Plutarch, Consolatio ad Apollonium, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 35

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[35] These are the words of the melic poet Pindar ¹ regarding the righteous in the other world:

For them doth the strength of the sun shine below, While night all the earth doth overstrow. In meadows of roses their suburbs lie, Roses all tinged with a crimson dye. They are shaded by trees that incense bear, And trees with golden fruit so fair. Some with horses and sports of might, Others in music and draughts delight. Happiness there grows ever apace, Perfumes are wafted o’er the loved place, As the incense they strew where the gods’ altars are And the fire that consumes it is seen from afar.

And a little farther on, in another lament for the dead, speaking of the soul, he says ²:

In happy fate they all ³ Were freed by death from labour’s thrall. Man’s body follows at the beck of death O’ermastering. Alive is left The image of the stature that he gained, Since this alone is from the gods obtained. It sleeps while limbs move to and fro, But, while we sleep, in dreams doth show The choice we cannot disregard Between the pleasant and the hard.

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

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

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.) — 35 focus

[35] λέγεται δʼ ὑπὸ μὲν τοῦ μελικοῦ Πινδάρου¹ ταυτὶ περὶ τῶν εὐσεβῶν ἐν ᾍδου,

τοῖσι λάμπει μὲν μένος ἀελίου τὰν ἐνθάδε νύκτα 10

κάτω,

φοινικορόδοις ἐν λειμώνεσσι προάστιον² αὐτῶν

καὶ λιβάνῳ σκιαρὸν καὶ χρυσοκάρποισι⁴ βεβριθός.⁵

καὶ τοὶ μὲν ἵπποις γυμνασίοις τε⁶ τοὶ δὲ πεσσοῖς,

τοὶ δὲ φορμίγγεσι τέρπονται, παρὰ δέ σφισιν 15

εὐανθὴς ἅπας τέθαλεν⁷ ὄλβος,

ὀδμὰ δʼ ἐρατὸν⁸ κατὰ χῶρον κίδναται

αἰεὶ⁹ θύα¹⁰ μιγνύντων πυρὶ τηλεφανεῖ παντοῖα

θεῶν ἐπὶ βωμοῖς.

120d καὶ μικρὸν προελθὼν ἐν ἄλλῳ θρήνῳ περὶ ψυχῆς 20 λέγων φησὶν

ὀλβίᾳ δʼ ἅπαντες αἴσᾳ λυσίπονον τελευτάν.

¹¹

καὶ σῶμα μὲν πάντων ἕπεται θανάτῳ περισθενεῖ,

ζωὸν δʼ ἔτι¹² λείπεται αἰῶνος εἴδωλον· τὸ γάρ

ἐστι μόνον¹³

ἐκ θεῶν. εὕδει δὲ πρασσόντων μελέων, ἀτὰρ

εὑδόντεσσιν ἐν πολλοῖς ὀνείροις

δείκνυσι τερπνῶν ἐφέρποισαν¹⁴ χαλεπῶν τε κρίσιν.

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.) — 35 focus

[35] Of the state of the pious after death, Pindar discourseth after this manner:—

There the sun shines with an unsullied light,

When all the world below is thick with night.

There all the richly scented plants do grow,

And there the crimson-colored roses blow;

Each flower blooming on its tender stalk,

And all these meadows are their evening walk.

There trees peculiarly delight the sense,

With their exhaled perfumes of frankincense.

The boughs their noble burdens cannot hold,

The weight must sink them when the fruit is gold.

Some do the horse unto the manege bring,

Others unto tlle tuneful lute do sing;

There’s plenty to excess of every thing.

The region always doth serene appear,

The sun and pious flames do make it clear,

Where fragrant gums do from the altars rise,

When to the Gods they offer sacrifice.

And proceeding farther, in another lamentation he spake thus concerning the soul:—

Just we that distribution may call,

Which to each man impartially doth fall.

It doth decide the dull contentious strife,

And easeth the calamities of life.

Death doth its efforts on the body spend;

But the aspiring soul doth upwards tend.

Nothing can damp that bright and subtile flame,

Immortal as the Gods from whence it came.

But this sometimes a drowsy nap will take,

When all the other members are awake.

Fancy in various dreams doth to it show,

What punishments unto each crime is due;

What pleasures are reserved for pious deeds,

And with what scourges the incestuous bleeds.

Notes on the current edition

A letter of Condolence to Apollonius

1. Frag. 129 (ed. Christ); Cf. also the two lines quoted in Moralia, 17 C, and the amplification of these lines which Plutarch gives in Moralia, 1130 C.

2. Frag.131 (ed. Christ); Cf. also Plutarch, Life of Romulus, xxviii. (p. 35 D).

3. The line is incomplete, lacking a finite verb.

Plutarch Consolatio ad Apollonium 35

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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