Epictetus Discourses 3

George Long (Translator)

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Discourses. Epictetus. George Long (Translator). London. 1890.

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Current edition Perseus

Arrian's Discourses of Epictetus (English) (Epictetus. The Discourses of Epictetus, with the Encheridion and Fragments. Long, George, translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1887.)

Editions (1)
Ἀρριανοῦ τῶν Ἐπικτήτου Διατριβῶν Perseus (Epictetus. Epicteti dissertationes ab Arriano digestae, editio maior. Schenkl, Heinrich. editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1916.) — 3.1 focus
Translations (1)
The Discourses of Epictetus Perseus (Epictetus. The Works of Epictetus, His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments. Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, translator. New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons. 1890.) — 3 focus

Notes on the current edition

Discourses

1. A Pancratiast is a man who is trained for the Pancratium, that is, both for boxing and wrestling. The Pentathlon comprised five exercises, which are expressed by one Greek line,
Leaping, running, the quoit, throwing the Javelin, wrestling.
Compare Aristotle, Rhet. i. 5.
2. (Comp. Horace, Sat. ii. 3, v. 253.
Quacro, faciasne quod olim
Mutatus Polemon? etc.
 The story of Polemon is told by Diogenes Laertius. He was a dissolute youth. As he was passing one day the place where Xenocrates was lecturing, he and his drunken companions burst into the school, but Polemon was so affected by the words of the excellent teacher that he came out quite a different man, and ultimately succeeded Xenocrates in the school of the Academy. See Epict. iv. 11. 30.
3. Laius consulted the oracle at Delphi how he should have children. The oracle told him not to beget children, and even to expose them if he did. Laius was so foolish as to disobey the god in both respects, for he begot children and brought them up. He did indeed order his child Oedipus to be exposed, but the boy was saved and became the murderer of Laius.
4. Plato, Apology, i. 9, etc. and c. 17.
5. i. 2. note 4.
6. Cicero, de Fin. ii. 11: Horace, Epp. i. 10, 12 . This was the great principle of Zeno, to live according to nature. Bishop Butler in the Preface to his Sermons says of this philosophical principle, that virtue consisted in following nature, that it is
a manner of speaking not loose and undeterminate, but clear and distinct, strictly just and true.
7. The bare use of objects (appearances) belongs to all animals; a rational use of them is peculiar to man. Mrs. Carter, Introd. § 7.
8. ὅλον δι’ ὅλων αὐτὸ ποίησον. Wolf proposed an emendation which Schweighaeuser does not put in his text, but he has expressed it in the Latin version. The Greek is intelligible, if we look to what follows.
9. From the Odyssey, i. 37, where Zeus is speaking of Aegisthus.
10. In place of προκόψαντα Schweig. suggests that we should read προκόψοντα: and this is probable.
11. καλὸς καὶ ἀγαθός is the usual Greek expression to signify a perfect man. The Stoics, according to Stobaeus, absurdly called virtue, καλόν ( beautiful), because it naturally calls ( καλεῖ) to itself those who desire it. The Stoics also said that every thing good was beautiful ( καλός), and that the good and the beautiful were equivalent. The Roman expression is Vir bonus et sapiens. (Hor. Epp., i. 7, 22 and 16, 20 ). Perhaps the phrase καλὸς καὶ ἀγαθός arose from the notion of beauty and goodness being the combination of a perfect human being.
12. Antoninus, xi. 37,
as to sensual desire he should altogether keep away from it; and as to avoidance [aversion] he should not show it with respect to any of the things which are not in our power.
13. To point out a man with the middle finger was a way of showing the greatest contempt for him.
14. As to Archedemus, see ii. 4, 11. Απέχεις ἅπαντα: this expression is compared by Upton with Matthew vi. 2, ἀπέχουσι μισθὸν.
15. Wolf suggests οἷος. Crinis was a Stoic philosopher mentioned by Diogenes Laertius. We may suppose that he was no real philosopher, and that he died of fright.
16. See this chapter above.
17.
τοὺς σιφάρους. On this reading the student may consult the note in Schweighaeuser’s edition. The word σιφάρους, if it is the right reading, is not clear; nor the meaning of this conclusion.
The philosopher is represented as being full of anxiety about things which do not concern him, and which are proper subjects for those only who are free from disturbing passions and are quite happy, which i not the philosopher’s condition. He is compared to a sinking ship, and at this very time he is supposed to be employed in the useless labour of hoisting the sails.
18. Comp. i. 19, 11.
19.
Mrs. Carter compares the Epistle to the Romans, vii. 21–23. Schweighaeuser says, the man either sees that the thing which he is doing is bad or unjust, or for any other reason he does not do the thing willingly; but he is compelled, and allows himself to be carried away by the passion which rules him. The another who compels is God, Schweig. says, who has made the nature of man such, that he must postpone every thing else to that thing in which he places his Good: and he adds, that it is man’s fault if he places his good in that thing, in which God has not placed it.
Some persons will not consider this to be satisfactory. The man is compelled and allows himself to be carried away, etc. The notion of compulsion is inconsistent with the exercise of the will. The man is unlucky. He is like him who sees, as the Latin poet says, the better things and approves of them, but follows the worse.
