Plutarch, De tuenda sanitate praecepta, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 5

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[5]

ZEUXIPPUS.

If, however, such imperative occasions suddenly confront us when we are overloaded and in no condition for taking part — if, for instance, we receive an invitation from a high official, or guests appear, so that we are constrained by a false sense of shame to join company with men who are in fit condition and to drink with them — then especially, in order to combat shame which works mischief for men¹ (or rather I would call it shamefacedness), we should summon to our defence the words which Creon speaks ² in the tragedy:

’Twere better, friend, to gain your hatred now Than be soft-hearted and lament anon.

For to be so afraid of being thought ill-bred as to plunge oneself into a pleurisy or brain-fever is proof that one is in very truth ill-bred, possessed of neither sense nor the reason which knows how to consort with men without the wine-glass and the savour of food.³ For a request to be excused, if characterized by cleverness and wit, is no less agreeable than joining in the round of gaiety; and if a man provides a banquet in the same spirit in which he provides a burnt-offering which it is forbidden to taste, and personally abstains when the wine-cup and the table are before him, at the same time volunteering cheerfully some playful allusion to himself, he will create a pleasanter impression than the man who gets drunk and gormandizes for company. Of the men of earlier times he ⁴ mentioned Alexander,⁵ who, after a prolonged debauch, was ashamed to say no to the challenges of Medius, and abandoned himself to a fresh round of hard drinking, which cost him his life; and of the men of our time he mentioned Regulus the prize-fighter. For when Titus Caesar called him to the bath at daybreak, he came and bathed with him, took but one drink, they say, and died immediately from a stroke of apoplexy.

ZEUXIPPUS.

These are the teachings which Glaucus in derision quoted aggressively to us as pedantic. The rest he was not eager to hear, nor we to tell him. But I beg that you will examine each of the several statements.

De tuenda sanitate praecepta. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1928.

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Current edition Perseus

Advice About Keeping Well (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. II. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1928 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Ὑγιεινὰ παραγγέλματα Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol I. Bernardakis, Gregorius N., editor; Leipzig: Teubner, 1888.) — 5 focus

[5]

ΖΕΥΞΙΠΠΟΣ.

ἂν δὲ τοιαῦταί τινες ἄφνω βαρεῖς ὄντας ἡμᾶς καὶ διακειμένους φαύλως ἀνάγκαι καταλάβωσιν ἡγεμόνων καλούντων ἢ ξένων ἐπιφανέντων ὑπʼ 20 αἰδοῦς βαδίζειν εἰς ταὐτὸ τοῖς ἱκανῶς ἔχουσι καὶ 124b συμπίνειν, ἐνταῦθα μάλιστα δεῖ παρατετάχθαι πρὸς τὴν¹ μέγα σινομένην ἄνδρας αἰδῶ καὶ δυσωπίαν, τὰ τοῦ τραγικοῦ Κρέοντος λέγοντας

κρεῖσσον δέ μοι νῦν πρὸς σʼ ἀπέχθεσθαι, ξένε,² 25

ἢ μαλθακισθένθʼ ὕστερον μέγα στένειν.

τὸ γὰρ ἀγροικίας φοβηθέντα δόξαν εἰς πλευρῖτιν ἢ φρενῖτιν ἐμβάλλειν ἑαυτὸν ἀγροίκου τινὸς ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐστι καὶ νοῦν οὐκ ἔχοντος οὐδὲ λόγον ἄνευ κύλικος καὶ κνίσης ἀνθρώποις ἐπιστάμενον ὁμιλεῖν. ἥ τε γὰρ παραίτησις ἂν τὸ ἐπιδέξιον καὶ τὸ ἀστεῖον ἔχῃ, οὐχ ἧττον ἔσται κεχαρισμένη τῆς συμπεριφορᾶς· 5 124c ἄν τέ τις παρέχων ἑστίασιν ὥσπερ θυσίαν ἄγευστον³ αὐτὸς ἀπέχηται παρά τε⁴ τῇ κύλικι καὶ τῇ τραπέζῃ, μετὰ προθυμίας καὶ φιλοφροσύνης ἅμα τι παίζων καὶ λέγων εἰς ἑαυτόν, ἡδίων φανεῖται τοῦ συμμεθυσκομένου καὶ συνοψοφαγοῦντος. ἐμνήσθη δὲ τῶν 10 μὲν παλαιῶν Ἀλεξάνδρου μετὰ πότον πολὺν αἰσχυνθέντος ἀντειπεῖν Μηδίῳ παρακαλοῦντι καὶ καταβαλόντος⁵ αὖθις ἐξ ἀρχῆς αὑτὸν⁶ εἰς ἄκρατον ἀφʼ⁷ οὗ διεφθάρη, τῶν δὲ καθʼ ἡμᾶς Ῥήγλου τοῦ παγκρατιαστοῦ. καλοῦντος γὰρ ἐπὶ τὸ λουτρὸν ἅμʼ ἡμέρᾳ 15 124d Τίτου Καίσαρος ἧκε καὶ συνελούσατο, καὶ πιὼν ἅπαξ, ὥς φασιν, ἀποπληξίας καταλαβούσης εὐθὺς ἀπέθανε. ταῦθʼ ἡμῖν ὁ Γλαῦκος ἐν γέλωτι προύφερεν ὡς παιδαγωγικά· τῶν δʼ ἄλλων οὐ πάνυ πρόθυμος ἦν ἀκούειν, οὐδʼ ἡμεῖς ἐκείνῳ διηγεῖσθαι. σὺ δʼ ἐπισκόπει 20 τῶν λεχθέντων ἕκαστον.

Translations (1)

Plutarch's Rules for the Preservation of Health Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. I. Goodwin, William W., editor; Poole, Matthew, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 5 focus

[5]

ZEUXIPPUS.

But if such a necessity should surprise you when you are already loaded or indisposed, in the presence either of persons of quality or of strangers that come in upon you unawares, and you cannot for shame but go and drink with them that are ready for that purpose, then you ought to arm yourself against that modesty and prejudicial shamefacedness with that of Creon in the tragedy, who says, —

’Tis better, sirs, I should you now displease,

Than by complying next day lose my ease.

He who throws himself into a pleurisy or frenzy, to avoid being censured as an uncivil person, is certainly no well-bred man, nor has he sense of understanding enough to converse with men, unless in a tavern or a cook-shop. Whereas an excuse ingeniously and dexterously made is no less acceptable than compliance. He that makes a feast, though he be as unwilling to taste of it himself as if it was a sacrifice, yet if he be merry and jocund over his glass at table, jesting and drolling upon himself, seems better company than they who are drunk and gluttonized together. Among the ancients, he made mention of Alexander, who after hard drinking was ashamed to resist the importunity of Medius, who invited him afresh to the drinking of wine, of which he died; and of our time, of Regulus the wrestler, who, being called by break of day by Titus Caesar to the bath, went and washed with him, and drinking but once (as they say) was seized with an apoplexy, and died immediately. These things Glaucus in laughter objected to as pedantic. He was not over-fond of hearing farther, nor indeed were we of discoursing more. But do you give heed to every thing that was said.

Notes on the current edition

Advice About Keeping Well

1. The reference may be to Homer, Il. xxiv. 45 ( cf. Hesiod, Works and Days, 318).

2. Euripides, Medea, 290, quoted also in Moralia, 530 C.

3. Cf. Moralia, 612 F.

4. Presumable Plutarch again.

5. Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, chap. lxxv. (p. 706 C); Diodorus, xvii. 117; Athenaeus, 434 C; Arrian, Anabasis, vii. 25. 1; Quintus Curtius, x. 4; Justin, xii. 13.

Plutarch De tuenda sanitate praecepta 5

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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