Plutarch, Animine an corporis affectiones sint peiores, ed. William W. Goodwin, 1

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[1] HOMER, having contemplated the various kinds of mortal animals, and compared them one with another in respect to their lives and habits, cried out:

What wretched creature of what wretched kind,

Than man more weak, calamitous, and blind!

attributing to man that unhappy primacy of having the superiority in miseries. But we, considering man as having already gained the victory for infelicity, and being publicly declared the most miserable of all animals, will compare him with himself in a contention about his own calamities, not unprofitably but even altogether necessarily dividing his soul from his body; that we may thence learn, whether we live more miserably on account of Fortune or of ourselves. For sickness is indeed, engendered in the body by Nature; but vice and malice in the soul are first its own work, afterward its passion. Now it is of no small advantage towards content of mind, if that which is the worse is curable, and lighter and less violent in its attacks than we feared.

Animine an corporis affectiones sint peiores. Plutarch. ed. William W. Goodwin. Boston. 1874.

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Current edition Perseus

Whether the Passions of the Soul or Diseases of the Body Are Worse (English) (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. IV. Goodwin, William W., editor; White, Samuel, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.)

Editions (1)

Ποτερον τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς ἢ τὰ τοῦ σώματος πάθη χείρονα Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. IΙI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1891.) — 1 focus

[1] 500b Ὅμηρος¹ μὲν ἐπιβλέψος τὰ θνητὰ τῶν ζῴων γένη καὶ πρὸς ἄλληλα συγκρίνας κατὰ τοὺς βίους καὶ τὰς διαιτήσεις, ἐξεφώνησεν ὡς οὐδέν ἐστιν

ὀιζυρώτερον ἀνδρός, 5

πάντων ὅσσα τε γαῖαν ἔπι πνείει τε καὶ ἕρπει 500c

πρωτεῖον οὐκ εὐτυχὲς εἰς κακῶν ὑπεροχὴν ἀποδιδοὺς τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ. ἡμεῖς δʼ ὥσπερ ἤδη νικῶντα κακοδαιμονίᾳ τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀθλιώτατον ζῴων ἀνηγορευμένον, αὐτὸν αὑτῷ συγκρίνωμεν,² 10 εἰς ἰδίων κακῶν ἀγῶνα σῶμα καὶ ψυχὴν διαιροῦντες οὐκ ἀχρήστως ἀλλὰ καὶ πάνυ δεόντως, ἵνα μάθωμεν πότερον διὰ τὴν τύχην ἢ διʼ ἑαυτοὺς ἀθλιώτερον ζῶμεν. νόσος μὲν γὰρ ἐν σώματι φύεται διὰ φύσιν, κακία δὲ καὶ μοχθηρία περὶ ψυχὴν ἔργον 15 ἐστὶ πρῶτον εἶτα πάθος αὐτῆς.³ οὐ μικρὸν δὲ πρὸς εὐθυμίαν ὄφελος, ἂν ἰάσιμον τὸ χεῖρον καὶ κουφότερον καὶ ἄσφυκτον.

Translations (1)

Whether the Affections of the Soul are Worse Than Those of the Body Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. VI. Helmbold, William Clark, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1939 (printing).) — 1 focus

[1] Homer,¹ having contemplated the mortal varieties of animals and having compared them with each other in respect to their lives and habits, cried out that nothing is

More wretched than man,

Of all that breathes and creeps upon the earth,

awarding to man an unfortunate primacy in excess of evils. But as for us, as though acknowledging that man has won the victory in wretchedness and has been proclaimed the most miserable of animals, let us compare him with himself, dividing body and soul for competition of their individual miseries, a task not unprofitable but even quite necessary, to the end that we may learn whether it is through Fortune or through ourselves that we live more wretchedly. For while disease grows in the body through Nature, vice and depravity in the soul are first the souls own doing, and then its affliction. It will be no slight aid toward tranquillity of mind, if the worse condition be curable, being both lighter to bear and lacking intensity.

Notes on the current edition

Whether the passions of the soul or diseases of the body are worse

1. Il. XVII. 446.

Plutarch Animine an corporis affectiones sint peiores 1

ed. William W. Goodwin

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