—

Heaven-sprung son of Laertes, Odysseus of many devices,¹⁰

and

Hector, son of Priam, peer of Zeus in counsel,¹¹

and

Son of Peleus, Achilles, great glory to the Achaeans,¹²

and

Noble son of Menoetius, in whom my soul finds pleasure.¹³

In the second place they reproach without touching at all upon bodily characteristics, but they direct their censure to faults: Drunken sot, with eyes of a dog and the wild deer’s courage,¹⁴ and

Ajax, excelling at wrangling, ill advised,¹⁵

and

Why, Idomeneus do you brag so soon? Unfitting Is it for you to be braggart,¹⁶

and Ajax, blundering boaster,¹⁷ and finally Thersites is reproached ¹⁸ by Odysseus, not as lame or bald or hunchbacked, but as indiscreet in his language, while on the other hand the mother of Hephaestus affectionately drew an epithet from his lameness when she addressed him thus:

Up with you, club-foot, my child!¹⁹

Thus Homer ridicules those who feel ashamed of lameness or blindness, in that he does not regard as blameworthy that which is not shameful, or as shameful that which is brought about, not through our own acts, but by fortune.

Plainly, then, two great advantages accrue to those who accustom themselves carefully to peruse works of poetry: the first is conducive to moderation, that we do not odiously and foolishly reproach anybody with his fortune; while the second is conducive to magnanimity, that when we ourselves have met with chances and changes we be not humiliated or even disturbed, but bear gently with scoffings and revilings and ridicule, having especially before us the words of Philemon:

There’s naught more pleasing or in better taste Than having strength to bear when men revile.²⁰

But if anybody is plainly in need of reprehension, we should reprehend his faults and his giving way to emotion, after the fashion in which Adrastus of the tragedy, when Alcmaeon said to him,

You are the kin of her who slew her spouse,²¹

replied

And you have murdered her who gave you birth.²²

For just as those who scourge the clothes do not touch the body,²³ so those who scoff at misfortune or low birth, do but vainly and foolishly assail externals, never touching the soul or even such matters as really need correction and stinging reproof.

Quomodo adolescens poetas audire debeat. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1927.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

How the Young Man Should Study Poetry (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. I. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1927 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Πῶς δεῖ τὸν νέον ποιημάτων ἀκούειν. Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol I. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1888.) — 13 focus

[13] τὴν δʼ ἐπὶ πλέον τῶν λεγομένων χρῆσιν ὑπέδειξεν ὀρθῶς ὁ Χρύσιππος, ὅτι δεῖ μετάγειν διαβιβάζειν ἐπὶ τὰ ὁμοειδῆ τὸ χρήσιμον. ὅ τε γὰρ Ἡσίοδος εἰπὼν

οὐδʼ ἂν βοῦς ἀπόλοιτʼ, εἰ μὴ γείτων κακὸς εἴη

καὶ περὶ κυνὸς ταὐτὸ καὶ περὶ ὄνου λέγει καὶ περὶ 5 πάντων ὁμοίως τῶν ἀπολέσθαι δυναμένων. καὶ πάλιν τοῦ Εὐριπίδου λέγοντος

τίς δʼ ἐστὶ δοῦλος τοῦ θανεῖν ἄφροντις ὤν;

34c ὑπακουστέον ὅτι καὶ περὶ πόνου καὶ νόσου ταὐτὰ³ εἴρηκεν. ὡς γὰρ φαρμάκου πρὸς ἓν ἁρμόσαντος 10 νόσημα τὴν δύναμιν καταμαθόντες οἱ ἰατροὶ μετάγουσι καὶ χρῶνται πρὸς ἅπαν τὸ παραπλήσιον, οὕτω καὶ λόγον κοινοῦν καὶ δημοσιεύειν τὴν χρείαν δυνάμενον οὐ χρὴ περιορᾶν ἑνὶ πράγματι συνηρτημένον ἀλλὰ κινεῖν ἐπὶ πάντα τὰ ὅμοια, καὶ τοὺς νέους 15 ἐθίζειν τὴν κοινότητα συνορᾶν καὶ μεταφέρειν ὀξέως τὸ οἰκεῖον, ἐν πολλοῖς παραδείγμασι ποιουμένους μελέτην καὶ ἄσκησιν ὀξυηκοΐας, ἵνα τοῦ Μενάνδρου λέγοντος

μακάριος ὅστις οὐσίαν καὶ νοῦν ἔχει

⁴

20 τοῦτο καὶ περὶ δόξης καὶ περὶ ἡγεμονίας καὶ περὶ 34d λόγου δυνάμεως εἰρῆσθαι νομίζωσι, τὴν δὲ πρὸς τὸν Ἀχιλλέα τὸν ἐν Σκύρῳ καθήμενον ἐν ταῖς παρθένοις γεγενημένην ἐπίπληξιν ὑπὸ τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως

σὺ δʼ, ὦ τὸ λαμπρὸν φῶς ἀποσβεννὺς γένους,⁵ 25

ξαίνεις, ἀρίστου πατρὸς Ἑλλήνων γεγώς;

καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἄσωτον οἴωνται⁶ λέγεσθαι καὶ πρὸς τὸν αἰσχροκερδῆ καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἀμελῆ καὶ ἀπαίδευτον

πίνεις, ἀρίστου πατρὸς Ἑλλήνων γεγώς,

ἢ κυβεύεις ἢ ὀρτυγοκοπεῖς ἢ καπηλεύεις ἢ τοκογλυφεῖς, μηδὲν μέγα φρονῶν μηδʼ ἄξιον τῆς εὐγενείας;

μὴ πλοῦτον εἴπῃς. οὐχὶ θαυμάζω θεόν⁷ 5 34e

ὃν χὠ⁸ κάκιστος ῥᾳδίως ἐκτήσατο.

οὐκοῦν μηδὲ δόξαν εἴπῃς μηδὲ σώματος εὐμορφίαν μηδὲ στρατηγικὴν χλαμύδα μηδʼ ἱερατικὸν στέφανον, ὧν καὶ τοὺς κακίστους ὁρῶμεν τυγχάνοντας.

τῆς δειλίας γὰρ αἰσχρὰ γίγνεται τέκνα

⁹

10 καὶ ναὶ μὰ Δία τῆς ἀκολασίας καὶ τῆς δεισιδαιμονίας καὶ τοῦ φθόνου καὶ τῶν ἄλλων νοσημάτων ἁπάντων. ἄριστα δʼ εἰρηκότος Ὁμήρου τὸ

Δύσπαρι εἶδος ἄριστε

¹⁰

καὶ τὸ 15 34f

Ἕκτορ εἶδος ἄριστε

¹¹

ψόγου γὰρ ἀποφαίνει καὶ λοιδορίας ἄξιον ᾧ μηδέν ἐστιν ἀγαθὸν εὐμορφίας κάλλιον ἐφαρμοστέον τοῦτο καὶ τοῖς ὁμοίοις, κολούοντα τοὺς μεγαλοφρονοῦντας ἐπὶ τοῖς μηδενὸς ἀξίοις, καὶ διδάσκοντα τοὺς 20 νέους ὄνειδος ἡγεῖσθαι καὶ λοιδορίαν τὸ χρήμασιν ἄριστε καὶ δείπνοις ἄριστε καὶ παισὶν ἢ ὑποζυγίοις ἄριστε καὶ νὴ Δία τὸ λέγειν ἐφεξῆς ἄριστε 35a δεῖ γὰρ ἐκ τῶν καλῶν διώκειν τὴν ὑπεροχὴν καὶ περὶ τὰ πρῶτα πρῶτον εἶναι καὶ μέγαν ἐν τοῖς 25 μεγίστοις· ἡ δʼ ἀπὸ μικρῶν δόξα καὶ φαύλων ἄδοξός ἐστι καὶ ἀφιλότιμος. τοῦτο δʼ ἡμᾶς εὐθὺς ὑπομιμνῄσκει τὸ παράδειγμα τὸ τοὺς¹² ψόγους ἀποθεωρεῖν καὶ τοὺς ἐπαίνους ἐν τοῖς Ὁμήρου μάλιστα ποιήμασιν· ἔμφασις γὰρ γίγνεται μεγάλη τοῦ τὰ σωματικὰ καὶ τυχηρὰ μὴ μεγάλης ἄξια σπουδῆς νομίζειν. πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ ἐν ταῖς δεξιώσεσι καὶ ἀνακλήσεσιν 5 οὐ καλοὺς οὐδὲ πλουσίους οὐδʼ ἰσχυροὺς προσαγορεύουσιν, ἀλλὰ τοιαύταις εὐφημίαις χρῶνται 35b

