Plutarch, An seni respublica gerenda sit, Harold North Fowler (Translator), 5

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[5] For granted that nature seeks in every way pleasure and enjoyment, old men are physically incapacitated for all pleasures except a few necessary ones, and not only

Aphroditê with old men is wroth,¹

as Euripides says, but their appetites also for food and drink are for the most part blunted and toothless, so that they can, if I may say so, hardly whet and sharpen them. They ought to prepare for themselves pleasures in the mind, not ignoble and illiberal ones like that of Simonides, wrho said to those who reproached him for his avarice that, since old age had deprived him of all other pleasures, he was comforting his declining years with the only one left, the pleasure of gain. Public life, on the other hand, possesses pleasures most noble and great, those in fact from which the gods themselves, as we may reasonably suppose, derive their only or their chief enjoyment. These are the pleasures that spring from good deeds and noble actions. For if Nicias the painter took such delight in the labours of his art that he often had to ask his servants whether he had had his bath and his breakfast; and if Archimedes when intent upon his drawing-tablet had to be dragged away by force, stripped and anointed by his servants, and then drew diagrams upon his anointed body; and if Canus the flute-player, with whom you also are acquainted, used to say that people did not know how much greater pleasure he gave to himself than to others when he played, for if they did, those who wished to hear him would receive pay instead of giving it. In view of these examples, do we not perceive how great are the pleasures the virtues provide, for those who practise them, as the result of the noble deeds they do and their works for the good of the community and of mankind; and that too without tickling or enervating them as do the smooth and gentle motions made on the body? Those have a frantic, unsteady titillation mixed with convulsive throbbing, but the pleasures given by noble works, such as those of which the man who rightly serves the State is the author, not like the golden wings of Euripides² but like those heavenly Platonic pinions,³ bear the soul on high as it acquires greatness and lofty spirit mingled with joy.

An seni respublica gerenda sit. Plutarch. Harold North Fowler (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1936.

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Current edition Perseus

Whether an Old Man Should Engage in Public Affairs (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. X. Fowler, Harold North, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Εἰ πρεσβυτέρῳ πολιτευτέον Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol V. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig. Teubner, 1893.) — 5 focus

[5] καὶ γὰρ εἰ ζητεῖ πάντως ἡ φύσις τὸ ἡδὺ καὶ τὸ χαίρειν, τὸ μὲν σῶμα τῶν γερόντων ἀπείρηκε 25 πρὸς πάσας, πλὴν ὀλίγων τῶν ἀναγκαίων, τὰς ἡδονάς, καὶ οὐχ ἡ Ἀφροδίτη τοῖς γέρουσιν ἄχθεται¹ μόνον, ὡς Εὐριπίδης φησίν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς περὶ 786b πόσιν καὶ βρῶσιν ἐπιθυμίας ἀπημβλυμμένας² τὰ πολλὰ καὶ νωδὰς κατέχοντες μόλις οἷον ἐπιθήγουσι καὶ χαράττουσιν ἐν δὲ τῇ ψυχῇ παρασκευαστέον 5 ἡδονὰς οὐκ ἀγεννεῖς οὐδʼ ἀνελευθέρους, ὡς Σιμωνίδης ἔλεγε πρὸς τοὺς ἐγκαλοῦντας αὐτῷ φιλαργυρίαν, ὅτι τῶν ἄλλων ἀπεστερημένος διὰ τὸ γῆρας ἡδονῶν ὑπὸ μιᾶς ἔτι γηροβοσκεῖται τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ κερδαίνειν. ἀλλʼ ἡ πολιτεία καλλίστας μὲν ἡδονὰς 10 ἔχει καὶ μεγίστας, αἷς καὶ τοὺς θεοὺς εἰκός ἐστιν ἢ μόναις ἢ μάλιστα χαίρειν· αὗται δʼ εἰσίν, ἃς τὸ εὖ ποιεῖν καὶ καλόν τι πράττειν ἀναδίδωσιν. εἰ γὰρ Νικίας ὁ ζῳγράφος οὕτως; ἔχαιρε τοῖς τῆς τέχνης 786c ἔργοις, ὥστε τοὺς οἰκέτας ἐρωτᾶν πολλάκις, εἰ λέλουται καὶ 15 ἠρίστηκεν Ἀρχιμήδην δὲ τῇ σανίδι προσκείμενον ἀποσπῶντες βίᾳ καὶ ἀποδύοντες ἤλειφον οἱ θεράποντες, ὁ δʼ ἐπὶ τοῦ σώματος ἀληλιμμένου διέγραφε τὰ σχήματα³ Κάνος δʼ ὁ αὐλητής, ὃν καὶ σὺ γιγνώσκεις, ἔλεγεν ἀγνοεῖν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, 20 ὅτῳ μᾶλλον αὑτὸν αὐλῶν ἢ ἑτέρους εὐφραίνει λαμβάνειν γὰρ ἂν μισθὸν οὐ διδόναι τοὺς ἀκούειν ἐθέλοντας ἆρʼ οὐκ ἐπινοοῦμεν, ἡλίκας ἡδονὰς αἱ ἀρεταὶ τοῖς χρωμένοις ἀπὸ τῶν καλῶν πράξεων καὶ τῶν κοινωνικῶν ἔργων καὶ φιλανθρώπων παρασκευάζουσιν, 25 οὐ κνῶσαι οὐδὲ θρύπτουσαι, ὥσπερ αἱ εἰς σάρκα λεῖαι καὶ προσηνεῖς γινόμεναι κινήσεις⁴; 786d ἀλλʼ αὗται μὲν οἰστρῶδες καὶ ἀβέβαιον καὶ μεμιγμένον σφυγμῷ τὸ γαργαλίζον ἔχουσιν, αἱ δʼ, ἐπὶ τοῖς καλοῖς ἔργοις, οἵων δημιουργὸς ὁ πολιτευόμενος ὀρθῶς ἐστιν, οὐ ταῖς Εὐριπίδου⁵ χρυσαῖς πτέρυξιν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς Πλατωνικοῖς ἐκείνοις καὶ οὐρανίοις⁶ 5 πτεροῖς ὅμοια⁷ τὴν ψυχὴν μέγεθος καὶ φρόνημα μετὰ γήθους λαμβάνουσαν ἀναφέρουσιν.

