Plutarch, De cohibenda ira, William Clark Helmbold (Translator), 6

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[6]

FUNDANUS.

As for me - whether rightly I do not know - I made this start in the treatment of my anger: I began to observe the passion in others, just as the Spartans used to observe in the Helots¹ what a thing drunkenness is. And first, as Hippocrates² says that the most severe disease is that in which the countenance of the sufferer is most unlike itself, so I observed that those who are transported by anger also change most in countenance, colour, gait, and voice,³ and thus formed for myself a picture of that passion and was exceedingly uncomfortable to think that I should ever appear so terrible and deranged to my friends and my wife and daughters, not merely savage and unfamiliar to their sight, but also speaking with so harsh and rough a voice as were others of my intimate friends whom I used to meet at times when anger had made them unable to preserve their character or bearing or grace of speech or their winning and affable manners. The ease of Gaius Gracchus⁴ the orator will serve as illustration. He was not only severe in his disposition, but spoke too passionately; so he caused a pitch-pipe to be made of the sort which musicians use to lead the voice up and down the scales to the proper note; with this in hand his servant used to stand behind him as he spoke and give him a decorous and gentle tone which enabled Gracchus to remit his loud cries and remove from his voice the harsh and passionate element; just as the shepherds’

Wax-joined pipe, clear sounding,

Drones a slumberous strain,⁵

so did he charm and lay to rest the rage of the orator. But as for me, if I had some attentive and clever companion, I should not be vexed if he held a mirror⁶ up to me during my moments of rage, as they do for some persons after bathing, though to no useful purpose. For to see oneself in a state which nature did not intend, with one’s features all distorted, contributes in no small degree toward discrediting that passion. In fact, those who delight in pleasant fables tell us that when Athena⁷ played on the pipes, she was rebuked by the satyr and would give no heed:

That look becomes you not; lay by your pipes

And take your arms and put your cheeks to rights⁸;

but when she saw her face in a river, she was vexed and threw her pipes away. Yet art makes melody some consolation for unsightliness. And Marsyas,⁹ it seems, by a mouthpiece and cheek-bands repressed the violence of his breath and tricked up and concealed the distortion of his face:

He fitted the fringe of his temples with gleaming gold

And his greedy mouth he fitted with thongs bound behind¹⁰;

but anger, which puffs up and distends the face in an unbecoming way, utters a voice still more ugly and unpleasant,

Stirring the heart-strings never stirred before.¹¹

For when the sea is disturbed by the winds and casts up tangle and seaweed, they say that it is being cleansed; but the intemperate, bitter, and vulgar words which temper casts forth when the soul is disturbed defile the speakers of them first of all and fill them with disrepute, the implication being that they have always had these traits inside of them and are full of them, but that their inner nature is now laid bare by their anger. Hence for a mere word, the lightest of things, as Plato¹² says, they incur the heaviest of punishments, being esteemed as hostile, slanderous, and malicious.

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.) — 6 focus

[6]

ΦΟΥΝΔ.

ἐγὼ γοῦν, εἰ μὲν ὀρθῶς οὐκ οἶδα, ταύτην δὲ τῆς ἰατρείας¹ ἀρχὴν ποιησάμενος, ὥσπερ οἱ Λάκωνες 15 ἐν τοῖς εἵλωσι τὸ μεθύειν οἷόν ἐστι, κατεμάνθανον τὴν ὀργὴν ἐν ἑτέροις. καὶ πρῶτον μέν, ᾗ φησιν Ἱπποκράτης χαλεπωτάτην εἶναι νόσον ἐν 455f ᾗ τοῦ νοσοῦντος ἀνομοιότατον αὑτῷ γίνεται τὸ πρόσωπον, οὕτως ὁρῶν ὑπʼ ὀργῆς ἐξισταμένους μάλιστα 20 καὶ μεταβάλλοντας ὄψιν χρόαν βάδισμα φωνήν, οἷον εἰκόνα τοῦ πάθους ἀπεματτόμην ἐμαυτῷ πάνυ δυσχεραίνων, εἰ φοβερὸς; οὕτω καὶ παρακεκινηκὼς; ὁρῶμαί ποτε τοῖς φίλοις καὶ τῇ γυναικὶ καὶ τοῖς θυγατρίοις, οὐ μόνον ἰδεῖν ἄγριος καὶ ἀσυνήθης ἀλλὰ 25 καὶ φωνὴν ἀπηνῆ καὶ τραχεῖαν ἀφιείς· ὥσπερ ἑτέροις² τῶν συνήθων ἐνετύγχανον, οὐκ ἦθος οὐ μορφὴν οὐ λόγου χάριν οὐ τὸ πιθανὸν καὶ προσηνὲς ἐν ὁμιλίᾳ 456a δυναμένοις ὑπʼ ὀργῆς διαφυλάττειν. Γαΐῳ μὲν οὖν Γράκχῳ τῷ ῥήτορι καὶ τὸν τρόπον ὄντι χαλεπῷ καὶ περιπαθέστερον λέγοντι διηρμοσμένον ἦν συρίγγιον, 5 ᾧ τὴν φωνὴν οἱ ἁρμονικοὶ σχέδην³ ἐπʼ ἀμφότερα διὰ τῶν τόνων ἄγουσι· καὶ τοῦτʼ ἔχων οἰκέτης αὐτοῦ λέγοντος ὄπισθεν ἑστὼς ἐνεδίδου τόνον ἐπιεικῆ καὶ πρᾶον, ᾧ τὴν κραυγὴν ἀνεκαλεῖτο καὶ τὸ τραχὺ καὶ τὸ θυμικὸν ἀφῄρει τῆς φωνῆς, ὥσπερ ὁ 10 τῶν βουκόλων