διογενὲς Λαερτιάδη, πολυμήχανʼ Ὀδυσσεῦ

¹³

10 καὶ

Ἕκτορ υἱὲ Πριάμοιο, Διὶ μῆτιν ἀτάλαντε

¹⁴

καὶ

ὦ Ἀχιλεῦ Πηλέος υἱέ, μέγα κῦδος Ἀχαιῶν

¹⁵

καὶ

δῖε Μενοιτιάδη, τῷ ἐμῷ κεχαρισμένε θυμῷ

¹⁶

ἔπειτα λοιδοροῦσιν οὐδὲν ἐφαπτόμενοι τῶν σωματικῶν, 15 ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἁμαρτήμασι τοὺς ψόγους ἐπιφέροντες

οἰνοβαρές, κυνὸς ὄμματʼ ἔχων, κραδίην δʼ ἐλάφοιο

¹⁷

καί 35c

αἶαν νεῖκος ἄριστε, κακοφραδές

¹⁸

20 καὶ

Ἰδομενεῦ, τί πάρος λαβρεύεαι; οὐδὲ τί σε χρὴ λαβραγόρην¹⁹ ἔμεναι

καὶ

αἶαν ἁμαρτοεπὲς βουγάιε

²⁰

25 καὶ τέλος ὁ Θερσίτης ὑπὸ τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως οὐ χωλὸς οὐ φαλακρὸς οὐ κυρτὸς ἀλλʼ ἀκριτόμυθος λοιδορεῖται, τὸν δʼ Ἥφαιστον ἡ τεκοῦσα φιλοφρονουμένη προσηγόρευσεν ἀπὸ τῆς χωλότητος

ὄρσεο κυλλοπόδιον, ἐμὸν τέκος

²¹

οὕτως Ὅμηρος καταγελᾷ τῶν αἰσχυνομένων ἐπὶ χωλότησιν 5 ἢ τυφλότησιν, οὔτε ψεκτὸν ἡγούμενος τὸ μὴ αἰσχρὸν οὔτʼ αἰσχρὸν τὸ μὴ διʼ ἡμᾶς ἀλλʼ ἀπὸ 35d τύχης γιγνόμενον. δύο δὴ περιγίγνεται μεγάλα τοῖς ποιημάτων ἐπιμελῶς ἐθιζομένοις ἀκούειν, τὸ μὲν εἰς μετριότητα, μηδενὶ τύχην ἐπαχθῶς καὶ 10 ἀνοήτως ὀνειδίζειν, τὸ δʼ εἰς μεγαλοφροσύνην, αὐτοὺς χρησαμένους τύχαις μὴ ταπεινοῦσθαι μηδὲ ταράττεσθαι, φέρειν δὲ πράως καὶ σκώμματα καὶ λοιδορίας καὶ γέλωτας, μάλιστα μὲν τὸ τοῦ Φιλήμονος ἔχοντας πρόχειρον 15

ἥδιον οὐδὲν οὐδὲ μουσικώτερον

²²

ἔστʼ ἢ δύνασθαι λοιδορούμενον φέρειν

ἂν δὲ φαίνηταί τις ἐπιλήψεως δεόμενος, τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων καὶ τῶν παθῶν ἐπιλαμβάνεσθαι , ὥσπερ ὁ τραγικὸς Ἄδραστος, τοῦ Ἀλκμέωνος εἰπόντος πρὸς 20 αὐτὸν 35e

ἀνδροκτόνου γυναικὸς ὁμογενὴς ἔφυς,

²³

ἀπεκρίνατο

σὺ δʼ αὐτόχειρ γε μητρὸς ἥ σʼ ἐγείνατο

καθάπερ γὰρ οἱ τὰ ἱμάτια μαστιγοῦντες οὐχ ἅπτονται 25 τοῦ σώματος, οὕτως οἱ δυστυχίας τινὰς ἢ δυσγενείας ὀνειδίζοντες εἰς τὰ ἐκτὸς ἐντείνονται κενῶς καὶ ἀνοήτως, τῆς ψυχῆς δʼ οὐ θιγγάνουσιν οὐδὲ τῶν ἀληθῶς ἐπανορθώσεως δεομένων καὶ δήξεως.

