Plutarch, Bruta animalia ratione uti, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 2

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[2]

GRYLLUS.

Hello, Odysseus.

ODYSSEUS.

And you too, Gryllus, for heaven’s sake!

GRYLLUS.

What do you want to ask?

ODYSSEUS.

Since I am aware that you have been men, I feel sorry for all of you in your present plight; yet it is only natural that I should be more concerned for those of you who were Greeks before you fell into this misfortune. So now I have asked Circe to remove the spell from any Greek who chooses and restore him to his original shape and let him go back home with us.

GRYLLUS.

Stop, Odysseus! Not a word more! You see, we don’t any of us think much of you either, for evidently it was a farce, that talk of your cleverness and your fame as one whose intelligence far surpassed the rest - a man who boggles at the simple matter of changing from worse to better because he hasn’t considered the matter. For just as children dread the doctor’s doses¹ and run from lessons, the very things that, by changing them from invalids and fools, will make them healthier and wiser, just so you have shied away from the change from one shape to another. At this very moment you are not only living in fear and trembling as a companion of Circe, frightened that she may, before you know it, turn you into a pig or a wolf, but you are also trying to persuade us, who live in an abundance of good things, to abandon them, and with them the lady who provides them, and sail away with you, when we have again become men, the most unfortunate of all creatures!

ODYSSEUS.

To me, Gryllus, you seem to have lost not only your shape, but your intelligence also under the influence of that drug. You have become infected with strange and completely perverted notions. Or was it rather an inclination to swinishness that conjured you into this shape?²

GRYLLUS.

Neither of these, king of the Cephallenians.³ But if it is your pleasure to discuss the matter instead of hurling abuse, I shall quickly make you see that we are right to prefer our present life in place of the former one, now that we have tried both.

ODYSSEUS.

Go on. I should like to hear you.

Bruta animalia ratione uti. 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

Beasts are rational (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)

Περὶ τοῦ τὰ ἄλογα λόγῳ χρῆσθαι Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. VI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1895.) — 2 focus

[2]

ΓΡΥΛΛΟΣ

. χαῖρε, Ὀδυσσεῦ.

ΟΔ.

καὶ σὺ νὴ Δία, Γρύλλε. 986c

ΓΡ.

Τί βούλει ἐρωτᾶν;

ΟΔ.

ἐγὼ γινώσκων ὑμᾶς ἀνθρώπους γεγονότας οἰκτείρω μὲν ἅπαντας οὕτως ἔχοντας, εἰκὸς 10 δέ μοι μᾶλλον διαφέρειν ὅσοι Ἕλληνες ὄντες εἰς ταύτην ἀφῖχθε τὴν δυστυχίαν νῦν οὖν ἐποιησάμην τῆς Κίρκης δέησιν, ὅπως τὸν βουλόμενον ὑμῶν ἀναλύσασα καὶ καταστήσασα πάλιν εἰς τὸ ἀρχαῖον εἶδος ἀποπέμψῃ μεθʼ ἡμῶν. 15

ΓΡ.

Παῦε, Ὀδυσσεῦ, καὶ περαιτέρω μηδὲν εἴπῃς ὡς καὶ σοῦ πάντες ἡμεῖς καταφρονοῦμεν, ὡς μάτην ἄρα δεινὸς ἐλέγου καὶ τῷ φρονεῖν πολὺ τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων ἐδόκεις διαφέρειν, ὃς αὐτὸ τοῦτʼ ἔδεισας, τὴν μεταβολὴν ἐκ χειρόνων εἰς 20 986d ἀμείνω, μὴ σκεψάμενος· ὡς γὰρ οἱ παῖδες τὰ φάρμακα τῶν ἰατρῶν φοβοῦνται, καὶ τὰ παθήματα φεύγουσιν, ἃ μεταβάλλοντα ἐκ νοσερῶν καὶ ἀνοήτων ὑγιεινοτέρους καὶ φρονιμωτέρους ποιοῦσιν αὐτούς, οὕτω σὺ διεκρούσω τὸ ἄλλος ἐξ ἄλλου 25 γενέσθαι, καὶ νῦν αὐτός τε φρίττων καὶ ὑποδειμαίνων τῇ Κίρκῃ σύνει, μή σε ποιήσῃ λαθοῦσα σῦν ἢ λύκον, ἡμᾶς τε πείθεις, ἐν ἀφθόνοις ζῶντας ἀγαθοῖς, ἀπολιπόντας ἅμα τούτοις τὴν ταῦτα παρασκευάζουσαν ἐκπλεῖν μετὰ σοῦ, τὸ πάντων φιλοποτμότατον ξῷον αὖθις ἀνθρώπους γενομένους. 5 986e

ΟΔ.

