Plutarch, De Se Ipsum Citra Invidiam Laudando, ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs, 13

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[13] καὶ μὴν ὥσπερ οἱ τοὺς ὀφθαλμιῶντας ἐνοχλεῖν φυλαττόμενοι τοῖς ἄγαν λαμπροῖς σκιάν τινα παραμιγνύουσιν, οὕτως ἔνιοι τοὺς αὑτῶν ἐπαίνους μὴ παντελῶς λαμπροὺς μηδʼ ἀκράτους προσφέροντες, ἀλλά τινας ἐλλείψεις ἢ ἀποτεύξεις ἢ ἁμαρτίας 10 ἐλαφρὰς ἐμβάλλοντες, ἀφαιροῦσι τὸ ἐπαχθὲς αὐτῶν καὶ νεμεσητόν· ὥσπερ ὁ Ἐπειός, οὐ μέτρια περὶ τῆς πυκτικῆς εἰπὼν καὶ θρασυνάμενος ὡς

ἀντικρὺ χρόα τε ῥηξει σύν τ’ ὀστέ" ἀράξει.

ἧ² οὐχ ἅλις (φησίν) ὅττι μάχης ἐπιδεύομαι;

³⁴ 15 544a ἀλλʼ οὗτος μὲν ἴσως γελοῖος, ἀθλητικὴν ἀλαζονείαν δειλίας καὶ ἀνανδρίας ἐξομολογήσει παραμυθούμενος ἐμμελὴς δὲ καὶ χαρίεις ὁ λήθην τινὰ καθʼ αὑτοῦ λέγων ἢ ἄγνοιαν ἢ φιλοτιμίαν, ἢ πρός τινα μαθήματα καὶ λόγων ἀκρόασιν ὀλιγωρίαν ὡς ὁ 20 Ὀδυσσεὺς

αὐτὰρ ἐμὸν κῆρ

⁵

ἤθελʼ ἀκουέμεναι, λῦσαι δʼ ἐκέλευον ἑταίρους

ὀφρύσι νευστάζων.

καὶ πάλιν 25 544b

ἀλλʼ ἐγὼ οὐ πιθόμην ἦ τʼ ἂν πολὺ κέρδιον ἦεν,

⁶

ὄφρʼ αὐτόν τε ἴδοιμι, καὶ εἴ μοι ξείνια δοίη.

καὶ ὅλως ὅσαι μὴ παντάπασιν αἰσχραὶ μηδʼ ἀγεννεῖς · ἁμαρτίαι, παρατιθέμεναι τοῖς ἐπαίνοις τὸν φθόνον ἀφαιροῦσι. πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ πενίας καὶ ἀπορίας⁷ καὶ νὴ Δία δυσγενείας ἐξομολόγησιν ἔστιν ὅτε τοῖς ἐγκωμίοις 5 παρεμβάλλοντες, ἀμβλυτέρῳ τῷ φθόνῳ χρῶνται · καθάπερ Ἀγαθοκλῆς χρυσᾶ ποτήρια καὶ τορευτὰ τοῖς νέοις προπίνων ἐκέλευσε καὶ κεραμεᾶ κομισθῆναι καὶ τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν ἔφη τὸ ἐνδελεχὲς καὶ φιλόπονον 544c καὶ ἀνδρεῖον· ἡμεῖς πάλαι ταῦτα, νῦν δʼ 10 ἐκεῖνα ποιοῦμεν⁸ ἐδόκει γὰρ ἐν κεραμείῳ τεθράφθαι διὰ δυσγένειαν καὶ πενίαν ὁ Ἀγαθοκλῆς, εἶτα συμπάσης ὀλίγου δεῖν ἐβασίλευσε Σικελίας.

De Se Ipsum Citra Invidiam Laudando. Plutarch. ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs. Leipzig. 1891.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Περὶ τοῦ ἑαυτὸν ἐπαινεῖν ἀνεπιφθόνως (Greek) (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. IΙI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1891.)

Translations (1)

How a Man May Inoffensively Praise Himself Without Being Liable to Envy Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Lancaster, P., translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 13 focus

[13] Now as skilful painters, that they may not offend those that have weak eyes, allay their over-bright and gaudy colors by tempering them with darker; so there are some who will not represent their own praises altogether glaring and immoderately splendid, but cast in some defects, some scapes or slight faults, to take away the danger of displeasure or envy. Epeus intolerably brags of his skill in boxing,

I’ll crush my adversary’s body, break his bones;

yet he would seem to qualify all with this,

Is’t not enough that I’m in fight unskilled?¹

But, to say truth, to excuse his arrogance with so base a confession is ridiculous. He then who would be an exact man corrects himself for his forgetfulness, ignorance, ambition, or eagerness for certain knowledge and discourses. So does Ulysses when he says of the Sirens,

Thus the sweet charmers warbled o’er the main,

My soul takes wing to meet the heavenly strain;

I give the sign, and struggle to be free;

and again, when he sang of his visit to the Cyclops,

Their wholesome counsel rashly I declined,

Curious to view the man of monstrous kind,

And try what social rites a savage lends.

And for the most part it is a good antidote against envy, to mix amongst our praises those faults that are not altogether ungenerous and base. Therefore many temper them not only with confessions of poverty or unskilfulness, but even of vile descent. So Agathocles, carousing amongst the Sicilian youth in golden bowls very curiously wrought, commanded earthen pots to be brought in. See (says he) what diligence, laboriousness, and fortitude can do! Once we made muggen jugs, but now vessels of gold. For his original was so mean and contemptible, that it was thought he had served in a potter’s shop who at last governed almost all Sicily.

Notes on the current edition

Περὶ τοῦ ἑαυτὸν ἐπαινεῖν ἀνεπιφθόνως

1. ὀστέ’ ἀράξει· ὀστέα ῥάξει

2. ἧ · ἢ

3. ib. 670

4. Hom. Ψ 673

5. id. μ 192

6. ib. ι 228

7. ἀπορίας W: ἀπειρίας

8. ἡμεῖς πάλαι ταῦτα ἐποιοῦμεν, νῦν δ’ ἐκεῖνα ἔχομεν Cobetus

Plutarch De Se Ipsum Citra Invidiam Laudando 13

ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs

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