Translations (1)

How a Young Man Ought to Hear Poems Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Ford, Simon, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 13 focus

[13] There is yet another way of improving poems, taught us well by Chrysippus; which is, by accommodation of any saying, to transfer that which is useful and serviceable in it to divers things of the same kind. For whereas Hesiod saith,

If but a cow be lost, the common fame

Upon the next ill neighbor lays the blame;

the same may be applied to a man’s dog or ass or any other beast of his which is liable to the like mischance. Again, Euripides saith,

How can that man be called a slave, who slights

Ev’n death itself, which servile spirits frights?

the like whereof may be said of hard labor or painful sickness. For as physicians, finding by experience the force of any medicine in the cure of some one disease, make use of it by accommodation, proportionably to every other disease of affinity thereto, so are we to deal with such speeches as are of a common import and apt to communicate their value to other things; we must not confine them to that one thing only to which they were at first adapted, but transfer them to all other of like nature, and accustom young men by many parallel instances to see the communicableness of them, and exercise the promptness of their wits in such applications. So that when Meander says,

Happy is he who wealth and wisdom hath,

they may be able to judge that the same is fitly applicable to glory and authority and eloquence also. And the reproof which Ulysses gives Achilles, when he found him sitting in Scyrus in the apartment of the young ladies,

Thou, who from noblest Greeks deriv’st thy race,

Dost thou with spinning wool thy birth disgrace?

may be as well given to the prodigal, to him that undertakes any dishonest way of living, yea, to the slothful and unlearned person, thus:

Thou, who from noblest Greeks deriv’st thy race,

Dost thou with fuddling thy great birth disgrace ?

or dost thou spend thy time in dicing, or quail-striking,² or deal in adulterate wares or griping usury, not minding any thing that is great and worthy thy noble extraction? So when they read,

For Wealth, the God most serve, I little care,

Since the worst men his favors often wear,

they may be able to infer, therefore, as little regard is to be had to glory and bodily beauty and princely robes and priestly garlands, all which also we see to be the enjoyments of very bad men. Again, when they read this passage,

A coward father propagates his vice,

And gets a son heir to his cowardice,

they may in truth apply the same to intemperance, to superstition, to envy, and all other diseases of men’s minds. Again, whereas it is handsomely said of Homer,

Unhappy Paris, fairest to behold !

and

Hector, of noble form,⁴

for herein he shows that a man who hath no greater excellency than that of beauty to commend him deserves to have it mentioned with contempt and ignominy,—such expressions we should make use of in like cases to repress the insolence of such as bear themselves high upon the account of such things as are of no real value, and to teach young men to look upon such compellations as O thou richest of men, and O thou that excellest in feasting, in multitudes of attendants, in herds of cattle, yea, and in eloquent speaking itself, to be (as they are indeed) expressions that import reproach and infamy. For, in truth, a man that designs to excel ought to endeavor it in those things that are in themselves most excellent, and to become chief in the chiefest, and great in the greatest things. Whereas glory that ariseth from things in themselves small and inconsiderable is inglorious and contemptible. To mind us whereof we shall never be at a loss for instances, if, in reading Homer especially, we observe how he applieth the expressions that import praise or disgrace; wherein we have clear proof that he makes small account of the good things either of the body or Fortune. And first of all, in meetings and salutations, men do not call others fair or rich or strong, but use such terms of commendation as these:

Son of Laertes, from great Jove deriving

Thy pedigree, and skilled in wise contriving;

Hector, thou son of Priam, whose advice

With wisest Jove’s men count of equal price;

Achilles, son of Peleus, whom all story

Shall mention as the Grecians’ greatest glory;

Divine Patroclus, for thy worth thou art,

Of all the friends I have, lodged next my heart.

