Plutarch, De cohibenda ira, ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs, 15

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[15]

ΦΟΥΝΔ.

καίτοι, καθάπερ ὁ Ζήνων ἔλεγε τὸ σπέρμα σύμμιγμα καὶ κέρασμα τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεων ὑπάρχειν ἀπεσπασμένον, οὕτως ἔοικε τῶν παθῶν 463a πανσπερμία τις ὁ θυμὸς εἶναι· καὶ γὰρ λύπης ἀπέσπασται¹ καὶ ἡδονῆς καὶ ὕβρεως· καὶ φθόνου μὲν ἔχει τὴν ἐπιχαιρεκακίαν, φθόνου δὲ καὶ χείρων ἐστίν· 5 ἀγωνίζεται γὰρ οὐχὶ μὴ παθεῖν αὐτὸς ἀλλὰ παθεῖν κακῶς ἐπιτρίψας ἕτερον· ἐπιθυμίας δʼ αὐτῷ τὸ ἀτερπέστατον ἐμπέφυκεν, εἴ γε δὴ τοῦ λυπεῖν ἕτερον ὄρεξίς ἐστι. διὸ τῶν μὲν ἀσώτων ταῖς οἰκίαις προσιόντες αὐλητρίδος ἀκούομεν ἑωθινῆς, καὶ πηλόν ὣς 10 τις εἶπεν οἴνου καὶ σπαράγματα στεφάνων καὶ κραιπαλῶντας ὁρῶμεν ἐπὶ θύραις ἀκολούθους· τὰ δὲ τῶν πικρῶν ἐκκαλύμματα καὶ δυσκόλων ἐν τοῖς 463b προσώποις τῶν οἰκετῶν ὄψει καὶ τοῖς στίγμασι καὶ ταῖς πέδαις· 15

ἀεὶ δʼ ἀοιδῶν μοῦνος ἐν στέγαις

² ὀργίλου ἀνδρός³

κωκυτὸς ἐμπέπτωκε,

μαστιγουμένων ἔνδον οἰκονόμων καὶ στρεβλουμένων θεραπαινίδων, ὥστε τοῦ θυμοῦ τὰς λύπας ἐν ταῖς 20 ἐπιθυμίαις καὶ ταῖς ἡδοναῖς οἰκτίρειν ὁρῶντας.

De cohibenda ira. Plutarch. ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs. Leipzig. 1891.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

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

Translations (2)

On the Control of Anger Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. VI. Helmbold, William Clark, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 15 focus

[15]

FUNDANUS.

And yet, as Zeno¹ used to say that the seed was a mixture and compound drawn from all the faculties of the soul, so temper appears to be a mixture of seeds drawn from all the passions. For it is drawn from pain and pleasure, and from insolence; and although it has envy’s malicious joy in the ills of others, it is even worse than envy; for the object of its striving is, not that it may itself avoid suffering evil, but that at the cost of suffering evil, it may utterly ruin its antagonist; and the most unlovely kind of desire is innate in it, inasmuch as it is a craving to pain someone else. And that is why, when we approach the houses of profligates, we hear a flute-girl still playing in the early morning, and we see muddy dregs of wine,² as someone has said, and mangled fragments of garlands, and tipsy servants reeling at the doors; but the tokens of savage and irascible men you will see on the faces of their servants and in the marks branded upon them and their fetters.

The only music heard within the house

of an angry man

Is wailing cries,³

as the stewards are being lashed within and the serving-maids being tortured, so that those who witness the anguish caused by anger in gratifying its desires and ministering to its pleasures must feel pity.

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.) — 15 focus

[15]

FUNDANUS.

And as Zeno has said that the seed was a mixture drawn from all the powers of the soul, in like manner anger seems to be a kind of universal seed extracted from all the passions. For it is taken from grief and pleasure and insolence; and then from envy it hath the evil property of rejoicing at another’s adversity; and it is even worse than murder itself, for it doth not strive to free itself from suffering, but to bring mischief to itself, if it may thereby but do another man an evil turn. And it hath the most odious kind of desire inbred in it, if the appetite for grieving and hurting another may be called a desire.

Wherefore, when we go to the houses of drunkards, we may hear a wench playing the flute betimes in the morning, and behold there, as one said, the muddy dregs of wine, and scattered fragments of garlands, and servants drunk at the door; and the marks of angry and surly men may be read in the faces, brands, and fetters of the servants. But lamentation is the only bard that is always to be heard beneath the roof of the angry man, while his stewards are beaten and his maid-servants tormented; so that the spectators, in the midst of their mirth and delight, cannot but pity those sad effects of anger.

Notes on the current edition

Περὶ ἀοπγησίας

1. malim ἀπέσπασταί τι

2. Nauck. p. 913

3. ἀνδρὸς ὀργίλου Benselerus

Plutarch De cohibenda ira 15

ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs

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ΦΟΥΝΔ.

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FUNDANUS.

FUNDANUS.

Notes on the current edition

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