Plutarch, Consolatio ad Apollonium, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 17

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[17] In general everyone ought to hold the conviction, if he seriously reviews the facts both by himself and in the company of another, that not the longest life is the best, but the most efficient. For it is not the man who has played the lyre the most, or made the most speeches, or piloted the most ships, who is commended, but he who has done these things excellently. Excellence is not to be ascribed to length of time, but to worth and timely fitness. For these have come to be regarded as tokens of good fortune and of divine favour. It is for this reason, at any rate, that the poets have traditionally represented those of the heroes who were preeminent and sprung from the gods as quitting this life before old age, like him Who to the heart of great Zeus and Apollo was held to be dearest, Loved with exceeding great love; but of eld he reached not the threshold.¹ For we everywhere observe that it is a happy use of opportunity, rather than a happy old age, that wins the highest place.² For of trees and plants the best are those that in a brief time produce the most crops of fruit, and the best of animals are those from which in no long time we have the greatest service toward our livelihood. The terms long and short obviously appear to lose their difference if we fix our gaze on eternity. For a thousand or ten thousand years, according to Simonides, are but a vague second of time, or rather the smallest fraction of a second. Take the case of those creatures which they relate exist on the shores of the Black Sea,³ and have an existence of only one day, being born in the morning, reaching the prime of life at mid-day, and toward evening growing old and ending their existence; would there not be in those creatures this same feeling which prevails with us, if each of them had within him a human soul and power to reason, and would not the same relative conditions obviously obtain there, so that those who departed this life before mid-day would cause lamentation and tears, while those who lived through the day would be accounted altogether happy ? The measure of life is its excellence, not its length in years.

Consolatio ad Apollonium. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1928.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

A Letter of Condolence to Apollonius (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. II. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1928 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Πραμυθητικὸς πρὸς Ἀπολλώνιον Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol I. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1888.) — 17 focus

[17] καθόλου γὰρ χρὴ διανοεῖσθαι πάντα τινὰ 10 καὶ πρὸς αὑτὸν¹ καὶ πρὸς ἄλλον διεξιόντα μετὰ σπουδῆς; ὡς οὐχ ὁ μακρότατος βίος ἄριστος ἀλλʼ ὁ σπουδαιότατος οὐδὲ γὰρ ὁ πλεῖστα κιθαρῳδήσας ἢ 111b ῥητορεύσας ἢ κυβερνήσας ἀλλʼ ὁ καλῶς ἐπαινεῖται. τὸ γὰρ καλὸν οὐκ ἐν μήκει χρόνου θετέον, ἀλλʼ ἐν 15 ἀρετῇ καὶ τῇ καιρίῳ συμμετρίᾳ τοῦτο γὰρ εὔδαιμον καὶ θεοφιλὲς εἶναι νενόμισται. διὰ τοῦτο γοῦν τοὺς ὑπεροχωτάτους τῶν ἡρώων καὶ φύντας ἀπὸ θεῶν πρὸ γήρως ἐκλιπόντας τὸν βίον οἱ ποιηταὶ παρέδοσαν ἡμῖν, ὥσπερ κἀκεῖνον 20

ὃν περὶ κῆρι φίλει Ζεὺς τʼ αἰγίοχος καὶ Ἀπόλλων

παντοίην φιλότητʼ, οὐδʼ ἵκετο γήραος; οὐδόν

τὴν γὰρ εὐκαιρίαν μᾶλλον, οὐ τὴν εὐγηρίαν πανταχῆ 111c θεωροῦμεν πρωτεύουσαν. καὶ γὰρ φυτῶν ἄριστα 25 τὰ πλείστας καρπῶν ἐν βραχεῖ φορὰς³ ποιούμενα, καὶ ζῴων ἀφʼ ὧν ἐν οὐ πολλῷ χρόνῳ πολλὴν πρὸς τὸν βίον ὠφέλειαν ἔχομεν. τό τε πολὺ δήπουθεν ἢ μικρὸν οὐδὲν διαφέρειν δοκεῖ πρὸς τὸν ἄπειρον ἀφορῶσιν αἰῶνα. τὰ γὰρ χίλια καὶ τὰ μύρια κατὰ Σιμωνίδην ἔτη στιγμὴ τίς ἐστιν ἀόριστος, μᾶλλον 5 δὲ μόριόν τι βραχύτατον στιγμῆς. ἐπεὶ καὶ τῶν ζῴων ἐκείνων, ἅπερ ἱστοροῦσι περὶ τὸν Πόντον γιγνόμενα τὴν ζωὴν ἔχειν ἡμερησίαν, ἕωθεν μὲν γεννώμενα, μέσης δʼ ἡμέρας ἀκμάζοντα, δείλης δὲ γηρῶντα καὶ τελειοῦντα τὸ ζῆν, οὐχὶ κἀκείνων ἦν 10 ἂν τὸ καθʼ ἡμᾶς πάθος τοῦτο, εἴπερ ψυχή τις ἀνθρωπίνη καὶ λογισμὸς ἑκάστοις ἐνῆν, καὶ ταὐτὰ 111d δήπου γʼ ἂν συνέπιπτεν, ὥστε τὰ πρὸ μέσης τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκλείποντα θρήνους παρέχειν καὶ δάκρυα; τὰ δὲ διημερεύσαντα πάντως ἂν⁴ εὐδαιμονίζεσθαι; μέτρον 15 γὰρ τοῦ βίου τὸ καλόν, οὐ τὸ τοῦ χρόνου μῆκος,

Translations (1)

Consolation to Apollonius Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. I. Goodwin, William W., editor; Morgan, Matthew, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 17 focus

[17] In general, every one should meditate seriously with himself, and have the concurrence of other men’s opinions with his own, that it is not the longest life which is the best, but that which is the most virtuous. For that musician is not to be commended who plays upon varietyof instruments, nor that orator that makes multiplicity of speeches, nor the pilot that conducts many ships, but he of each faculty that doth one of them well; for the beauty of a thing doth not consist in length of time, but in the virtue and seasonable moderation wherewith it is transacted. This is that which is called happy and grateful to the Gods. And for this reason it is that poets celebrate those who have died before they have become old, and propose them for examples, as the most excellent men and of divine extraction, as him for instance,

Beloved by Jove and him who gilds the skies,

Yet short his date of life.¹

And we see in every thing that preference is not given so much to age as to maturity. For amongst trees and plants, those are accounted the most generous which bring forth abundance of fruit, and that early ripe. And amongst living creatures too, those are the most valued which supply us with the accommodations of life in a short time. Be sides, if we compare the space of our life with eternity we shall find no difference betwixt long and short; for according to Simonides, thousands and millions of years are but as a point to what is infinite, or rather the smallest part of that point. They report that about Pontus there are some creatures of such an extempore being that the whole term of their life is confined within the space of a day; for they are brought forth in the morning, are in the prime of their existence at noon, grow old at night, and then die. Dost thou not think that if these had the soul and reason of a man, they would be so affected, and that things would happen to them after the same manner as to us?—that those who died before the meridian would be lamented with tears and groans?—and that we should call them happy who lived their day out? For the measure of a man’s life is the well spending of it, and not the length.

Notes on the current edition

A letter of Condolence to Apollonius

1. Homer, Od. xv. 245.

2. Cf. Marcus Antoninus, 24. 1, and Seneca, Epist. 93. 2.

3. Aristotle, Hist. animal. v. 19. 3f. (copied by Pliny, Natural History, xi. 36 (43)). Cf. Aelian, De nat. animal. v. 43; Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, i. 39 (94).

Plutarch Consolatio ad Apollonium 17

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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