Plutarch, De sollertia animalium, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 9

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

← Previous Next →

[9]

ARISTOTIMUS.

The court is open for the litigants ¹ And there are some fish that waste their milt by pursuing the female while she is laying her eggs.²

There is also a type of mullet called the grayfish³ which feeds on its own slime⁴; and the octopus sits through the winter devouring himself,

In fireless home and domicile forlorn,⁵

so lazy or insensible or gluttonous, or guilty of all of these charges, is he. So this also is the reason, again, why Plato⁶ in his Laws enjoined, or rather prayed, that his young men might not be seized by a love for sea hunting. For there is no exercise in bravery or training in skill or anything that contributes to strength or fleetness or agility when men endure toil in contests with bass or conger or parrot-fish; whereas, in the chase on land, brave animals give play to the courageous and danger-loving qualities of those matched against them, crafty animals sharpen the wits and cunning of their attackers, while swift ones train the strength and perseverance of their pursuers. These are the qualities which have made hunting a noble sport, whereas there is nothing glorious about fishing. No, and there’s not a god, my friend, who has allowed himself to be called conger-killer, as Apollo is wolf-slayer,⁷ or surmullet-slayer, as Artemis⁸ is deer-slaying.⁹ And what is surprising in this when it’s a more glorious thing for a man to have caught a boar or a stag or, so help me, a gazelle or a hare than to have bought one ? As for your tunny¹⁰ and your mackerel and your boriito ! They’re more honourable to buy than to catch oneself. For their lack of spirit or of any kind of resource or cunning has made the sport dishonourable, unfashionable, and illiberal.

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

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

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.) — 9 focus

[9]

ΑΡΙΣΤΟΤΙΜΟΣ.

ἡ μὲν ἀγορὰ τοῖς δικαζομένοις τὰ δὲ τὸν γόνον ἀναλίσκει περὶ τὰς ἀποκυήσεις ἐπιτρέχοντα τοῖς θήλεσι· κεστρέως δὲ 965f γένος, οὓς παρδίας καλοῦσιν, ἀπὸ τῆς μύξης τρέφονται 20 τῆς ἑαυτῶν· ὁ δὲ πολύπους αὑτὸν ἐσθίων κάθηται χειμῶνος

ἐν τʼ ἀπύρῳ οἴκῳ καὶ ἐν ἤθεσι λευγαλέοισιν

οὕτως ἀργὸς ἢ ἀναίσθητος ἢ γαστρίμαργος ἢ πᾶσι τούτοις ἔνοχός ἐστι. διὸ καὶ Πλάτων αὖ πάλιν ἀπεῖπε νομοθετῶν μᾶλλον δʼ ἀπεύξατο τοὺς νέους θαλαττίου θήρας ἔρωτα λαβεῖν · οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀλκῆς γυμνάσιον οὐδὲ μελέτημα σοφίας οὐδʼ ὅσα πρὸς ἰσχὺν ἢ τάχος ἢ κινήσεις διαπονοῦσι τοῖς πρὸς 5 966a λάβρακας ἢ γόγγρους ἢ σκάρους ἀγῶσιν· ὥσπερ ἐνταῦθα τὰ μὲν θυμοειδῆ τὸ φιλοκίνδυνον καὶ τὸ ἀνδρεῖον ἀσκεῖ τῶν μαχομένων, τὰ δὲ πανοῦργα τὸ φροντιστικὸν καὶ συνετὸν τῶν ἐπιτιθεμένων, τὰ δὲ ποδώκη τὸ ῥωμαλέον καὶ φιλόπονον τῶν διωκόντων. 10 καὶ ταῦτα τὸ κυνηγεῖν καλὸν πεποίηκε· τὸ δʼ ἁλιεύειν ἀπʼ οὐδενὸς ἔνδοξον οὐδέ γε θεῶν τις ἠξίωσεν ὦ ἑταῖρε γογγροκτόνος, ὥσπερ ὁ Ἀπόλλων λυκοκτόνος, οὐδὲ τριγλοβόλος, ὥσπερ ἐλαφηβόλος ἡ Ἄρτεμις, λέγεσθαι. καὶ τί θαυμαστόν, ὅπου καὶ 15 ἀνθρώπῳ σῦν μὲν καὶ ἔλαφον καὶ νὴ Δία δορκάδα καὶ λαγωὸν ἑλεῖν κάλλιον ἢ πρίασθαι, θύννον 966b δὲ καὶ κάραβον καὶ ἀμίαν σεμνότερόν ἐστιν αὐτὸν ὀψωνεῖν ἢ ἁλιεύειν; τὸ γὰρ ἀγεννὲς καὶ ἀμήχανον ὅλως καὶ ἀπάνουργον αὐτῶν αἰσχρὸν καὶ ἄζηλον 20 καὶ ἀνελεύθερον τὴν ἄγραν πεποίηκε.