⁵

And moreover, when they speak disgracefully of any person, they touch not at bodily defects, but direct all their reproaches to vicious actions; as for instance:

A dogged-looking, drunken beast thou art,

And in thy bosom hast a deer’s faint heart;

Ajax, at brawling valiant still,

Whose tongue is used to speaking ill;

A tongue so loose hung, and so vain withal,

Idomeneus, becomes thee not at all;

Ajax, thy tongue doth oft offend;

For of thy boasting there’s no end.

⁶

Lastly, when Ulysses reproacheth Thersites, he objecteth not to him his lameness nor his baldness nor his hunched back, but the vicious quality of indiscreet babbling. On the other side, when Juno means to express a dalliance or motherly fondness to her son Vulcan, she courts him with an epithet taken from his halting, thus,

Rouse thee, my limping son!⁷

In this instance, Homer does (as it were) deride those who are ashamed of their lameness or blindness, as not thinking any thing a disgrace that is not in itself disgraceful, nor any person liable to a reproach for that which is not imputable to himself but to Fortune. These two great advantages may be made by those who frequently study poets;—the learning moderation, to keep them from unseasonable and foolish reproaching others with their misfortunes, when they themselves enjoy a constant current of prosperity; and magnanimity, that under variety of accidents they be not dejected nor disturbed, but meekly bear the being scoffed at, reproached, and drolled upon. Especially, let them have that saying of Philemon ready at hand in such cases:

That spirit’s well in tune, whose sweet repose

No railer’s tongue can ever discompose.

And yet, if one that so rails do himself deserve reprehension, thou mayst take occasion to retort upon him his own vices and inordinate passions; as when Adrastus in the tragedy is assaulted thus by Alcmaeon,

Thy sister’s one that did her husband kill,

he returns him this answer,

But thou thyself thy mother’s blood did spill.

For as they who scourge a man’s garments do not touch the body, so those that turn other men’s evil fortunes or mean births to matter of reproach do only with vanity and folly enough lash their external circumstances, but touch not their internal part, the soul, nor those things which truly need correction and reproof.

Notes on the current edition

How the Young Man Should Study Poetry

1. Hesiod, Works and Days, 348.

2. Nauck, Trag.Graec. Frag., Euripides, No. 958; again quoted by Plutarch, Moralia, 106 D. Cf. Cicero, Ad Atticum, ix. 2a, 2.

3. From the Bridal Manager of Menander, cf. Kock, Com. Att. Frag. iii. Menander, No. 114, and Allinson, Menander in L.C.L. p. 342.

4. Nauck, Trag.Graec. Frag., Adesp. No. 9; again quoted by Plutarch with variant reading, Moralia, 72 E.

5. The Greeks were very fond, not only of cock-fights, but also of quail-fights. Another form of the latter sport known as ὀρτυγοκοπία is often referred to by Greek writers and is perhaps best described by Pollus ix. 102 and 107. The quails were put into an enclosed ring, and their courage was tested by tapping them on the head with the finger or by pulling the feathers on op of their heads. If a bird showed fight, its owner won. Plutarch in the present passage, without doubt, uses ὀρτυγοκοπία to cover all forms of the sport.

6. From the Aeolus of Euripides. Nauck, TGF., Euripides, No. 20; cf. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, v. 16.

7. Nauck, TGF., Adesp. No. 357.

8. Homer, Il. iii. 39.

9. Ibid. xvii. 142.

10. Homer, Il. ii. 173.

11. Ib. vii. 47.

12. Ib. xix. 216.

13. Ib. xi. 608.

14. Ib. i. 225.

15. Ib. xxiii. 483.

16. Ib. xxiii. 474, 478.

17. Ib. xiii. 824.

18. Ib. ii. 246.

19. Homer, Il. xxi. 331.

20. From the Epidicazomenus of Philemon; cf. Kock, Com. Att. Frag. ii. p. 484.

21. Nauck, Trag.Graec. Frag., Adesp. No. 358; again quoted by Plutarch, Moralia, 88 F.

22. Ibidem.

23. Plutarch says ( Moralia, 173 D) that Artaxerxes (Longhand) ordained that nobles who had offended should lay off their clothes, and their clothes should be scourged instead of their bodies. Considerable corroborative evidence is cited by Wyttenbach in his note on Moralia, 565 A.

Plutarch Quomodo adolescens poetas audire debeat 13

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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