Plutarch, De cohibenda ira, William Clark Helmbold (Translator), 12

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[12]

FUNDANUS.

However this, perhaps, will not appear to be a cure for anger, but a temporary reprieve and prophylactic¹ against those errors which some men commit in anger. And yet, though the swelling of the spleen is but a symptom of fever, reducing it assuages the fever, as Hieronymus says. But when I contemplated the origin of anger itself, I observed that different persons are liable to anger from different causes; yet in the case of practically all of them there is present a belief that they are being despised or neglected.² For this reason we should assist those who endeavour to avoid anger, by removing as far as possible the act that rouses wrath from any suspicion of contempt or arrogance and by imputing it to ignorance or necessity or emotion or mischance. So Sophocles³:

O king, not even the reason Nature gives

Stays with the unfortunate, but goes astray;

and so likewise Agamemnon⁴ ascribes the taking away of Briseis to divine infatuation:

I wish again to make amends, to give

You countless ransom.

Supplication, indeed, is the act of one who does not despise; and when he that has done an injury shows himself humble, he removes all notion of contempt. But the man in a rage should not wait for such humility, but should take to himself the reply of Diogenes⁵: when someone said to him, They are laughing at you, Diogenes, he answered, But I am not laughed down. Just so the angry man should not consider himself despised, but rather despise the man who gave the offence as acting from weakness or rashness, carelessness or illiberality, dotage or childishness. But such a notion must not on any account be entertained toward servants or friends; for our servants presume on our upright character, our friends on our affection, and both disregard us, not as being impotent or ineffectual, but because of our reasonableness or our goodwill. As it is, thinking ourselves despised, we not only treat harshly wife and slaves and friends, but also through rage often fall out with innkeepers and sailors and drunken muleteers; we even rage against dogs that bark at us and asses that jostle us,⁶ like the man who wished to beat the assdriver, but when the driver cried out, I am an Athenian, indicated the ass and said, You at any rate are not an Athenian, and fell to beating it with many blows.

De cohibenda ira. Plutarch. William Clark Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1939.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

On the Control of Anger (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. VI. Helmbold, William Clark, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Περὶ ἀοπγησίας Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol III. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1891.) — 12 focus

[12]

ΦΟΥΝΔ.

αὕτη μὲν οὖν ἴσως οὐκ ὀργῆς ἰατρεία φανεῖται, διάκρουσις δὲ καὶ φυλακὴ τῶν ἐν ὀργῇ τινος 25 460d ἁμαρτημάτων. καίτοι καὶ σπληνὸς οἴδημα σύμπτωμα μέν ἐστι πυρετοῦ πραϋνόμενον δὲ κουφίζει τὸν πυρετόν, ὥς φησιν Ἱερώνυμος. ἀλλʼ αὐτῆς γε τῆς ὀργῆς ἀναθεωρῶν τήν γένεσιν ἄλλους ὑπʼ ἄλλων αἰτιῶν ἐμπίπτοντας εἰς αὐτὴν ἑώρων, οἷς ἐπιεικῶς ἅπασι τοῦ καταφρονεῖσθαι καὶ ἀμελεῖσθαι παραγίγνεται. 5 διὸ καὶ τοῖς παραιτουμένοις δεῖ βοηθεῖν πορρωτάτω τὴν πρᾶξιν ὀλιγωρίας ἀπάγοντας καὶ θρασύτητος, εἰς ἄγνοιαν¹ ἢ ἀνάγκην ἢ πάθος ἢ δυστυχίαν τιθεμένους ὡς Σοφοκλῆς² 460e

ἀλλʼ οὐ γάρ, ὦ ʼναξ, οὐδʼ ὃς ἂν βλάστῃ μένει 10

νοῦς τοῖς κακῶς πράξασιν, ἀλλʼ ἐξίσταται.

καὶ τῆς Βρισηΐδος τὴν ἀφαίρεσιν εἰς τὴν Ἄτην ἀναφέρων ὁ Ἀγαμέμνων, ὅμως

ἂψ ἐθέλει ἀρέσαι, δόμεναὶ τʼ ἀπερείσιʼ ἄποινα.³

καὶ γὰρ τὸ δεῖσθαι τοῦ μὴ καταφρονοῦντός ἐστι, 15 καὶ ταπεινὸς; φανεὶς ὁ ἀδικήσας ἔλυσε τὴν τῆς ὀλιγωρίας δόξαν. οὐ δεῖ δὲ ταῦτα περιμένειν τὸν ὀργιζόμενον, ἀλλὰ τὸ τοῦ Διογένους οὗτοί σου καταγελῶσιν ὦ Διόγενες· ἐγὼ δʼ οὐ καταγελῶμαι λαμβάνειν 460f ἐν ἑαυτῷ, καὶ καταφρονεῖσθαι μὴ νομίζειν 20 ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἐκείνου καταφρονεῖν, ὡς διʼ ἀσθένειαν ἢ πλημμέλειαν⁴ ἢ προπέτειαν ἢ ῥᾳθυμίαν ἢ ἀνελευθερίαν ἢ γῆρας ἢ νεότητα πλημμελοῦντος. οἰκέταις δὲ καὶ φίλοις ἀφετέον τὸ τοιοῦτο παντάπασιν. οὐ γὰρ ὡς ἀδυνάτων οὐδʼ ὡς ἀπράκτων, ἀλλὰ διʼ ἐπιείκειαν 25 ἢ διʼ εὔνοιαν οἱ μὲν ὡς χρηστῶν οἱ δʼ ὡς φιλούντων καταφρονοῦσι· νυνὶ δʼ οὐ μόνον πρὸς γυναῖκα καὶ δούλους καὶ φίλους ὡς καταφρονούμενοι τραχέως ἔχομεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ πανδοκεῦσι καὶ ναύταις καὶ ὀρεωκόμοις μεθύουσι πολλάκις ὑπʼ ὀργῆς συμπίπτομεν οἰόμενοι καταφρονεῖσθαι, καὶ κυσὶν 5 461a ὑλακτοῦσι καὶ ὄνοις ἐμβάλλουσι χαλεπαίνομεν ὡς ἐκεῖνος ὁ βουλόμενος τύπτειν τὸν ὀνηλάτην, εἶτʼ ἀνακραγόντος ὅτι Ἀθηναῖός εἰμι, σὺ δὲ μὲν⁵ οὐκ εἶ Ἀθηναῖος τὸν ὄνον λέγων ἔτυπτε καὶ πολλὰς ἐνεφόρει πληγάς. 10

Translations (1)

Concerning the cure of anger: a dialogue Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. I. Goodwin, William W., editor; Dillgham, William, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 12 focus

[12]

FUNDANUS.

But this perhaps may seem to be not a cure of anger, but only a thrusting by and avoiding of such miscarriages as some men fall into when they are angry. And yet, as Hieronymus tells us, although the swelling of the spleen is but a symptom of the fever, the assuaging thereof abates the disease. But, considering well the origin of anger itself, I have observed that divers men fall into anger for different causes; and yet in the minds of all of them was probably an opinion of being despised and neglected. We must therefore assist those who would avoid anger, by removing the act which roused their anger as far as possible from all suspicion of contempt or insult, and by imputing it rather to folly or necessity or disorder of mind, or to the misadventure of those that did it. Thus Sophocles in Antigone:—

The best resolved mind in misery

Can’t keep its ground, but suffers ecstasy.

And so Agamemnon, ascribing to Ate the taking away of Briseis, adds:—

Since I so foolish was as thee to wrong,

I’ll please thee now, and give thee splendid gifts.

For supplication is an act of one who is far from contemning; and when he that hath done an injury appears submissive, he thereby removes all suspicion of contempt. But he that is moved to anger must not expect or wait for such a submission, but must rather take to himself the saying of Diogenes, who, when one said to him, They deride thee, O Diogenes, made answer, But I am not derided; and he must not think himself contemned, but rather himself contemn that man that offends him, as one acting out of weakness or error, rashness or carelessness, rudeness or dotage, or childishness. But, above all, we must bear with our servants and friends herein; for surely they do not despise us as being impotent or slothful, but they think less of us by reason of our very moderation or good-will towards them, some because we are gentle, others because we are loving towards them. But now, alas! out of a surmise that we are contemned, we not only become exasperated against our wives, our servants, and friends, but we oftentimes fall out also with drunken innkeepers, and mariners and ostlers, and all out of a suspicion that they despise us. Yea, we quarrel with dogs because they bark at us, and asses if they chance to rush against us; like him who was going to beat a driver of asses, but when the latter cried out, I am an Athenian, fell to beating the ass, saying, Thou surely art not an Athenian too, and so accosted him with many a bastinado.

Notes on the current edition

On the Control of Anger

1. For the phrase Cf. Moralia, 420 e.

2. Cf. Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 3 (1380 a 8 ff.).

3. Antigone, 563-564; quoted with the same textual variants in the Life of Phocion, i. (742 a).

4. Homer, Il., xix. 138.

5. Cf . Life of Fabius Maximus, x. (179 f); Diogenes Laertius, vi. 54.

6. Cf. Plato, Republic, 563 c.

Plutarch De cohibenda ira 12

William Clark Helmbold (Translator)

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FUNDANUS.

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ΦΟΥΝΔ.

FUNDANUS.

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