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.) — 9 focus

[9]

ARISTOTIMUS.

The court is open to all concerned in the controversy Others there are that kill their young ones by leaping the females at the very instant of their bringing forth. There are a sort of mullets, called pardiae, that feed upon their own slime. But the polypus sits all the winter feeding upon itself,

In fireless house, and domicils forlorn;

so slothful, or so stupid, or so given to his gut he is, or else so abandoned to all those vices together. And therefore Plato again and again forbids, or rather makes it his wish, in his laws, that young men might not be permitted to addict themselves to marine fishery, wherein there is no exercise of strength’ no cogitation of wisdom, nor any thing that contributes to fortitude, swiftness, or agility, in combating against pikes, congers, or scates; whereas, in the chase of wild beasts, the fiercer sort accustom the huntsman to contempt of danger, the more subtle sort exercise and sharpen his wit and cunning, the swifter sort exercise his strength, and render him more apt to endure labor. These are the advantages that accrue to a man by hunting; but in fishing, there is nothing worth his while. For never any of the Gods got honor by the surname of a conger-killer; as Apollo was surnamed the wolf-slayer; never any of the Deities gloried in being a darter of mullets, as Diana is honored with the addition of hart-darting. And what wonder is it, when it is accounted more noble for a man to kill than to buy a wild boar, a hart, a goat, or a hare, but more honorable to buy a tunny, a lobster, or an amy, than to kill one? And therefore, because there is nothing in fishing that is noble, no using of gins and slight of cunning, it is accounted a sorry, pitiful exercise, not worth a man’s labor.

Notes on the current edition

Whether land or sea animals are cleverer

1. Here follows a long lacuna not indicated in the mss., the contents of which cannot even be conjectured.

2. The milt is, of course, for the fertilization of the eggs, as Aristotimus should have learned from Aristotle ( e.g., Historia Animal. vi. 13, 567 b 3 ff.)

3. On this type Cf. also Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 2 (591 a 23) and in Athenaeus, vii. 307 a, where variants of the name occur. The same name was applied to a type of shark as well as to a type of mullet, an apt application in both instances (Andrews).

4. See Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 643 ( Cf. iii. 432 ff.). Pliny ( Nat. Hist. ix. 128, 131) tells the same story of the purplefish.

5. Hesiod, Works and Days, 524; Cf. 978 f infra and the note; Mor. 1059 e; Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 27, xiv. 26. See also Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 2 (591 a 5); Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 244; Lucilius, frag. 925 Warmington (L.C.L.).

6. Laws, 823 d-e.

7. For Apollo’s connexion with wolves see Aelian, De Natura Animal. x. 26; al.

8. On Artemis, The Lady of Wild Beasts ( Iliad, xxi. 470), see Mnemosyne, 4th series, iv (1951), pp. 230 ff.

9. This accusation is answered in 983 e-f infra.

10. See 980 a infra.

Plutarch De sollertia animalium 9

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

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

ARISTOTIMUS.

Current edition Perseus

ΑΡΙΣΤΟΤΙΜΟΣ.

ARISTOTIMUS.

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers