Plutarch, An vitiositas ad infelicitatem sufficia, William Clark Helmbold (Translator), 1

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[1] ...¹ He will not submit to (such a marriage)²

His body bartered for the dower’s sake,

as Euripides³ says; but he has only a slight and precarious reason for being envied. For this man (it were better)⁴ to make his journey, not through heaps of hot cinders, but through a royal conflagration, as it were, and surrounded by flames, panting and full of terror and drenched with sweat, and so to perish, though (his mother)⁵ had offered to him such a wealth as Tantalus had, which he was too busy to enjoy. For while that Sicyonian horsebreeder was a wise man, who gave to the king of the Achaeans, Agamemnon, a swift mare as a gift,

That he might not follow him to wind-swept Troy,

But stay at home and take his pleasure,⁶

surrendering himself to the enjoyment of deep riches and to unmolested ease; yet modern courtiers who are looked upon as men of affairs, though no one summons them, of their own accord push their way headlong into courts and official escorts and toilsome bivouacs that they may get a horse or a brooch or some such piece of good fortune.

His wife, rending both cheeks, was left behind

In Phylace, and his half-finished home,⁷

while he himself is swept about and wanders afar, worn out by one hope after another and constantly insulted; and even if he obtains any of his desires, yet, whirled about and made giddy by Fortune’s ropedance, he seeks to make his descent and considers happy those who live in obscurity and safety, whereas they so regard him as they look up at him soaring above their heads.

An vitiositas ad infelicitatem sufficia. Plutarch. William Clark Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1939.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Whether vice be sufficient to cause unhappiness (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. 6. Helmbold, William Clark, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1939 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Εἰ αὐτάρκης ἡ κακία πρὸς κακοδαιμονίαν Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol 3. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1891.) — 1 focus

[1] 498a ὑπομένει¹

πεπραμένον τὸ σῶμα² τῆς φερνῆς ἔχων

ὡς Εὐριπίδης φησίν, βραχέα δεδήλωται καὶ ἀβέβαια τῷ δʼ οὐ πολλῆς διὰ τέφρας, ἀλλὰ πυρκαϊᾶς τινος 5 498b βασιλικῆς πορευομένῳ καὶ περιφλεγομένῳ, ἄσθματος καὶ φόβου μεστῷ καὶ ἱδρῶτος διαποντίου, πλοῦτόν τινα προσθεῖσα³ Ταντάλειον ἀπολαῦσαι διʼ ἀσχολίαν οὐ δυναμένῳ. ὁ μὲν γὰρ Σικυώνιος⁴ ἐκεῖνος ἱπποτρόφος εὖ φρονῶν ἔδωκε τῷ βασιλεῖ τῶν Ἀχαιῶν 10 θήλειαν ἵππον δρομάδα δῶρον,

ἵνα μὴ οἱ ἕποιθʼ ὑπὸ Ἴλιον ἠνεμόεσσαν

ἀλλʼ αὐτοῦ⁵ τέρποιτο μένων

εἰς βαθεῖαν εὐπορίαν καὶ σχολὴν ἄλυπον ἀνακλίνας ἑαυτόν· οἱ δὲ νῦν ἄλυποι⁶ καὶ πρακτικοὶ δοκοῦντες 15 εἶναι, μηδενὸς καλοῦντος ὠθοῦνται διʼ αὑτῶν ἐπὶ 498c τράχηλον εἰς αὐλὰς καὶ προπομπὰς καὶ θυραυλίας ἐπιπόνους, ἵνʼ ἵππου τινὸς ἢ πόρπης ἢ τοιαύτης τινὸς εὐημερίας τύχωσι.

τοῦ δὲ καὶ ἀμφιδρυφὴς ἄλοχος Φυλάκῃ ἐλέλειπτο,

⁷

καὶ δόμος ἡμιτελής·

σύρεται δὲ καὶ πλανᾶται τριβόμενος ἔν τισιν⁸ ἐλπίσιν⁹ καὶ προπηλακιζόμενος· ἂν δὲ καὶ τύχῃ τινὸς ὧν 5 ποθεῖ, περιενεχθεὶς καὶ σκοτοδινιάσας πρὸς τὸν τῆς τύχης πεταυρισμὸν ἀπόβασιν ζητεῖ καὶ μακαρίζει τοὺς ἀδόξους καὶ ἀσφαλῶς ζῶντας οἱ δʼ ἐκεῖνον πάλιν ἄνω βλέποντες ὑπὲρ αὑτοὺς φερόμενον. 498d

Translations (1)

Whether vice is sufficient to render a man unhappy Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. 4. Goodwin, William W., editor; White, Samuel, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 1 focus

[1]

He suffers much, who for a dowry has

His body sold,—

as Euripides says; for he gets but small matters by it, and those very uncertain. But to him who passes not through much ashes, but through a certain regal pile of fire, being perpetually short breathed, full of fear, and bathed in sweat as if he had crossed the seas to and fro, she gives at last a certain Tantalian wealth, which he cannot enjoy by reason of the continual turmoil that encumbers him. For that Sicyonian horse-courser was well advised, who presented the king of the Achaeans with a swift-footed mare,

That to proud Ilium’s siege he might not go,¹

but stay at home and take his pleasure, wallowing in the depth of his riches, and giving himself up to an unmolested ease.

But those who now seem to be without trouble and men of action do, without being called to it, thrust themselves headlong into the courts of princes, where they must be obliged to tedious attending and watching, that they may gain an horse, a chain, or some such blessed favor.

In the mean time the wife, of joy bereft,

Sits tearing her fair cheeks, the house is left

Imperfect and half built;—

whilst the husband is drawn and hurried about, wandering amongst others, allured by hopes of which he is often disappointed, suffering disgrace and same. But if he happens to obtain any of those things he so eagerly desires, after he has been turned about and made dizzy with being Fortune’s sport, he seeks a dismission, and declares those to be happy who live obscure and safe; whilst they, in the mean time, have the same opinion of him whom they see mounted so far above them.

Notes on the current edition

Whether vice be sufficient to cause unhappiness

1. This passage is tantalizing, not only because so much is lost of the text, and because the text is so corrupt, but chiefly because since the discovery of the Claremont fragments of Euripides’ Phaëthon we may perceive that this play, of whose ingenious plot we now know a good deal, colours the whole of the opening passage. In the play Phaëthon, declining to accept marriage with the goddess to whom his mother Clymene wished to marry him, speaks the first verse quoted; and there are probably further quotations from the play in the second sentence ( πολλῆς διὰ τέφρας ἀλλὰ πυρκαϊᾶς τινος). It is quite possible that Phaëthon himself swears that he will go through heaps of cinders rather than marry the goddess; and in the play there is in fact a royal conflagration when the Sun’s treasure-house burns (see Nauck, p. 601). But it cannot be too strongly insisted that the text is very corrupt and that the restorations here adopted can claim only an approximation to the truth.

2. Conjecturally supplied.

3. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. 2, p. 606, Frag. 775, from the Phaëthon; cf. Moralia, 13 f; Plautus, Asinaria, 87.

4. Conjecturally supplied.

5. Conjecturally supplied.

6. Adapted from Homer, Il., xxiii. 297-298; Echepolus is the Sicyonian referred to. cf. Moralia, 32 f.

7. Homer, Il., ii. 700-701.

Plutarch An vitiositas ad infelicitatem sufficia 1

William Clark Helmbold (Translator)

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