20. See Schweig.’s note on this obscure passage.
21. On preconceptions, see i. 2.
22. Xenophon ( Memorab. i. 6, 14 ); but Epictetus does not quote the words, he only gives the meaning. Antoninus (viii. 43) says,
Different things delight different people. But it is my delight to keep the ruling faculty sound without turning away either from any man or from any of the things which happen to men, but looking at and receiving all with welcome eyes, and using every thing according to its value.
23. Socrates never professed to teach virtue, but by showing himself to be a virtuous man he expected to make his companions virtuous by imitating his example. (Xenophon, Memorab. i. 2, 3 .)
24. Upton explains this passage thus:
He who loves knows what it is to endure all things for love. If any man then being captivated with love for a girl would for her sake endure dangers and even death, what would he not endure if he possessed the love of God, the Universal, the chief of beautiful things?
25. The Greek is κοίνος νοῦς, the Communis sensus of the Romans, and our Common sense. Horace ( Sat. i. 3, 65 ) speaks of a man who
communi sensu plane caret,
one who has not the sense or understanding which is the common property of men.
26. This was a proverb used by Bion, as Diogenes Laertius says. The cheese was new and soft, as the antients used it.
27. Rufus is mentioned i. 1, note 12.
28. The Greek is διορθωτής. The Latin word is Corrector, which occurs in inscriptions, and elsewhere.
29. The Epicureans are ironically named Philosophers, for most of them were arrogant men. See what is said of them in Cicero’s De Natura Deorum, i. 8. Schweig.
30.
Maximus was appointed by Trajan to conduct a campaign against the Parthians, in which he lost his life. Dion Cassius, ii. 1108, 1126, Beimarus.
Cassiope or Cassope is a city in Epirus , near the sea, and between Pandosia and Nicopolis , where Epictetus lived.
31. ψυχικοῖς is Lord Shaftesbury’s emendation in place of ἀγαθοῖς, and it is accepted by Schweighaeuser.
32. Diogenes Laertius (x. 151), quoted by Upton. Injustice, says Epicurus, is not an evil in itself, but the evil is in the fear which there is on account of suspicion.
33. The MSS., with one exception, have δογματίζων τὰ καλὰ, ποιῶν τὰ αἴσχρα, but it was properly corrected by Wolf, as Upton remarks, who shows from Cicero, de Fin., ii. 25 and 31, that the MSS. are wrong. In the second passage Cicero says,
nihil in hae praeclara epistola so, iptum ab Epicuro congruens et conveniens decretis ejus reperietis. Ita redarguitur ipse a sese, vincunturque scripta ejus probitate ipsius ac moribus.
See Epictetus, ii. 18.
34. Upton compares the passage (v. 333) in the Cyclops of Euripides, who speaks like an Epicurean. Not to marry and not to engage public affairs were Epicurean doctrines. See Epictetus, i. 23, 3 and 6
35. The toreutic art is the art of working in metal, stone, or wood, and of making figures on them in relief or by cutting into the material.
36. See Schweig.’s note.
37. See Schweig.’s note.
38. A codicillus is a small codex and the original sense of codex is a strong stem or stump. Lastly it was used for a book, and even for a will. Codicilli were small writing-tablets, covered with wax, on which men wrote with a stylus or pointed metal. Lastly, codicillus is a book or writing generally; and a writing or letter by which the emperor conferred any office. Our word codicil has only one sense, which is a small writing added or subjoined to a will or testament; but this sense is also derived from the Roman use of the word. (Dig. 29, tit. 7, de jure codicillorum.)
39. Upton supposes this to mean, whose bedchamber man are you? and he compares i. 19. But Schweig. says that this is not the meaning here, and that the meaning is this: He who before daybreak is waiting at the door of a rich man, whose favour he seeks, is said in a derisive way to be passing the night before a man’s chamber.
40. See i. 9. 20.
41. See ii. 6. 22, ἄν σοι ποιῆ. Upton.
42. Schweighaeuser says that he does not clearly see what Epictetus means; nor do I.
43. See Schweig.’s note.
44. The Roman word patronus, which at that time had the sense of a protector.
45. On the syllogism named lying ( ψευδόμενος) see Epict. ii. 17. 34.
46. Murrhina vasa were reckoned very precious by the Romans, and they gave great prices for them. It is not certain of what material they were made. Pliny (xxxvii. c. 2) has something about them.
47. M. Antoninus, iii. 13.
As physicians have always their instruments and knives ready for cases which suddenly require their skill, so do thou have principles ( δόγματα) ready for the understanding of things divine and human, and for doing every thing, even the smallest, with a recollection of the bond which unites the divine and human to one another. For neither wilt thou do anything well which pertains to man without at the same time having a reference to things divine; nor the contrary.
48. These verses are from the Golden verses attributed to Pythagoras. See iv. 6. 32.
49. The beginning of a form of prayer, as in Macrobius, Sat. i 17:
namque Vestales Virgines ita indigitant; Apollo Maedice, Apollo Paean.
50. This passage is obscure. See Schweig.’s note here, and also his note on a. 6.
51. εἰ νομίμως ἤθλησας .
St. Paul hath made use of this very expression ἐὰν μὴ νομίμως ἀθλήσῃ, 2 Tim. ii. 3.
Mrs. Carter.