Translations (1)

Whether an Aged Man Ought to Meddle in State Affairs. Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. V. Goodwin, William W., editor; Fetherston, F., translator. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company, 1874.) — 5 focus

[5] For though Nature seeks by all means to delight and rejoice herself, yet the bodies of old men are incapacitated for all pleasures, except a few that are absolutely necessary. For not only

Venus to old men is averse,

as Euripides has it; but their appetite also to their meat and drink is for the most part dull, and as one would say, toothless; so that they have but little gust and relish in them..

They ought therefore to furnish themselves with pleasures of the mind, not ungenerous or illiberal, like those of Simonides, who said to those who reproached him with covetousness, that being by his years deprived of other pleasures, he recreated his old age with the only delight which remained, that of heaping up riches. But political life has in it pleasures exceeding great, and no less honorable, being such as it is probable the very Gods do only or at least chiefly enjoy themselves in; and these are the delights which proceed from doing good and performing what is honest and laudable. For if Nicias the painter took such pleasure in the work of his hands, that he often was fain to ask his servants whether he had washed or dined; and if Archimedes was so intent upon the table in which he drew his geometrical figures, that his attendants were obliged by force to pluck him from it and strip him of his clothes that they might anoint him, whilst he in the mean time drew new schemes on his anointed body; and if Canus the piper, whom you also know, was wont to say that men knew not how much more he delighted himself with his playing than he did others, for that then his hearers would rather demand of him than give him a reward; do we not thence conceive how great pleasures the virtues afford to those who practise them, from their honest actions and public-spirited works tending to the benefit of human society? They do not tickle or weaken, as do such sweet and gentle motions as are made on the flesh; for these indeed have a furious and unconstant itching, mixed with a feverish inflammation; whereas those which accompany such gallant actions as he who rightly administers the state is worker of, not like the golden plumes of Euripides, but like those celestial wings of Plato, elevate the soul which has received a greatness of courage and wisdom accompanied with joy.

Notes on the current edition

Whether an Old Man Should Engage in Public Affairs

1. Euripides, Aeolus, Frag. 23, Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 369. Plutarch, Moralia 285 b, gives two lines:

ἀλλ’ ῆ τὸ γῆρας τὴν Κύ῀αν χαίρειν ἐᾷ

ἧ τ’ Ἀφροδίτη τοῖς γεροῦσαν ἅχθεται,

But either eld to Cypris bids farewell

Or Aphroditê with old men is wroth.

2. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 655, no. 911.

3. Plato, Phaedrus, 246 b=248 e, where the soul is likened to a chariot and charioteer with winged steeds.

Plutarch An seni respublica gerenda sit 5

Harold North Fowler (Translator)

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