ἐμοὶ σύ, Γρύλλε, δοκεῖς οὐ τὴν μορφὴν μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν διάνοιαν ὑπὸ τοῦ πώματος ἐκείνου διεφθάρθαι καὶ γεγονέναι μεστὸς ἀτόπων καὶ διαλελωβημένων παντάπασι δοξῶν· ἢ σέ τις αὖ συνηθείας ἡδονὴ πρὸς τόδε τὸ σῶμα καταγεγοήτευκεν; 10

ΓΡ.

Οὐδέτερα τούτων, ὦ βασιλεῦ Κεφαλλήνων· ἂν δὲ διαλέγεσθαι μᾶλλον ἐθέλῃς ἢ λοιδορεῖσθαι, ταχύ σε μεταπείσομεν, ἑκατέρου τῶν βίων ἐμπείρως ἔχοντες, ὅ τι ταῦτα πρὸ ἐκείνων εἰκότως ἀγαπῶμεν 15 πῶμεν.

ΟΔ.

ἀλλὰ μὴν ἐγὼ πρόθυμος ἀκροᾶσθαι.

Translations (1)

That brute beasts make use of reason Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. V. Goodwin, William W., editor; J., A., Sir, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 2 focus

[2]

GRYLLUS.

Save ye, Mr. Ulysses.

ULYSSES.

And you too, by Jove, Mr. Gryllus.

GRYLLUS.

What is’t your worship would have with me?

ULYSSES.

Knowing you were all born men, I pity the condition ye are now in; and I pity ye the more, for that being Greeks ye are fallen under this misfortune; and therefore I made it my request to Circe that she would restore ye again to your former shape, as many of you as were desirous, to the end ye might return home again with us.

GRYLLUS.

Hold, Mr. Ulysses, not a word more of this, I beseech your worship. For we all contemn thee, as one that none but fools call cunning, and as vainly vauntest thyself to be wiser than other men, and yet art afraid of being changed from worse to better; like children that are frightened at physician’s doses and hate going to school, although the medicines and the precepts make them healthy and learned of diseased and fools; just so thou refusest to be transformed out of one thing into another. And now thy bones rattle in thy skin for dread of living with Circe, lest she should transform thee into a hog or a wolf; and thou wouldst persuade us living in plenty of all enjoyments not only to forsake these blessings, but to abandon her that has so well provided for us, to sail along with thee, and to become men again, the most miserable of all creatures.

ULYSSES.

In my opinion, Gryllus, this same wicked cup has not only deprived thee of thy shape, but of thy sense and reason too; or else thou art got drunk with those opinions which are everywhere exploded as nasty and villanous, unless some voluptuous pleasure of custom and habit has bewitched thee to this body.

GRYLLUS.

Neither of these, O king of the Cephallenians. But if thou art come hither to dispute, and not to rail and swagger, we shall soon convince thee, having experience of both manners of living, that our way is to be preferred before that which thou so much applaudest.

ULYSSES.

Nay, then go on; I’ll listen with both ears to hear this paradox discussed.

Notes on the current edition

Beasts are rational

1. Cf. Lucretius, iv. 11 ff.; Plato, Laws, 720 a. If one takes Laws, 646 c literally, there was some reason for fear.

2. That is, you were always a swine. It is only your shape that is altered.

3. After Homer, Iliad, ii. 631; Odyssey, xxiv. 378; or, taking the pun, King of Brains, Mastermind.

Plutarch Bruta animalia ratione uti 2

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

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GRYLLUS.

ODYSSEUS.

GRYLLUS.

ODYSSEUS.

GRYLLUS.

ODYSSEUS.

GRYLLUS.

ODYSSEUS.

Current edition Perseus

ΓΡΥΛΛΟΣ

ΟΔ.

ΓΡ.

ΟΔ.

ΓΡ.

ΟΔ.

ΓΡ.

ΟΔ.

GRYLLUS.

ULYSSES.

GRYLLUS.

ULYSSES.

GRYLLUS.

ULYSSES.

GRYLLUS.

ULYSSES.

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers