Plutarch, De exilio, ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs, 13

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[13] διὰ τοῦτο τῶν φρονιμωτάτων καὶ σοφωτάτων 5 ὀλίγους ἂν εὕροις ἐν ταῖς ἑαυτῶν πατρίσι κεκηδευμένους, οἱ δὲ πλεῖστοι μηδενὸς ἀναγκάζοντος αὐτοὶ τὸ ἀγκύριον¹ ἀράμενοι μεθωρμίσαντο τοὺς βίους καὶ μετέστησαν οἱ μὲν εἰς Ἀθήνας οἱ δʼ ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν. τίς γὰρ εἴρηκε τῆς ἑαυτοῦ πατρίδος ἐγκώμιον τοιοῦτον, 10 οἷον Εὐριπίδης;²

ᾗ πρῶτα μὲν λεὼς οὐκ ἐπακτὸς ἄλλοθεν, 604e

αὐτόχθονες δʼ ἔφυμεν· αἱ δʼ ἄλλαι πόλεις

πεσσῶν ὁμοίως διαφορηθεῖσαι βολαῖς,

ἄλλαι παρʼ ἄλλων εἰσὶν εἰσαγώγιμοι.³ 15

εἰ δὲ πάρεργον⁴ χρή τι κομπάσαι, γύναι,⁵

⁶

οὐρανὸν ὑπὲρ γῆς ἔχομεν εὖ κεκραμένον⁷

ἵνʼ οὔτʼ ἄγαν πῦρ οὔτε χεῖμα συμπίτνει.⁸

ἃ δʼ Ἑλλὰς Ἀσία τʼ ἐκτρέφει⁹ κάλλιστα γῆς,

δέλεαρ¹⁰ ἔχοντες τήνδε¹¹ συνθηρεύομεν

20 ἀλλʼ ὁ ταῦτα γράψας εἰς Μακεδονίαν ᾤχετο καὶ παρʼ Ἀρχελάῳ κατεβίωσεν. ἀκήκοας δὲ δήπου¹² καὶ τουτὶ τοὐπιγραμμάτιον¹³ 604f

Αἰσχύλον Εὐφορίωνος Ἀθηναῖον τόδε κεύθει

μνῆμα καταφθίμενον πυροφόροιο Γέλας

καὶ γὰρ καὶ οὗτος εἰς Σικελίαν ἀπῆρε καὶ Σιμωνίδης πρότερον. τὸ δʼ Ἡροδότου Ἁλικαρνησέος¹⁴ ἱστορίης ἀπόδεξις¹⁵ ἥδε¹⁶ πολλοὶ μεταγράφουσιν ʽ Ἡροδότου Θουρίοὐ· μετῴκησε γὰρ εἰς Θουρίους¹⁷ καὶ 5 605a τῆς ἀποικίας ἐκείνης μετέσχε. τὸ δʼ ἱερὸν καὶ δαιμόνιον

ἐν μούσαις πνεῦμα, Φρυγίας κοσμήτορα μάχας

Ὅμηρον, οὐ τοῦτο πεποίηκε πολλαῖς ἀμφισβητήσιμον πόλεσιν, ὅτι μὴ μιᾶς ἐστιν ἐγκωμιαστής; καὶ ξενίου 10 Διὸς πολλαὶ τιμαὶ καὶ μεγάλαι.

De exilio. 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 φυγῆς (Greek) (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol 3. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1891.)

Translations (1)

Of Banishment, or Flying One's Country. Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. 3. Goodwin, William W., editor; Patrick, John, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 13 focus

[13] For this reason, you will find that very few of the most prudent and wise men were buried in their own country, but the most of them, when none forced them to it, weighed anchor and steered their course to live in another port, removing some to Athens, and others from it.

Who ever gave a greater encomium of his own country than Euripides in the following verses?

We are all of this country’s native race,

Not brought-in strangers from another place,

As some, like dice hither and thither thrown,

Remove in haste from this to t’other town.

And, if a woman may have leave to boast,

A temperate air breathes here in every coast;

We neither curse summer’s immoderate heat,

Nor yet complain the winter’s cold’s too great.

If aught there be that noble Greece doth yield,

Or Asia rich, by river or by field,

We seek it out and bring it to our doors.

And yet he that wrote all this went himself into Macedonia, and passed the rest of his days in the court of Archelaus. I suppose you have also heard of this short epigram:

Here lieth buried Aeschylus, the son

Of the Athenian Euphorion;

In Sicily his latest breath did yield,

And buried lies by Gela’s fruitful field.

For both he and Simonides before him went into Sicily. And whereas we meet with this title, This publication of the History of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, many have changed it into Herodotus of Thurii, for he dwelt at Thurii, and was a member of that colony. And that sacred and divine poet Homer, that adorned the Trojan war,—why was he a controversy to so many cities (every one pleading he was theirs) but because he did not cry up any one of them to the disparagement of the rest? Many also and great are the honors that are paid to Jupiter Hospitalis.

Notes on the current edition

Περὶ φυγῆς

1. ἀγκύριον] ἀκάτιον Cobetus

2. Εὐριπίδης] Nauck. p. 467

3. εἰσαγώγιμοι Lycurgus in Leocratea $ 100: ἀγώγιμοι

4. εἰ δ’ ἐκ παρέργου idem

5. γυναῖκες mei codd.

6. Nauck. p. 677

7. κεκραμένον X: συγκεκραμένον

8. συμπίτνει Nauckius: συμπιτνεῖ

9. τ’ ἐκτρέφει Musgravius: τε τρέφει

10. γῆς, δέλεαρ *: τῆς δὲ ἔλεαρ

11. τήνδε Lobeckius

12. δὲ δήπου W: δι’ ἐπῶν

13. τὸ ἐπιγραμμάτιον codd.

14. Ἀλικαρνησέος *: ἀλικαρνασέως

15. ἀπόδεξις *: ἀπόδειξις

16. ἤδε] τόδε mei codd.

17. Θουρίους X: θούρους

Plutarch De exilio 13

ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs

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