κηρόπλαστος ὀτοβεῖ

⁴

δόναξ ἀχέτας ὑπνοδόταν νόμον

ἐπιθέλγων καὶ καθιστὰς τὴν ὀργὴν τοῦ ῥήτορος ἐμοὶ δʼ εἴ τις ἐμμελὴς καὶ κομψὸς ἀκόλουθος ἦν, 15 οὐκ ἂν ἠχθόμην αὐτοῦ προσφέροντος ἐπὶ ταῖς ὀργαῖς 456b ἔσοπτρον, ὥσπερ ἐνίοις προσφέρουσι λουσαμένοις ἐπʼ οὐδενὶ χρησίμῳ. τὸ δʼ αὑτὸν ἰδεῖν παρὰ φύσιν ἔχοντα καὶ συντεταραγμένον οὐ μικρόν ἐστιν εἰς διαβολὴν τοῦ πάθους. καὶ γὰρ καὶ τὴν, Ἀθηνᾶν 20 λέγουσιν οἱ⁵ παίζοντες αὐλοῦσαν ὑπὸ τοῦ⁶ σατύρου νουθετεῖσθαι καὶ μὴ προσέχειν·

οὔ τοι πρέπει τὸ σχῆμα· τοὺς αὐλοὺς μέθες

⁷

καὶ θὦπλα⁸ λάζευ καὶ γνάθους εὐθημόνει·

θεασαμένην δὲ τοῦ προσώπου τὴν ὄψιν ἐν ποταμῷ 25 τινι δυσχερᾶναι καὶ προέσθαι τοὺς αὐλούς· καίτοι παραμυθίαν ἡ τέχνη τῆς ἀμορφίας ἔχει τὴν εὐμέλειαν. καὶ ὁ Μαρσύας, ὡς ἔοικε, φορβειᾷ τινι καὶ 456c περιστομίοις τοῦ⁹ πνεύματος τὸ ῥαγδαῖον ἐγκαθεῖρξε καὶ τοῦ προσώπου κατεκόσμησε καὶ ἀπέκρυψε τὴν 5 ἀνωμαλίαν,

χρυσῷ δʼ αἰγλήεντι συνήρμοσεν ἀμφιδασείας

¹⁰

κόρσας, καὶ στόμα λάβρον ὀπισθοδέτοισιν ἱμᾶσιν.

ἡ δʼ ὀργὴ φυσῶσα καὶ διατείνουσα τὸ πρόσωπον ἀπρεπῶς, ἔτι μᾶλλον αἰσχρὰν ἀφίησι καὶ ἀτερπῆ 10 φωνὴν

κινοῦσα χορδὰς τὰς ἀκινήτους φρενῶν.

¹¹ τὴν μὲν γὰρ θάλασσαν, ὅταν ἐκταραχθεῖσα τοῖς πνεύμασι τὰ βρύα καὶ τὸ φῦκος ἀναβάλλῃ, καθαίρεσθαι λέγουσιν· ἃ δʼ ὁ θυμὸς ἐκβράσσει τῆς ψυχῆς 15 456d περιτρεπομένης ἀκόλαστα καὶ πικρὰ καὶ σπερμολόγα ῥήματα, τοὺς λέγοντας πρώτους καταρρυπαίνει καὶ καταπίμπλησιν ἀδοξίας, ὡς ἀεὶ μὲν ἔχοντας ἐν αὐτοῖς ταῦτα καὶ πλήρεις ὄντας ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς ὀργῆς ἀνακαλυπτομένους. διὸ κουφοτάτου πράγματος, ὥς φησιν 20 ὁ Πλάτων,¹² λόγου βαρυτάτην ζημίαν τίνουσιν, ἐχθροὶ καὶ κακολόγοι καὶ κακοήθεις δοκοῦντες εἶναι.

