Plutarch, De sollertia animalium, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 25

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[25] Now the examples I have given indicate intelligence and an ingenious, subtle use of it for opportune profit; but there are others that display, in combination with understanding, a social sense and mutual affection, as is the case with the barbier¹ and the parrot-fish. For if one parrot-fish swallows the hook, the others present swarm upon the line and nibble it away; and the same fish, when any of their kind have fallen into the net, give them their tails from outside; when they eagerly fix their teeth in these, the others pull on them and bring them through in tow.² And barbiers are even more strenuous in rescuing their fellows: getting under the line with their backs, they erect their sharp spines and try to saw the line through and cut if off with the rough edge.³

Yet we know of no land animal that has the courage to assist another in danger - not bear or boar or lioness or panther. True it is that in the arena those of the same kind draw close together and huddle in a circle; yet they have neither knowledge nor desire to help each other. Instead, each one flees to get as far as possible from a wounded or dying fellow. That tale of the elephants⁴ carrying brushwood to the pits and giving their fallen comrade a ramp to mount is monstrous and far-fetched and dictates, as it were, that we are to believe it on a king’s prescription - that is, on the writs of Juba.⁵ Suppose it to be true: it merely proves that many sea creatures are in no way inferior in community spirit and intelligence to the wisest of the land animals. As for their sociability, I shall soon make a special plea on that topic.

De sollertia animalium. Plutarch. Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1957.

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Current edition Perseus

Whether land or sea animals are cleverer (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. XII. Cherniss, Harold, and Helmbold, William C., translators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1957 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Πότερα τῶν ζῴων φρονιμώτερα τὰ χερσαῖα ἢ τὰ ἔνυδρα Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. VI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1895.) — 25 focus

[25]

ΦΑΙΔΙΜΟΣ.

ταῦτα μὲν οὖν γνῶσιν ἐμφαίνει καὶ χρῆσιν ἐπὶ καιρῷ τοῦ συμφέροντος εὐμήχανον καὶ περιττήν 15 ἄλλα δʼ ἐπιδείκνυται μετὰ τοῦ συνετοῦ τὸ κοινωνικὸν καὶ τὸ φιλάλληλον, ὥσπερ ἀνθίαι καὶ σκάροι. σκάρου μὲν γὰρ ἄγκιστρον καταπιόντος, οἱ παρόντες σκάροι προσαλλόμενοι τὴν ὁρμιὰν ἀποτρώγουσιν οὗτοι δὲ καὶ τοῖς εἰς κύρτον ἐμπεσοῦσι τὰς οὐρὰς 20 παραδόντες ἔξωθεν ἕλκουσι δάκνοντας προθύμως καὶ συνεξάγουσιν. οἱ δʼ ἀνθίαι τῷ συμφύλῳ βοηθοῦσιν ἰταμώτερον τὴν γὰρ ὁρμιὰν ἀναθέμενοι 977d κατὰ τὴν ῥάχιν καὶ στήσαντες ὀρθὴν τὴν ἄκανθαν ἐπιχειροῦσι διαπρίειν τῇ τραχύτητι καὶ διακόπτειν. 25 καίτοι χερσαῖον οὐδὲν ἴσμεν ἑτέρῳ κινδυνεύοντι τολμῶν ἀμύνειν, οὐκ ἄρκτον οὐ σῦν οὐδὲ λέαιναν οὐδὲ πάρδαλιν ἀλλὰ συγχωρεῖ μὲν εἰς ταὐτὸν ἐν τοῖς θεάτροις τὰ ὁμόφυλα καὶ κύκλῳ μετʼ ἀλλήλων περίεισιν·ʼ ἑτέρῳ δʼ ἕτερον οὐκ οἶδεν οὐδὲ φρονεῖ βοηθεῖν, ἀλλὰ φεύγει καὶ ἀποπηδᾷ πορρωτάτω γιγνόμενα τοῦ τετρωμένου καὶ θνήσκοντος. ἡ δὲ 5 τῶν ἐλεφάντων ἱστορία, φίλε, τῶν εἰς τὰ ὀρύγματα φορούντων καὶ τὸν ὀλισθόντα διὰ χώματος ἀναβιβαζόντων 977e ἔκτοπός ἐστι δεινῶς καὶ ἀλλοδαπή, καὶ καθάπερ ἐκ βασιλικοῦ διαγράμματος ἐπιτάττουσα πιστεύειν αὐτῇ τῶν Ἰόβα βιβλίων· ἀληθὴς δʼ οὖσα 10 πολλὰ δείκνυσι τῶν ἐνάλων μηδὲν ἀπολειπόμενα τῷ κοινωνικῷ καὶ συνετῷ τοῦ σοφωτάτου τῶν χερσαίων. ἀλλὰ περὶ κοινωνίας αὐτῶν ἴδιος ἔσται τάχα λόγος.

