Plutarch, Bruta animalia ratione uti, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 6

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[6]

GRYLLUS.

Now since you are not unaware that I am a sophist, let me marshal my arguments in some order by defining temperance and analysing the desires according to their kinds. Temperance,¹ then, is a curtailment and an ordering of the desires that eliminate those that are extraneous or superfluous and discipline in modest and timely fashion those that are essential.² You can, of course, observe countless differences in the desires³ and the desire to eat and drink is at once natural and essential, while the pleasures of love, which, though they find their origin in nature, yet may be forgone and discarded without much inconvenience, have been called natural, but not essential. But there are desires of another kind, neither essential nor natural, that are imported in a deluge from without as a result of your inane illusions and because you lack true culture. So great is their multitude that the natural desires are, every one of them, all but overwhelmed, as though an alien rabble were overpowering the native citizenry. But beasts have souls completely inaccessible and closed to these adventitious passions and live their lives as free from empty illusions as though they dwelt far from the sea.⁴ They fall short in the matter of delicate and luxurious living, but solidly protect their sobriety and the better regulation of their desires since those that dwell within them are neither numerous nor alien.

Certainly there was a time when I myself, no less than you now, was dazzled by gold and held it to be an incomparable possession; so likewise I was caught by the lure of silver and ivory and the man who had most property of this sort seemed to me to be a blissful favourite of the gods, whether he was a Phrygian or a Carian, one more villainous than Dolon⁵ or more unfortunate than Priam.⁶ In that situation, constantly activated⁷ by these desires, I reaped no joy or pleasure from the other things of life, which I had sufficiently and to spare. I grumbled at my life, finding myself destitute of the most important things and a loser in the lottery of fortune. This is the reason why, as I recall, when I saw you once in Crete tricked out in holiday attire, it was not your intellect or your virtue that I envied, but the softness of the elegantly woven garment and the beautiful wool of your purple cloak that I admired and gaped at (the clasp, I believe, was of gold and had some frivolity worked on it in exquisitely fine intaglio). I followed you about as enchanted as a woman. But now I am rid and purified of all those empty illusions.⁸ I have no eyes for gold and silver and can pass them by just like any common stone; and as for your fine robes and tapestries, I swear there’s nothing sweeter for me to rest in when I’m full than deep, soft mud.⁹ None, then, of such adventitious desires has a place in our souls; our life for the most part is controlled by the essential desires and pleasures. As for those that are non-essential, but merely natural, we resort to them without either irregularity or excess.

Bruta animalia ratione uti. Plutarch. Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1957.

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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.) — 6 focus

[6]

ΓΡ.