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.) — 6 focus

[6]

FUNDANUS.

I therefore, whether rightly or not I know not, began this cure with learning the nature of anger by beholding it in other men, as the Lacedaemonians learned what drunkenness was by seeing it in the Helots. And, in the first place, as Hippocrates said that that was the most dangerous disease which made the sick man’s countenance most unlike to what it was, so I observed that men transported with anger also exceedingly change their visage, color, gait, and voice. Accordingly I formed a kind of image of that passion to myself, withal conceiving great in dignation against myself if I should at any time appear to my friends, or to my wife and daughters, so terrible and discomposed, not only with so wild and strange a look, but also with so fierce and harsh a voice, as I had met with in some others of my acquaintance, who by reason of anger were not able to observe either good manners or countenance or graceful speech, or even their persuasiveness and affability in conversation.

Wherefore Caius Gracchus, the orator, being of a rugged disposition and a passionate kind of speaker, had a pipe made for him, such as musicians use to vary their voice higher or lower by degrees; and with this pipe his servant stood behind him while he pronounced, and gave him a mild and gentle note, whereby he took him down from his loudness, and took off the harshness and angriness of his voice, assuaging and charming the anger of the orator,

As their shrill wax-joined reed who herds do keep

Sounds forth sweet measures, which invite to sleep.

For my own part, had I a careful and pleasant companion who would show me my angry face in a glass, I should not at all take it ill. In like manner, some are wont to have a looking-glass held to them after they have bathed, though to little purpose; but to behold one’s self unnaturally disguised and disordered will conduce not a little to the impeachment of anger. For those who delight in pleasant fables tell us, that Minerva herself, playing on a pipe, was thus admonished by a satyr:—

That look becomes you not, lay down your pipes,

And take your arms, and set your cheeks to rights;

but would not regard it; yet, when by chance she beheld the mien of her countenance in a river, she was moved with indignation, and cast her pipes away; and yet here art had the delight of melody to comfort her for the deformity. And Marsyas, as it seems, did with a kind of muzzle and mouth-piece restrain by force the too horrible eruption of his breath when he played, and so corrected and concealed the distortion of his visage:—

With shining gold he girt his temples rough,

And his wide mouth with thongs that tied behind.

Now anger doth swell and puff up the countenance very indecently, and sends forth a yet more indecent and unpleasant voice,—

Moving the heart-strings, which should be at rest.

For when the sea is tossed and troubled with winds, and casts up moss and sea-weed, they say it is purged; but those impure, bitter, and vain words which anger throws up when the soul has become a kind of whirlpool, defile the speakers, in the first place, and fill them with dishonor, arguing them to have always had such things in them and to be full of them, only now they are discovered to have them by their anger. So for a mere word, the lightest of things (as Plato says), they undergo the heaviest of punishments, being ever after accounted enemies, evil speakers, and of a malignant disposition.

Notes on the current edition

On the Control of Anger

1. Cf. Moralia, 239 a, and the note.

2. Prognosticon, 2 (vol. l. p. 79 ed. Kühlewein).

3. Cf. Seneca, De Ira, ii. 35.

4. Cf . Life of the Gracchi, ii. (825 b), and Ziegler’s references ad loc.

5. Aeschylus, Prometheus, 574-575: Io speaks with reference to the piping of Argus as he guards her.

6. Cf. Seneca, De Ira, ii. 36. 1-3.

7. Cf . Life of Alcibiades, ii. (192 e); Ovid, Ars Amatoria, iii. 505 ff.; Fasti, vi. 699 ff.; Athenaeus, xiv. 616 e ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades, i. 364 ff.

8. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. 2, p. 911, ades. 381.

9. Cf. Moralia, 713 d.

10. Simonides, according to Tzetzes, Chiliades, i. 372 (Frag. 177 Bergk, 160 Diehl, 115 Edmonds); attributed by Schneidewin to Simias Rhodius ( Cf. Powell, Coll. Alex., p. 111).

11. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. 2, p. 907, ades. 361; quoted again in Moralia, 43 d; 501 a, 502 d, infra; 657 c.

12. A combination of Laws, 935 a and 717 d, as in Moralia, 90 c, 505 c, 634 f; Cf. also Schlemm, Hermes, xxxviii. 596.

Plutarch De cohibenda ira 6

William Clark Helmbold (Translator)

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FUNDANUS.

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ΦΟΥΝΔ.

FUNDANUS.

Notes on the current edition

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