Plutarch, De tuenda sanitate praecepta, ed. William W. Goodwin, 19

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[19]

ZEUXIPPUS.

As for liquids, we should never make milk our drink, but rather take it as food, it yielding much solid nourishment. As for wine, we must say to it what Euripides said to Venus: —

Thy joys with moderation I would have,

And that I ne’er may want them humbly crave.

For wine is the most beneficial of all drinks, the pleasantest medicine in the world, and of all dainties the least cloying to the appetite, provided more regard be given to the opportunity of the time of drinking it than even to its being properly mixed with water. Water, not only when it is mixed with wine, but also if it be drunk by itself between mixed wine and water, makes the mingled wine the less hurtful. We should accustom ourselves therefore in our daily diet to drink two or three glasses of water, which will allay the strength of the wine, and make drinking of water familiar to our body, that so in a case of necessity it may not be looked on as a stranger, and we be offended at it. It so falls out, that some have then the greatest inclination for wine when there is most need they should drink water; for such men, when they have been exposed to great heat of the sun, or have fallen into a chill, or have been speaking vehemently, or have been more than ordinarily thoughtful about any thing, or after any fatigue or labor, are of the opinion that they ought to drink wine, as if nature required some repose for the body and some diversion after its labors. But nature requires no such repose (if you will call pleasure repose), but desires only such an alteration as shall be between pleasure and pain; in which case we ought to abate of our diet, and either wholly abstain from wine, or drink it allayed with very much mixture of water. For wine, being sharp and fiery, increases the disturbances of the body, exasperates them, and wounds the parts affected; which stand more in need of being comforted and smoothed, which water does the best of any thing. If, when we are not thirsty, we drink warm water after labor, exercise, or heat, we find our inward parts loosened and smoothed by it; for the moisture of water is gentle and not violent, but that of wine carries a great force in it, which is no ways agreeable in the fore-mentioned cases. And if any one should be afraid that abstinence would bring upon the bodythat acrimony and bitterness which some say it will, he is like those children who think themselves much wronged because they may not eat just before the fit of a fever. The best mean between both these is drinking of water. We oftentimes sacrifice to Bacchus himself without wine, doing very well in accustoming ourselves not to be always desirous of wine. Minos made the pipe and the crown be laid aside at the sacrifice when there was mourning. And yet we know an afflicted mind is not at all affected by either the pipe or crown; but there is no body so strong, to which, in commotion or a fever, wine does not do a great deal of injury.

De tuenda sanitate praecepta. Plutarch. ed. William W. Goodwin. Boston. 1874.

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Current edition Perseus

Plutarch's Rules for the Preservation of Health (English) (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.)

Editions (1)

Ὑγιεινὰ παραγγέλματα Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol I. Bernardakis, Gregorius N., editor; Leipzig: Teubner, 1888.) — 19 focus

[19]

ΖΕΥΞΙΠΠΟΣ.

τῶν δʼ ὑγρῶν γάλακτι μὲν οὐχ ὡς ποτῷ 25 χρηστέον, ἀλλʼ ὡς σιτίῳ δύναμιν ἐμβριθῆ καὶ πολύτροφον 132b ἔχοντι. πρὸς δὲ τὸν οἶνον ἅπερ Εὐριπίδης¹ πρὸς τὴν Ἀφροδίτην διαλεκτέον²

εἴης μοι, μέτριον δέ πως³

εἴης, μηδʼ ἀπολείποις

καὶ γὰρ ποτῶν ὠφελιμώτατόν ἐστι καὶ φαρμάκων ἥδιστον καὶ ὄψων ἀσικχότατον, ἂν τύχῃ τῆς πρὸς 5 τὸν καιρὸν εὐκρασίας μᾶλλον ἢ τῆς πρὸς τὸ ὕδωρ. ὕδωρ δʼ οὐ μόνον τὸ μιγνύμενον πρὸς οἶνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ καθʼ ἑαυτὸ τοῦ κεκραμένου μεταξὺ πινόμενον ἀβλαβέστερον ποιεῖ τὸ κεκραμένον. ἐθιστέον οὖν παρὰ τὴν καθʼ ἡμέραν δίαιταν ὕδατος προσφέρεσθαι 10 καὶ δύο καὶ τρία ποτήρια, τήν τε δύναμιν 132c τοῦ οἴνου ποιοῦντα μαλακωτέραν καὶ τοῦ σώματος συνήθη τὴν ὑδροποσίαν, ὅπως, ὅταν ἐν χρείᾳ γένηται, μὴ ξενοπαθῇ μηδʼ ἀπαναίνηται. συμβαίνει γὰρ ἐνίους φέρεσθαι μάλιστα πρὸς τὸν οἶνον ὅταν μάλιστα 15 χρείαν ὑδροποσίας ἔχωσι. καὶ γὰρ ἡλιωθέντες καὶ ῥιγώσαντες πάλιν καὶ σφοδρότερον εἰπόντες καὶ συντονώτερον φροντίσαντες καὶ ὅλως μετὰ τοὺς κόπους καὶ τοὺς ἀγῶνας οἴονται ποτέον εἶναι τὸν οἶνον ὡς καὶ τῆς φύσεως ἀπαιτούσης εὐπάθειάν τινα τῷ 20 132d σώματι καὶ μεταβολὴν ἐκ τῶν πόνων. ἡ δὲ φύσις εὐπάθειαν μέν, εἴ τις εὐπάθειαν καλεῖ τὴν ἡδυπάθειαν, οὐκ ἀπαιτεῖ, μεταβολὴν δʼ ἀπαιτεῖ τὴν εἰς τὸ μέσον ἡδονῆς καὶ πόνου καθιστᾶσαν. διὸ καὶ τροφῆς ὑφαιρετέον ἐν τούτοις, καὶ τὸν οἶνον ἢ παντελῶς 25 ἀφαιρετέον ἢ προσοιστέον πολλῇ κατακεραννύμενον διὰ μέσου καὶ κατακλυζόμενον ὑδροποσίᾳ. πλήκτης γὰρ ὢν καὶ ὀξὺς ἐπιτείνει τὰς τοῦ σώματος ταραχάς, καὶ τραχύτερα ποιεῖ καὶ παροξύνει τὰ πεπληγμένα, παρηγορίας δεόμενα καὶ λειότητος, ἃς⁴ μάλιστα τὸ ὕδωρ ἐνδίδωσι. καὶ γὰρ ἂν οὐ διψῶντες, ἄλλως 1 δὲ θερμὸν ὕδωρ πίωμεν μετὰ τοὺς κόπους 132e καὶ τὰς διατάσεις καὶ τὰ καύματα, χαλάσματος 5 καὶ μαλακότητος; αἰσθανόμεθα περὶ τὰ ἐντός· ἤπιος γὰρ ἡ τοῦ ὕδατος ὑγρότης καὶ ἄσφυκτος, ἡ δὲ τοῦ οἴνου φορὰν ἔχει πολλὴν καὶ δύναμιν οὐκ εὐμενῆ τοῖς προσφάτοις πάθεσιν οὐδὲ φιλάνθρωπον. καὶ γὰρ ἃς λέγουσιν ἔνιοι τῷ σώματι τὴν ἀσιτίαν δριμύτητας 10 ἐγγεννᾶν καὶ πικρότητας εἴ τις δέδιεν ἢ καθάπερ οἱ παῖδες δεινὸν ἡγεῖται πρὸ τοῦ πυρέττειν μὴ παρατίθεσθαι τράπεζαν ἐν ὑποψίᾳ γεγονώς, εὐάρμοστον ἡ ὑδροποσία μεθόριον. καὶ γὰρ αὐτῷ τῷ Διονύσῳ πολλάκις νηφάλια θύομεν, ἐθιζόμενοι 15 132f καλῶς μὴ ζητεῖν ἀεὶ τὸν ἄκρατον. ὁ δὲ Μίνως καὶ τὸν αὐλὸν ἀφεῖλε τῆς θυσίας καὶ τὸν στέφανον ὑπὸ λύπης. καίτοι λυπουμένην ψυχὴν ἴσμεν οὔθʼ ὑπὸ στεφάνων οὔθʼ ὑπʼ αὐλῶν παθοῦσαν· σῶμα δʼ οὐδὲν οὕτως ἰσχυρόν ἐστιν, ᾧ τεταραγμένῳ καὶ φλεγμαίνοντι 20 προσπεσὼν οἶνος οὐκ ἠδίκησε.

Translations (1)

Advice About Keeping Well Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. II. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1928 (printing).) — 19 focus

[19]

ZEUXIPPUS.

Of the liquids milk ought not to be used as a beverage but as a food possessing solid and nourishing power. With regard to wine we ought to talk as does Euripides ¹ with regard to Love:

May est thou be mine, but moderate be, I pray, yet ne’er abandon me.

For wine is the most beneficial of beverages, the pleasantest of medicines, and the least cloying of appetizing things, provided that there is a happy combination of it with the occasion as well as with water. Water, not only the water that is mixed with ² the wine, but that which is drunk by itself in the interim between the draughts of the mixture, makes the mixture more innocent. One ought to accustom oneself, therefore, in the course of the daily routine to partake of two or three glasses of water, thus both making the potency of the wine milder, and making the drinking of water habitual with the body, so that, whenever it comes to be in need of water, it may not feel strange towards the drink, and refuse it. For the fact is that some people feel most impelled towards wine when the drink which they most need is water. For after being exposed to the sun, and again when chilled, and after speaking more earnestly and thinking more intently than usual, and, in general, after exertions and strivings, they think they ought to drink wine, feeling that Nature requires for the body some comfort and change after labours. But Nature does not require comfort, if comfort is only a name for self-indulgence, but she does require a change, a change which puts the body in a state midway between pleasure and pain. Therefore in such circumstances there should not only be some reduction in food, but wine should be either altogether eliminated or else partaken of between times very diluted and practically engulfed by the drinking of water. For wine, being truculent and keen, intensifies the disturbances of the body, and exacerbates and irritates the contused parts, which are in need of the comfort and alleviation that water best supplies. For if, in spite of the fact that we are not thirsty, we drink hot water after undergoing exertion, strain, or heat, we are sensible of a relaxing and soothing effect within us; for the aqueous fluid is mild and does not quicken the pulse, whereas that of wine has great impetuosity and a potency that is not kindly or humanely disposed toward recent affections. As for the acerbities and bitterness which some say fasting engenders in the body, if anybody fears them, or if, childlike, he thinks it a dreadful thing not to have a meal served before the fever which he suspects is coming, the drinking of water is a very fitting middle course. In fact we frequently make to Dionysus himself offerings which include no wine, thus habituating ourselves quite properly not to be always looking for strong drink. Minos, too, because of grief, abolished the flute and garland from the sacrifice.³ Yet we know that a grieving soul is not affected either by garlands or by flute. But no one’s body is so strong that wine, thrust upon it when it is disturbed and feverish, does it no harm.

Plutarch De tuenda sanitate praecepta 19

ed. William W. Goodwin

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