ἀλλʼ ἐπεί σε μὴ λέληθα σοφιστὴς ὤν, φέρε χρήσωμαι τάξει τιυὶ τοῦ λόγου, τῆς μὲν σωφροσύνης ὅρον θέμενος κατὰ γένος δὲ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας διελόμενος. ἡ μὲν οὖν σωφροσύνη βραχύτης τίς ἐστιν 25 ἐπιθυμιῶν καὶ τάξις, ἀναιροῦσα μὲν τὰς ἐπεισάκτους καὶ περιττὰς καιρῷ δὲ καὶ μετριότητι κοσμοῦσα τὰς ἀναγκαίας. ταῖς δʼ ἐπιθυμίαις ἐνορᾷς που μυρίαν διαφοράν, καὶ τὴν μὲν περὶ τὴν βρῶσιν καὶ τὴν πόσιν ἅμα τῷ φυσικῷ καὶ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον ἔχουσαν· αἱ δὲ τῶν ἀφροδισίων αἷς ἀρχὰς ἡ φύσις ἐνδίδωσιν, 5 ἔστι δέ που καὶ μὴ χρώμενον ἔχειν ἱκανῶς ἀπαλλαγέντα, φυσικαὶ μὲν οὐκ ἀναγκαῖαι δʼ ἐκλήθησαν. 989c τὸ δὲ τῶν μήτʼ ἀναγκαίων μήτε φυσικῶν ἀλλʼ ἔξωθεν ὑπὸ δόξης κενῆς. διʼ ἀπειροκαλίαν ἐπικεχυμένων γένος ὑμῶν μὲν ὀλίγου δεῖν τὰς φυσικὰς 10 ἀπέκρυψεν ὑπὸ πλήθους ἁπάσας, ἔχει δὲ καθάπερ ξένος ὄχλος; ἔπηλυς ἐν δήμῳ καταβιαζόμενος πρὸς τοὺς ἐγγενεῖς πολίτας;. τὰ δὲ θηρία παντάπασιν ἀβάτους καὶ ἀνεπιμίκτους ἔχοντα τοῖς ἐπεισάκτοις πάθεσι τὰς ψυχὰς καὶ τοῖς βίοις πόρρω τῆς κενῆς 15 δόξης ὥσπερ θαλάσσης ἀπῳκισμένα τῷ γλαφυρῶς καὶ περιττῶς διάγειν ἀπολείπεται τὸ δὲ σωφρονεῖν 989d καὶ μᾶλλον εὐνομεῖσθαι ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις, οὔτε πολλαῖς συνοικούσαις οὔτʼ ἀλλοτρίαις, σφόδρα διαφυλάττεται. ἐμὲ γοῦν ποτε καὶ αὐτὸν οὐχ ἧττον ἢ σὲ νῦν ἐξέπληττε 20 μὲν χρυσὸς ὡς κτῆμα τῶν ἄλλων οὐδενὶ παραβλητὸν ᾕρει δʼ ἄργυρος καὶ ἐλέφας· ὁ δὲ πλεῖστα τούτων κεκτημένος ἐδόκει μακάριός τις εἶναι καὶ θεοφιλὴς ἀνήρ, εἴτε Φρὺξ ἦν εἴτε Κὰρ τοῦ Δόλωνος ἀγεννέστερος καὶ τοῦ Πριάμου βαρυποτ μότερος· ἐνταῦθα δʼ ἀνηρτημένος ἀεὶ ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις οὔτε χάριν οὔθʼ ἡδονὴν ἀπὸ τῶν ἄλλων πραγμάτων ἀφθόνων ὄντων καὶ ἱκανῶν ἐκαρπούμην, ἀλλʼ ἐμεμφόμην 989e τὸν ἐμαυτοῦ βίον, ὡς τῶν μεγίστων ἐνδεὴς; 5 καὶ ἄμοιρος ἀγαθῶν ἀπολελειμμένος. τοιγαροῦν, ὥς σε μέμνημαι ἐν Κρήτῃ θεασάμενος ἀμπεχόνῃ κεκοσμημένον πανηγυρικῶς, οὐ τὴν φρόνησιν ἐζήλουν οὐδὲ τὴν ἀρετήν, ἀλλὰ τοῦ χιτῶνος εἰργασμένου περιττῶς τὴν λεπτότητα καὶ τῆς χλαμύδος οὔσης 10 ἁλουργοῦ τὴν οὐλότητα καὶ τὸ κάλλος ἀγαπῶν καὶ τεθηπὼς εἶχε δέ τι καὶ ἡ πόρπη χρυσὸς οὖσα παίγνιον οἶμαι τορείαις διηκριβωμένον εἱπόμην γεγοητευμένος, ὥσπερ αἱ γυναῖκες. ἀλλὰ νῦν ἀπηλλαγμένος ἐκείνων τῶν κενῶν δοξῶν καὶ κεκαθαρμένος 15 χρυσὸν μὲν καὶ ἄργυρον ὥσπερ τοὺς ἄλλους 989f λίθους περιορῶν ὑπερβαίνω, ταῖς δὲ σαῖς χλανίσι καὶ τάπησιν οὐδὲν ἂν μὰ Δίʼ ἥδιον ἢ βαθεῖ καὶ μαλθακῷ πηλῷ μεστὸς ὢν ἐγκατακλιθείην ἀναπαυόμενος. τὰ δὲ τοιαῦτα τῶν ἐπεισάκτων ἐπιθυμιῶν οὐδεμία ταῖς 20 ἡμετέραις ἐνοικίζεται ψυχαῖς· ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν πλεῖστα ταῖς ἀναγκαίαις ὁ βίος ἡμῶν ἐπιθυμίαις καὶ ἡδοναῖς διοικεῖται, ταῖς δʼ οὔτʼ ἀναγκαίαις ἀλλὰ φυσικαῖς; μόνον οὔτʼ ἀτάκτως οὔτʼ ἀπλήστως ὁμιλοῦμεν. 990a

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.) — 6 focus

[6]

GRYLLUS.