Translations (1)

Which are the most crafty, water-animals or those creatures that breed upon the land? Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. V. Goodwin, William W., editor; Philips, John, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1874.) — 25 focus

[25] Other examples there are which show not only this same understanding and knowledge, but the community and mutual affection of fish. Thus, if one scate happen to swallow the hook, all the rest of the scates that are in the same shoal presently crowd together and bite the line in pieces. The same scates, if any of their companions fall into the net, give the prisoners their tails to take hold of with their teeth, and so draw them forth by main force.

But the fish called anthiae with far more courage assist their fellows in distress. For getting under the line with their backs, and setting up their fins, with these, as with sharp saws, they endeavor to cut it in two.

Now we know no land animal that will assist and defend his kind in danger; neither the bear, nor the wild boar, nor the lion, nor the panther. True it is that, when they are in herds together, they will gather into a circle and defend each other in common; but no single land animal either knows or cares to assist a single companion, but flies and shifts for himself as far off as he can from the beast that is wounded and lies a dying. For as for that old story of elephants filling up the ditches with heaps of adjoining materials, whether wood or earth, for the unfortunate elephant the more easily to get up again, this, my good friend, is extremely uncouth and foreign to us, as if we were bound to believe Juba’s books by virtue of a royal edict. However, if it is true, it does but serve to show that many of the marine creatures are nothing inferior in understanding and community to the most intelligent of the land animals. But as for their mutual society, we shall discourse apart of that by itself.

Notes on the current edition

Whether land or sea animals are cleverer

1. The anthias of the above passage is probably the Mediterranean barbier, Serranus anthias C.V., although elsewhere it is sometimes obviously a much larger fish of uncertain identity. On the identification Cf. Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. vi. 17 (570 b 19); Glossary of Greek Fishes, s.v.; Mair, introd. to his ed. of Oppian, pp. liii-lxi; Marx, RE, i. 2375-2377; ii. 2415; Schmid, Philologus, Suppb. xi, 1907-1910, p. 273; Brands, Grieksche Diernamen, pp. 147 f.; Cotte, Possions et animaux aquatiques au temps de Pline, pp. 69-73; Saint-Denis, Le Vocabulaire des animaux marins en latin classique, pp. 5-7. Cf. also 981 e infra.

2. On this story cf. also Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 4; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxii. 11; Ovid, Hal. 9 ff.; Oppian, Hal. iv. 40 ff. Note also Aelian, De Natura Animal. v. 22, on mice.

3. Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 182; xxxii. 13; Ovid, Hal. 45 ff.; Oppian, Hal. iii. 321 ff.

4. Cf. 972 b supra; Jacoby, Frag. der griech. Hist. iii, p. 146, frag. 51 b. On the community spirit of elephants see also Aelian, De Natura Animal. v. 49; vi. 61; vii. 15; al.

5. Juba was king of Mauretania (25 b.c. - c. a.d. 23).

Plutarch De sollertia animalium 25

Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator)

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