52. The Greek is οὐ φιλολογῶ. See Schweighaeuser’s note.
53. See ii 18, 14.
54. Et quid opus Cratero magnos promittere montes? Persius, iii. 65. Craterus was a physician.
55. Upton compares Matthew, viii. 2.
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
56. Compare M. Antoninus, iv. 48. τᾶς ὀφρῦς ... συσπάσαντες.
57. To this Stoic precept Horace ( Epist. i. 1. 19 ) opposes that of Aristippus.
Et mihi res, non me rebus, subjungere conor.
Both wisely said, if they are rightly taken. Schweig., who refers to i. 12. 17.
58. Lord Shaftesbury proposed to read τὸν ἰατρόν for τὸν ἀδελφόν. But see Schweig.’s note.
59. As to the divine law, see iii. 24. 32, and Xenophon’s Memorabilia, iv. 4. 21, etc. Upton.
60. The poet is Homer. The complete passage is in the Odyssey, xiv. V. 55, etc.
Stranger, I must not, e’en if a worse man come,
Ill treat a stranger, for all come from Zeus,
Strangers and poor.
61.
To set up a palm tree. He does not mean a real palm tree, but something high and upright. The climbers of palm trees are mentioned by Lucian, de Dea Syria (c. 29). Schweigh. has given the true interpretation when he says that on certain feast days in the country a high piece of wood is fixed in the earth and climbed by the most active youths by using only their hands and feet. In England we know what this is.
It is said that Diogenes used to embrace statues when they were covered with snow for the purpose of exercising himself. I suppose bronze statues, not marble which might be easily broken. The man would not remain long in the embrace of a metal statue in winter. But perhaps the story is not true. I have heard of a general, not an English general, setting a soldier on a cold cannon; but it was as a punishment.
62. ἀνατοιχήσω. See the note of Schweighaeuser.
63. This was done for the sake of exercise says Upton; but I don’t understand the passage.
64. There is a like fable in Aesop of the earthen pitcher and the brazen. Upton.
65. The text has ἀσυμμετρίαν. It would be easier to understand the passage, if we read συμμετριάν, as in iv. 1, 84 we have παρὰ τὰ μέτρα. See Schweig.’s note.
66. See i. 26, 18, and iii. 2, 5.
67. Polybius vi. 36.
68. Schweighaeuser refers to Arrian’s Expedition of Alexander (vi. 26) for such an instance of Alexander’s abstinence. There was an Apollonius of Tyana , whose life was written by Philostratus: but it may be that this is not the man who is mentioned here.
69. This was the doctrine of Heraclitus that all things were composed from (had their origin in) fire, and were resolved into it, an opinion afterwards adopted by the Stoics. It is not so extravagant, as it may appear to some persons, to suppose that the earth had a beginning, is in a state of continual change, and will finally be destroyed in some way, and have a new beginning. See Seneca, Ep. 9
cum resolute mundo, diis in unum confusis, paulisper oessante natura, adquiescit sibi Jupiter, cogitationibus suis traditus.
70. The Latin translation is: hoc etiam nonnulli facturum eum in conflagratione mundi . . . . aiunt. But the word is ποιεῖ; and this may mean that the conflagration has happened, and will happen again. The Greek philosophers in their speculations were not troubled with the consideration of time. Even Herodotus (ii. 11), in his speculations on the gulf, which he supposes that the Nile valley was once, speaks of the possibility of it being filled up in 20,000 years, or less. Modern speculators have only recently become bold enough to throw aside the notion of the earth and the other bodies in space being limited by time, as the ignorant have conceived it.
71. See iii. 1, 43.
72.
What a melancholy description of death and how gloomy the ideas in this consolatory chapter! All beings reduced to mere elements in successive conflagrations! A noble contrast to the Stoic notions on this subject may be produced from several passages in the Scripture—
Then shall the dust return to the earth, as it was; and the spirit shall return to God who gave it,
Eccles. xii. 7.
Mrs. Carter; who also refers to 1 Thess. iv. 14; John vi. 39, 40; xi. 25, 26; I Cor. vi. 14; xv. 53; 2 Cor. v. 14 etc.
Mrs. Carter quotes Ecclesiastes, but the author says nearly what Epicharmus said, quoted by Plutarch,
παραμυθ. πρὸς Ἀπολλώνιον
, vol. i. p. 435 ed. Wytt.
συνεκρίθη καὶ διεκρίθη καὶ ἀπῆλθεν ὅθεν ἦλθε πάλιν,
γᾶ μὲν ἐς γᾶν, πνεῦμα δ’ ἄνω τί τῶνδε χαλεπόν; οὐδὲ ἕν.
Euripides in a fragment of the Chrysippus, fr. 836, ed. Nauck, says
τὰ μὲν ἐκ γαίας φύντ’ εἰς γαῖαν,
τὰ δ’ ἀπ’ αἰθερίου βλαστόντα γονῆς
εἰς οὐράνιον πάλιν ἦλθε πόλον.
I have translated the words of Epictetus ὅσον πνευματίου, εἰς πνευμάτιον by of air (spirit), to air: but the πνευμάτιον of Epictetus may mean the same as the πνεῦμα of Epicharmus, and the same as the spirit of Ecclesiastes.
An English commentator says that
the doctrine of a future retribution forms the great basis and the leading truth of this book (Ecclesiastes),
and that
the royal Preacher (Ecclesiastes) brings forward the prospect of a future life and retribution.