But because thou believest me to be a sophister, I shall observe a certain order in my discourse, first giving thee the definition of temperance, and then dividing desire according to the several kinds of it. Temperance then is the contracting and well governing our desires, pruning off those that are superfluous and encroaching upon our wills, and ruling those that are necessary by the standards of reason and moderation. Now in desires you observe a vast number of distinctions. For it is both natural and necessary to drink; but as for venereal desires, which derive their originals from Nature, there is a time when they may be restrained without any inconvenience; these are therefore called natural but not necessary. But there is another sort, which are neither natural nor necessary, but infused from without by vain opinion through the mistake of right and true; and it is these that want but very little of ruining all your natural desires with their number, like a multitude of foreigners outnumbering the natives and expelling them from their habitations. But the beasts, having their souls unmixed and not to be overcome by these adventitious passions, and living lives as distant from vain opinion as from the sea, are inferior to you in living elegantly and superfluously, but they are extremely wary in preserving temperance and the right government of their desires, as being neither troubled with many, nor those foreign to their natures. And therefore formerly I was no less smitten with the glister of gold than thou art now, as believing nothing else that a man could possess to be comparable to it. Silver also and ivory inveigled me with the same desires; and he that enjoyed these things in the greatest measure seemed to be a man most happy and beloved of God, whether a Phrygian or a Carian, whether more meanly descended than Dolon or more miserable than Priam. From thenceforward being altogether swayed by my desires, I reaped no other pleasure nor delight in any other blessings of my life, with which I abounded, believing that I wanted still and missed my share of those that were the chiefest and the greatest. Therefore, I remember, when I beheld thee in Crete, at some solemnity, most pompously attired, I neither envied thy wisdom nor thy virtue; but the extraordinary fineness and exquisite workmanship of thy tunic, and the glistering of thy purple upper garment, and the beauty of the ornaments struck me with admiration. And the golden clasp, methought, was a pretty toy that had something of extraordinary graving in it; and bewitched with these baubles, I followed thee as the women did. But now being altogether estranged from those vain opinions, and having my understanding purified, I tread both gold and silver under my feet as I do the common stones; nor did I ever sleep more soundly upon thy carpets and tapestries, than now I do, rolled over head and ears in the deep and soft mud. None of those adventitious desires reside in our souls, but for the most part our manner of living is accustomed to necessary pleasures and desires; and as for those pleasures which are not necessary but only natural, we make such a use of them as is neither without order nor moderation.

Notes on the current edition

Beasts are rational

1. See Epicurus, frag. 456 (Usener); contrast Aristotle, Nic. Ethics iii. 10 ff. (1117 b 23 ff.); [Plato], Def. 411 e; al. For the temperance of animals see Aristotle, De Gen. Animal. i. 4 (717 a 27).

2. Cf. Mor. 127 a, 584 d f.

3. There is probably a short lacuna at this point.

4. See Plato, Laws, 704 e ff. (and Shorey, What Plato Said, ad loc. p. 630): the sea is the symbol of mischievous foreign influence. Cf. Aristotle, Politics, 1327 a 11 ff.

5. See Iliad, x, where Dolon betrays Troy.

6. See especially his speech, Iliad, xxii. 38-76.

7. Like a puppet on strings.

8. Man alone has luxury: Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 5.

9. Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. v. 45.

Plutarch Bruta animalia ratione uti 6

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

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GRYLLUS.

Current edition Perseus

ΓΡ.

GRYLLUS.

Notes on the current edition

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