Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, ed. Frank Cole Babbitt, 100

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ἢ διὰ τὸ ² Σερούιον τὸν βασιλέα κατὰ ταύτην τὴν ἡμέραν ἐξ αἰχμαλώτου γενέσθαι θεραπαινίδος ἄδειαν ἔργων ἔχουσιν οἱ θεράποντες, τὸ δὲ πλύνειν τὰς κεφαλὰς ἀρξάμενον ἀπὸ τῶν θεραπαινίδων διὰ τὴν ἑορτὴν ἄχρι τῶν ἐλευθέρων προῆλθεν;

Quaestiones Romanae. Plutarch. ed. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. 1936.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Αἴτια Ῥωμαϊκά (Greek) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Κεφαλαίων καταγραφή Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol IΙ. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1889.) — 100 focus

[100] διὰ τί ταῖς Αὐγούσταις εἰδοῖς, Σεξτιλίαις δὲ πρότερον λεγομέναις, ἑορτάζουσιν αἵ τε δοῦλαι 287f καὶ οἱ δοῦλοι πάντες, αἱ δὲ γυναῖκες μάλιστα ῥύπτεσθαι τὰς κεφαλὰς καὶ καθαίρειν ἐπιτηδεύουσιν; ἦ διὰ τὸ ¹ Σερούιον τὸν βασιλέα κατὰ ταύτην τὴν ἡμέραν ἐξ αἰχμαλώτου γενέσθαι θεραπαινίδος ἄδειαν 5 ἔργων ἔχουσιν οἱ θεράποντες, τὸ δὲ πλύνειν τὰς κεφαλὰς ἀρξάμενον ἀπὸ τῶν θεραπαινίδων διὰ τὴν ἑορτὴν ἄχρι τῶν ἐλευθέρων προῆλθεν;

Translations (2)

The Roman Questions Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 100 focus

[100] Why is it that on the Ides of August, formerly called Sextilis, all the slaves, female and male, keep holiday, and the Roman women make a particular practice of washing and cleansing their heads?

Do the servants have release from work because on this day King Servius was born from a captive maid-servant?¹ And did the washing of their heads begin with the slave-women, because of their holiday, and extend itself to free-born women?

Roman Questions Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Chauncy, Isaac translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 100 focus

[100]

Question 100.

What is the reason that in the Ides of August (which at first they called Sextilis) all the menservants and maid-servants do feast, but the free women make it most of their business to wash and purge their heads?

Solution. Was it that King Servius about this day was born of a captive maid-servant, and hence the servants have a vacation time from work; and that rinsing the head was a thing that took its original from a custom of the maidservants upon the account of the feast, and finally passed also into the free women?

Notes on the current edition

Ἀίτια Ῥωμαϊκά

1. καθαίρειν] καθαίρεσθαι in one ms. (E).

2. τὸ Bernardakis and one ms.: τὸν.

Plutarch Quaestiones Romanae 100

ed. Frank Cole Babbitt

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Current edition Perseus

Question 100.

Notes on the current edition

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