I cannot discover any evidence of this assertion in the book. The conclusion is the best part of this ill-connected, obscure and confused book, as it appears in our translation. The conclusion is (xii. 13, 14):
Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man, for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.
This is all that I can discover in the book which can support the commentator’s statement; and even this may not mean what he affirms.
Schweighaeuser observes that here was the opportunity for Epictetus to say something of the immortality of the soul, if he had any thing to say. But he says nothing unless he means to say that the soul, the spirit,
returns to God who gave it
as the Preacher says. There is a passage (iii. 24, 94) which appears to mean that the soul of man after death will be changed into something else, which the universe will require for some use or purpose. It is strange, observes Schweig., that Epictetus, who studied the philosophy of Socrates, and speaks so eloquently of man’s capacity and his duty to God, should say no more: but the explanation may be that he had no doctrine of man’s immortality, in the sense in which that word is now used.
73.
The text has ἀρχομένων, but it probably ought to be ἀρχομένῳ. Compare i. 1, 8, πᾶσα δύναμις ἐπισφαλής .
The text from φέρειν οὖν δεῖ to τῷ φθισικῷ is unintelligible. Lord Shaftesbury says that the passage is not corrupt, and he gives an explanation; but Schweig. says that the learned Englishman’s exposition does not make the text plainer to him; nor does it to me. Schweig. observes that the passage which begins πᾶσα μεγάλη and what follows seem to belong to the next chapter xiv.
74. See Schweig.’s note, and the Latin version
75. All the MSS. have good ( καλοί), which the Critics have properly corrected. As to σκόπει see Schweig.’s note.
76. This section is not easy to translate.
77. Compare Encheiridion 29.
This chapter has a great conformity to Luke xiv. 28 etc. But it is to be observed that Epictetus, both here and elsewhere, supposes some persons incapable of being philosophers; that is, virtuous and pious men: but Christianity requires and enables all to be such.
Mrs. Carter.
The passage in Luke contains a practical lesson, and so far is the same as the teaching of Epictetus: but the conclusion in v. 33 does not appear to be helped by what immediately precedes v. 28–32. The remark that Christianity enables all to be such is not true, unless Mrs. Carter gives to the word enables a meaning which I do not see.
78. The commentators refer us to Paul, 1 Cor. c. 9, 25. Compare Horace, Ars Poetica, 39:
Versate diu quid ferre recusent,
Quid valeant humeri.
79. Wolf thought that the word παρορύσσεσθαι might mean the loss of an eye; but other commentators give the word a different meaning. See Schweigh.’s note.
80. In place of Euphrates the Encheiridion 29 had in the text Socrates, which name the recent editors of the Encheiridion altered to Euphrates , and correctly. The younger Pliny (i. Ep. 10) speaks in high terms of the merits and attractive eloquence of this Syrian philosopher Euphrates, who is mentioned by M. Antoninus (x. 31) and by others.
81. Rufus was a philosopher. See i. 1, i. 9. Galba is the emperor Galba, who was murdered. The meaning of the passage is rather obscure, and it is evident that it does not belong to this chapter. Lord Shaftesbury remarks that this passage perhaps belongs to chapter 11 or 14, or perhaps to the end of chapter 17.
82. The word is σικχᾶναι. See Antoninus v. 9.
83. Upton suggests that Sura may be Palfurius (Juvenal, iv. 53), or Palfurius Sura (Suetonius, Domitian, c. 13 ).
84. See Schweig.’s note.
85. Compare iii. 5. 4.
86. I have not followed Schweighaeuser’s text here. See his note.
87. The original is θεωρητικῶν φαντασιῶν, which is translated in the Latin version visa theoretica, but this does not help us. Perhaps the author means any appearances which are presented to us either by the eyes or by the understanding; but I am not sure what he means. It is said in the Index Graecitatis (Schweig.’s ed.):
φαντασίαι θεωρητικαί, notiones theoretical, iii. 20. 1, quibus opponuntur Practicae ad vitam regendam spectantes.
88.
Menoeceus, the son of Creon, gave up his life by which he would save his country, as it was declared by an oracle. (Cicero, Tuscul. i. e. 48.) Juvenal (Sat. xiv. 238) says
Quarum Amor in te
Quantus erat patriae Declorum in pectore; quantum
Dilexit Thebas, si Graecia vera, Menoeceus.
Euripides, Phoenissae, v. 913.
89. See Schweig.’s note.
90. The father of Admetus was Phe es (Euripides, Alcestis)
91. The meaning is not clear, if we follow the original text. Schweig. cannot see the sense with both hands in the Greek, nor can I. He also says that in the words ἆρον ὑπὲρ ἀμφοτέρας unless some masculine noun is understood which is not expressed, ἐκεῖνος must be referred to the aliptes; and he translates βαρύτερος by severior.
92. Mrs. Carter quotes the epistle to the Romans (viii. 28):
and we snow that all things work together for good to them that love God
; but she quotes only the first part of the verse and omits the conclusion,
to them who are the called according to his purpose.
93. See Schweig.’s note.
94. ἀναρχίας; see iv. 4, 2 and 23.
95. Some abusive fellow, known to some of the hearers of Epictetus. We ought perhaps to understand the words as if it were said, each of you ought to say to himself, Good luck to Lesbius etc. Schweig.’s note.
96. The practical teaching of the Stoics is contained in iii. c. 7, and it is good and wise. A modern writer says of modern practice:
If we open our eyes and if we will honestly acknowledge to ourselves what we discover, we shall be compelled to confess that all the life and efforts of the civilized people of our times is founded on a view of the world, which is directly opposed to the view of the world which Jesus had
(Strauss, Der alte und der neue Glaube, p. 74).
97. Cicero (Academ. Prior. ii. 47) names Antipater and Archedemus (Archedemus) the chief of dialecticians, and also
opiniosissimi homines.
98. This passage is one of those which show the great good sense of Epictetus in the matter of education; and some other remarks to the same effect follow in this chapter. A man might justly say that we have no clear notion of the purpose of education. A modern writer, who seems to belong to the school of Epictetus says:
it cannot be denied that in all schools of all kinds it ought to be the first and the chief object to make children healthy, good, honest, and, if possible, sensible men and women; and if this is not done in a reasonable degree, I maintain that the education of these schools is good for nothing—I do not propose to make children good and honest and wise by precepts and dogmas and preaching, as you will see. They must be made good and wise by a cultivation of the understanding, by the practice of the discipline necessary for that purpose, and by the example of him who governs, directs and instructs.
Further,
my men and women teachers have something which the others have not: they have a purpose, an end in their system of education; and what is education? What is human life without some purpose or end which may be attained by industry, order and the exercise of moderate abilities? Great abilities are rare, and they are often accompanied by qualities which make the abilities useless to him who has them, and even injurious to society.
99. There was a great temple of Demeter (Ceres) at Eleusis in Attica , and solemn mysteries, and an Hierophant or conductor of the ceremonies.
100. See the note of T. Burnet, De Fide et Officiis Christianorum, Ed. Sec. p. 89.
101. The reader, who has an inclination to compare religious forms antient and modern, may find something in modern practice to which the words of Epictetus are applicable.
102.
This is a view of the fitness of a teacher which, as far as I know, is quite new; and it is also true. Perhaps there was some vague notion of this kind in modern Europe at the time when teachers of youths were only priests, and when it was supposed that their fitness for the office of teacher was secured by their fitness for the office of priest. In the present Ordering of Deacons in the Church of England , the person, who is proposed as a fit person to be a deacon, is asked the following question by the bishop: Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this office and ministration to serve God for the promotion of his glory and the edifying of his people. In the ordering of Priests this question is omitted, and another question only is put, which is used also in the ordering of Deacons; Do you think in your heart that you be truly called, according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ etc. The teacher ought to have God to advise him to occupy the office of teacher, as Epictetus says. He does not say how God will advise: perhaps he supposed that this advice might be given in the way in which Socrates said that he received it.
Wisdom perhaps is not enough to enable a man to take care of youths. Whatever wisdom may mean, it is true that a teacher should have a fitness and liking for the business. If he has not, he will find it disagreeable, and he will not do it well. He may and ought to gain a reasonable living by his labour: if he seeks only money and wealth, he is on the wrong track, and he is only like a common dealer in buying and selling, a butcher or a shoemaker, or a tailor, all useful members of society and all of them necessary in their several kinds. But the teacher has a priestly office, the making, as far as it is possible, children into good men and women. Should he be ordered like a Deacon or a Priest, for his office is even more useful than that of Priest or Deacon? Some will say that this is ridiculous. Perhaps the wise will not think so.
103. See the description of Thersites in the Iliad, ii. 212.
104. The office which in our times corresponds to this description of the Cynic, is the office of a teacher of religion.
105. See i. 24, note.*
106.
Quod petis hic est,
Eat Ulubris, animus si te non deficit aequus.
Horace, Ep. i. 11, 30.
Willst du immer weiter schweifen?
Sieh, das Gute liegt so nah.
Lerne nur das Glück ergreifen,
Denn das Glück ist immer da.
Goethe, Gedichte.
107. These men are supposed to have been strong gladiators. Oroesus is the rich king of Lydia, who was taken prisoner by Cyrus the Persian.
108. Man then is supposed to consist of a soul and of a body. It may be useful to remember this when we are explaining other passages in Epictetus
109.
It is observable that Epictetus seems to think it a necessary qualification in a teacher sent from God for the instruction of mankind to be destitute of all external advantages and a suffering character. Thus doth this excellent man, who had carried human reason to so great a height, bear testimony to the propriety of that method which the divine wisdom hath thought fit to follow in the scheme of the Gospel; whose great author had not where to lay his head; and which some in later ages have inconsiderately urged as an argument against the Christian religion. The infinite disparity between the proposal of the example of Diogenes in Epictetus and of our Redeemer in the New Testament is too obvious to need any enlargement.
Mrs. Carter.
110. Some of the antients, who called themselves philosophers, did blame God and his administration of the world; and there are men who do the same now. If a man is dissatisfied with the condition of the world, he has the power of going out of it, as Epictetus often says; and if he knows, as he must know, that he cannot alter the nature of man and the conditions of human life, he may think it wise to withdraw from a state of things with which he is not satisfied. If he believes that there is no God, he is at liberty to do what he thinks best for himself; and if he does believe that there is a God, he may still think that his power of quitting the world is a power which he may exercise when he chooses. Many persons commit suicide, not because they are dissatisfied with the state of the world, but for other reasons. I have not yet heard of a modern philosopher who found fault with the condition of human things, and voluntarily retired from life. Our philosophers live as long as they can, and some of them take care of themselves and of all that they possess; they even provide well for the comfort of those whom they leave behind them. The conclusion seems to be that they prefer living in this world to leaving it, that their complaints are idle talk; and that being men of weak minds, and great vanity they assume the philosopher’s name, and while they try to make others as dissatisfied as they profess themselves to be, they are really enjoying themselves after their fashion as much as they can. These men, though they may have the means of living with as much comfort as the conditions of human life permit, are dissatisfied, and they would, if they could, make as dissatisfied as themselves those who have less means or making life tolerable. These grumblers are not the men who give their money or their labour or their lives for increasing the happiness of mankind and diminishing the unavoidable sufferings of human life; but they find it easier to blame God, when they believe in him; or to find fault with things as they are, which is more absurd, when they do not believe in God, and when they ought to make the best that they can of the conditions under which we live.
111. The text is εἰκῆ ἐξελθόντα. Meibomius suggested εἰσελθόντα in place of ἐξελθόντα: Schweig. appears to prefer εἰσελθόντα, and I have translated this word in the version. I think that there is no doubt about the emendation.
112.
E caelo descendit γνῶθι σεαυτόν
Juvenal xi. 27 . The expression Know thyself is attributed to several persons, and to Socrates among them. Self-knowledge is one of the most difficult kinds of knowledge; and no man has it completely. Men either estimate their powers too highly, and this is named vanity, self conceit or arrogance; or they think too meanly of their powers and do not accomplish what they might accomplish, if they had reasonable self confidence.
113.
Compare this with the Christian precepts of forbearance and love to enemies, Matthew v. 39–44. The reader will observe that Christ specifies higher injuries and provocations than Epictetus doth; and requires of all his followers, what Epictetus describes only as the duty of one or two extraordinary persons, as such.
Mrs. Carter.
114. Upton quotes Hieronymus lib. ii. adversus Jovianum, where the thing is told in a different way.
115. I have not translated, because I do not understand, the words δτι κατηγορεῖ. See Schweig.’s note.
116. This must be the meaning. Meibomius suggested that the true reading is Κυνικοῦ, and not Κυνικόν: and Schweig. seems to be of the same mind. I have repeated the word Cynic several times to remove all ambiguity in this section.
117. See Schweig.’s note on ὥστε ἄν σοι δοκῇ.
118. The Stoics recommended marriage, the procreation of children, the discharge of magisterial offices, and the duties of social life generally.
119.
It is remarkable that Epictetus here uses the same word ( ἀπερισπάστως) with St. Paul, 1 Cor. vii. 35, and urges the same consideration, of applying wholly to the service of God, to dissuade from marriage. His observation too that the state of things was then ( ὡς ἐν παρατάξει) like that of an army prepared for battle, nearly resembles the Apostle’s ( ἐνεστῶσα ἀνάγκη) present necessity. St. Paul says 2 Tim. ii. 4 (
οὐδεὶς στρατευόμενος ἐμπλέκεται
etc.) no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of life. So Epictetus says here that a Cynic must not be ( ἐμπεπλεγμένον) in relations etc. From these and many other passages of Epictetus one would be inclined to think that he was not unacquainted with St. Paul’s Epistles or that he had heard something of the Christian doctrine.
Mrs. Carter.
I do not find any evidence of Epictetus being acquainted with the Epistles of Paul. It is possible that he had heard something of the Christian doctrine, but I have not observed any evidence of the fact. Epictetus and Paul have not the same opinion about marriage, for Paul says that
if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.
Accordingly his doctrine is
to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
He does not directly say what a man should do when he is not able to maintain a wife; but the inference is plain what he will do (I Cor. vii. 2). Paul’s view of marriage differs from that of Epictetus, who recommends marriage. Paul does not: he writes,
I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.
He does not acknowledge marriage and the begetting of children as a duty; which Epictetus did.
In the present condition of the world Epictetus says that the minister of God should not marry, because the cares of a family would distract him and make him unable to discharge his duties. There is sound sense in this. A minister of God should not be distracted by the cares of a family, especially if he is poor.
120. The word is ἀνάτεινον. Compare ii. 17, 9.
121. In the text it is γραφεῖα , τιλλάρια. It is probable that there should be only one word. See Schweig.’s note. Horace ( Sat. i. 6. 73 ) speaks of boys going to school
Laevo suspensi loculos tabulamque lacerto.
122. The wife of Crates was Hipparchia, who persisted against all advice in marrying Crates and lived with him exactly as he lived. Diogenes Laertius, vi. 96. Upton.
123. There is some difficulty about ἀπερισπάστων here. Upton proposed to write ἀπεριστάτων, which he explains that which has nothing peculiar in it.
124. Schweig. translates κακορυγχα
male grunnientes
: perhaps it means ugly-faced.
125. Diogenes Laertius, vi. 42.
126. The Cynic is in Epictetus the minister of religion. He must be pure, for otherwise how can he reprove vice? This is a useful lesson to those whose business it is to correct the vices of mankind.
127. See ii. 23, 42, note.
128. This is quoted by M. Antoninus, xi. 36.
129. Epictetus in an amusing manner touches on the practice of Sophists, Rhetoricians, and others, who made addresses only to get praise. This practice of reciting prose or verse compositions was common in the time of Epictetus, as we may learn from the letters of the younger Pliny, Juvenal, Martial, and the author of the treatise de Causis corruptae eloqwuntiae. Upton.
130. Such were the subjects which the literary men of the day de. lighted in.
131. Dion of Prusa in Bithynia was named Chrysostomus (golden-mouthed) because of his eloquence. He was a rhetorician and sophist, as the term was then understood, and was living at the same time as Epictetus. Eighty of his orations written in Greek are still extant, and some fragments of fifteen.
132. These words are the beginning of Xenophon’s Memorabilia, i. 1. The small critics disputed whether the text should be τίσι λόγοις, or τίνι λόγῳ.
133. From the Crito of Plato, c. 6.
134. The rich, says Upton, used to lend their houses for recitations, as we learn from Pliny, Ep. viii. 12 and Juvenal, vii. 40.
Si dulcedine famae
Succensus recites, maculosas commodat aedes.
Quadratus is a Roman name. There appears to be a confusion between Socrates and Quadratus. The man says, No. Socrates would not do so: but he would do, as a man might do now. He would say on the road; I hope you will come to hear me. I don’t find anything in the notes on this passage; but it requires explanation.
135. κατηγορία is one of Aristotle’s common terms.
136. From Plato’s Apology of Socrates.
137. Aulus Gellius v. 1 . Seneca, Ep. 52. Upton.
138. Cicero, de Officiis i. 18:
Quae magno animo et fortiter excellenterque gesta sunt, ea nescio quomodo pleniore ore laudamus. Hino Rhetorum campus de Marathone, Salamine, Plataeis, Thermopylis, Leuctria.
139. See Schweig.’s note.
140. See ii. 5, 26.
141. See iii. 13. 15.
142. Homer, Odyssey i. 3.
143. Odyssey, xvii. 487.
144. ἀπέχειν. See iii. 2, 13. Paul to the Philippians, iv. 18.
145. Suetonius ( Claudius, 25 ) says:
Peregrinae conditionis homines vetuit usurpare Romana nomina, duntaxat gentilia. Civitatem Romanam usurpantes in campo Esquilino securi percussit.
Upton.
146. This is a denunciation of the hypocrite.
147. Pity perhaps means that he will suffer the perturbation of pity, when he ought not to feel it. I am not sure about the exact meaning.
148.
What follows hath no connection with what immediately preceded; but belongs to the general subject of the chapter.
Mrs. Carter.
The person with whom Epictetus chiefly held this discourse, seems to have been instructed by his friends to pay his respects to some great man at Nicopolis (perhaps the procurator, iii. 4. 1) and to visit his house.
Schweig.
149. The reward of virtue is in the acts of virtue. The Stoics taught that virtue is its own reward. When I was a boy I have written this in copies, but I did not know what it meant. I know now that few people believe it; and like the man here, they inquire what reward they shall have for doing as they ought to do. A man of common sense would give no other answer than what Epictetus gives. But that will not satisfy all. The heathens must give the answer:
For what more dost thou want when thou hast done a man a service? Art thou not content that thou hast done something conformable to thy nature, and dost thou seek to be paid for it? just as if the eye demanded a recompense for seeing or the feet for walking.
M. Antoninus. ix. 42. Compare Seneca, de Vita Beata, c. 9.
150. It was the custom at Athens when the court (the dicasts) had determined to convict an accused person, in some cases at least, to ask him what penalty he proposed to be inflicted on himself; but Socrates refused to do this or to allow his friends to do it, for he said that to name the penalty was the same as admitting his guilt (Xenophon, Apologia, 23 ). Socrates said that if he did name a proper penalty for himself, it would be that he should daily be allowed to dine in the Prytaneium (Plato, Apology, c. 26; Cicero, De Oratore, i. 54).
151. The character of Diogenes is described very differently by Epictetus from that which we read in common books.
152. A people in Thessaly between the river Peneius and Mount Olympus. It is the same as if Epictetus had said to any remote country.
153. On the word καρπιστήν see the notes in Schweig.’s edition. The word is supposed to be formed from καρπίς, καρφίς, festuca.
154. Μεταπίπτοντας. See i. 7.
155. This is an old practice, to go about and sell physic to people. Cicero ( Pro Cluentio, c. 14 ) speaks of such a quack (pharmacopola), who would do a poisoning job for a proper sum of money. I have seen. a travelling doctor in France who went about in a cart, and rang a bell, at the sound of which people came round him. Some who were deaf had stuff poured into their ears, paid their money, and made way for others who had other complaints.
156. It was the custom in Roman triumphs for a slave to stand behind the triumphant general in his chariot and to remind him that he was still mortal. Juvenal, x. 41.
