Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, ed. William W. Goodwin, 1

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[1] It becomes wise men, dame Clea,¹ to go to the Gods for all the good things they would enjoy. Much more ought we, when we would aim at that knowledge of them which our nature can arrive at, to pray that they themselves would bestow it upon us; truth being the greatest good that man can receive, and the goodliest blessing that God can give. Other good things he bestows on men as they want them, they being not his own peculiars nor of any use to himself. For the blessedness of the Deity consists not in silver and gold, nor yet his power in lightnings and thunders, but in knowledge and wisdom. And it was the best thing Homer ever said of Gods, when he pronounced thus:

Both of one line, both of one country boast,

But royal Jove’s the eldest and knows most;

where he declares Jupiter’s prerogative in wisdom and science to be the more honorable, by terming it the elder. I, for my own part, do believe that the felicity of eternal living which the Gods enjoy lies mainly in this, that nothing escapes their cognizance that passes in the sphere of generation, and that, should we set aside wisdom and the knowledge of true beings,³ immortality itself would not be life, but merely a long time.

De Iside et Osiride. Plutarch. ed. William W. Goodwin. Boston. 1874.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Of Isis and Osiris, or of the Ancient Religion and Philosophy of Egypt. (English) (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. IV. Goodwin, William W., editor; Baxter, William, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.)

Editions (1)

Περὶ Ἴσιδος και Ὀσίριδος Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol II. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1889.) — 1 focus

[1] 351c πάντα μέν, ὦ Κλέα, δεῖ τἀγαθὰ τοὺς νοῦν ἔχοντας αἰτεῖσθαι παρὰ τῶν θεῶν, μάλιστα δὲ τῆς περὶ αὐτῶν ἐπιστήμης ὅσον ἐφικτόν ἐστιν ἀνθρώποις μετιόντες εὐχώμεθα¹ τυγχάνειν παρʼ αὐτῶν ἐκείνων· 5 ὡς οὐδὲν ἀνθρώπῳ λαβεῖν μεῖζον οὐδὲ² χαρίσασθαι 351d θεῷ σεμνότερον ἀληθείας. τἄλλα³ μὲν γὰρ ἀνθρώποις ὁ θεὸς ὧν δέονται δίδωσιν, νοῦ δὲ καὶ φρονήσεως μεταδίδωσιν,⁴ οἰκεῖα κεκτημένος ταῦτα καὶ χρώμενος. οὐ γὰρ ἀργύρῳ καὶ χρυσῷ μακάριον τὸ 10 θεῖον, οὐδὲ βρονταῖς καὶ κεραυνοῖς ἰσχυρόν, ἀλλʼ ἐπιστήμῃ καὶ φρονήσει. καὶ τοῦτο κάλλιστα πάντων Ὅμηρος ὧν εἴρηκε περὶ θεῶν ἀναφθεγξάμενος

ἦ μὰν ἀμφοτέροισιν ὁμὸν γένος ἠδʼ ἴα πάτρη,

⁵

ἀλλὰ Ζεὺς πρότερος γεγόνει καὶ πλείονα ᾔδει, 15

σεμνοτέραν ἀπέφηνε τὴν τοῦ Διὸς ἡγεμονίαν, ἐπιστήμῃ⁶ καὶ σοφίᾳ πρεσβυτέραν οὖσαν. οἶμαι δὲ καὶ 351e τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς, ἣν ὁ θεὸς εἴληχεν, εὔδαιμον⁷ εἶναι τὸ τῇ γνώσει μὴ προαπολείπειν⁸ τὰ γιγνόμενα· τοῦ δὲ γιγνώσκειν τὰ ὄντα καὶ φρονεῖν ἀφαιρεθέντος, οὐ βίον ἀλλὰ χρόνον εἶναι τὴν ἀθανασίαν.

Translations (1)

Isis and Osiris Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. V. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 1 focus

[1] All good things, my dear Clea,¹ sensible men must ask from the gods; and especially do we pray that from those mighty gods we may, in our quest, gain a knowledge of themselves, so far as such a thing is attainable by men.² For we believe that there is nothing more important for man to receive, or more ennobling for God of His grace to grant, than the truth. God gives to men the other things for which they express a desire, but of sense and intelligence He grants them only a share, inasmuch as these are His especial possessions and His sphere of activity. For the Deity is not blessed by reason of his possession of gold and silver,³ nor strong because of thunder and lightning, but through knowledge and intelligence. Of all the things that Homer said about the gods, he has expressed most beautifully this thought:⁴

Both, indeed, were in lineage one, and of the same country,

Yet was Zeus the earlier born and his knowledge was greater.

Thereby the poet plainly declares that the primacy of Zeus is nobler since it is elder in knowledge and in wisdom. I think also that a source of happiness in the eternal life, which is the lot of God, is that events which come to pass do not escape His prescience. But if His knowledge and meditation on the nature of Existence should be taken away, then, to my mind, His immortality is not living, but a mere lapse of time.⁵

Notes on the current edition

Of Isis and Osiris, or of the Ancient Religion and Philosophy of Egypt

1. This Clea was priestess to Isis and to Apollo Delphicus.

2. Il. XIII. 354.

3. That is, τὰ ὄντα in the Platonic sense, as opposed to τὰ γιγνόμενα. (G.)

Plutarch De Iside et Osiride 1

ed. William W. Goodwin

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