157. Compare Antoninus xi. 33 and 34.
158. Marcus Antoninus, xi. 35. Compare Epict., iii. 13, 14, and iv. 7. 75.
159. Upton altered the text οὐκέτι οὖν ἔσομαι; Οὐκ ἔσῃ ἀλλ’ ἄλλο τι, οὗ νῦν ὁ κόσμος χρείαν ἔχει, into οὔκετι οὖν ἔσομαι; Ἔσῃ ἀλλ’ ἄλλο τι, οὗ νῦν ὁ κόσμος χρείαν οὐκ ἔχει. He says that he made the alteration without MS. authority, but that the sense requires the change. Schweighaeuser does not accept the alteration, nor do L Schweig. remarks that there may be some difficulty in the words οὗ νῦν ὁ κόσμος χρείαν ἔχει. He first supposes that the word now ( νῦν) means after a man’s death; but next he suggests that ἄλλο τι οὗ means something different from that of which the world has now need. A reader might not discover that there is any difficulty. He might also suggest that νῦν ought to be omitted, for if it were omitted, the sense would be still plainer. See iii. 13. 15, and iv. 7. 15.
160.
I am not sure if Epictetus ever uses κόσμος in the sense of Universe, the universum of philosophers. I think he sometimes uses it in the common sense of the world, the earth and all that is on it. Epictetus appears to teach that when a man dies, his existence is terminated. The body is resolved into the elements of which it is formed, and these elements are employed for other purposes. Consistently with this doctrine he may have supposed that the powers, which we call rational and intellectual, exist in man by virtue only of the organisation of his brain which is superior to that of all other animals; and that what we name the soul has no existence independent of the body. It was an old Greek hypothesis that at death the body returned to earth from which it came, and the soul ( πνεῦμα) returned to the regions above, from which it came. I cannot discover any passage in Epictetus in which the doctrine is taught that the soul has an existence independent of the body. The opinions of Marcus Antoninus on this matter are contained in his book, iv. 14, 21, and perhaps elsewhere: but they are rather obscure. A recent writer has attempted to settle the question of the existence of departed souls by affirming that we can find no place for them either in heaven or in hell; for the modern scientific notion, as I suppose that it must be named, does not admit the conception of a place heaven or a place hell (Strauss, Der Alte und der Neue Glaube, p. 129).
We may name Paul a contemporary of Epictetus, for though Epictetus may have been the younger, he was living at Rome during Nero’s reign (A. D. 54–68); and it is affirmed, whether correctly or not, I do not undertake to say, that Paul wrote from Ephesus his first epistle to the Corinthians (Cor. i. 16, 8) in the beginning of A. D. 56. Epictetus, it is said, lived in Rome till the time of the expulsion of the philosophers by Domitian, when he retired to Nicopolis an old man, and taught there. Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians (c. 15) contains his doctrine of the resurrection, which is accepted, I believe, by all, or nearly all, if there are any exceptions, who profess the Christian faith: but it is not understood by all in the same way.
Paul teaches that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried and rose again on the third day; and that after his resurrection he was seen by many persons. Then he asks, if Christ rose from the dead, how can some say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen
(v. 13); and (v. 19),
if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
But he affirms again (v. 20) that
Christ is risen and become the first fruits of them that slept.
In v. 32, he asks what advantages he has from his struggles in Ephesus,
if the dead rise not: let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.
He seems not to admit the value of life, if there is no resurrection of the dead; and he seems to say that we shall seek or ought to seek only the pleasures of sense, because life is short, if we do not believe in a resurrection of the dead. It may be added that there is not any direct assertion in this chapter that Christ ascended to heaven in a bodily form, or that he ascended to heaven in any way. He then says (v. 35),
But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come.
He answers this question (v. 36),
Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die
: and he adds that
God giveth it (the seed) a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
We all know that the body, which is produced from the seed, is not the body
that shall be.
and we also know that the seed which is sown does not die, and that if the seed died, no body would be produced from such seed. His conclusion is that the dead
is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body
( σῶμα πνευματικόν). I believe that the commentators do not agree about this spiritual body: but it seems plain that Paul did not teach that the body which will rise will be the same as the body which is buried. He says (v. 50) that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
Yet in the Apostles’ Creed we pronounce our belief in the resurrection of the body: but in the Nicene Creed it is said we look for the resurrection of the dead, which is a different thing or may have a different meaning from the resurrection of the body. In the ministration of baptism to such as are of riper years, the person to be baptized is asked Dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty, etc. in the terms of the Church Creeds, but in place of the resurrection of the body or of the dead, he is asked if he believes in the resurrection of the flesh.
The various opinions of divines of the English church on the resurrection of the body are stated by A. Clissold in the Practical Nature of the Theological Writings of E. Swedenborg in a letter to Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, 1859, 2nd ed.
161. Seneca de Consol. ad Pol. c. 30; Cicero, Tuscul. Disp. iii. 13.
162. Compare i. 12. 2, ii. 14. 11, iii. 26. 28.
Compare this with the description of the universal care of Providence, Matthew, x. 29, 30, and the occasion on which it was produced.
Mrs. Carter.
163. See i. 19. 19.
164. On the strange words ὀρδινατίων and ὀπτικίοις, which occur in this sentence, see the notes in Schweighaeuser’s edition.
165. Compare iii. 15, 4.
166. These games were celebrated once in four years.
167.
All the circuit of the games means the circuit of the Pythian, Isthmian, Nemean, and Olympic games. A man who had contended in these four games victoriously was named Periodonices, or Periodeutes. Upton.
The Greeks used to put quails in a cockpit, as those who are old enough may remember that we used to put game cocks to fight with one another. Schweighaeuser describes a way of trying the courage of these quails from Pollux (ix. 109); but I suppose that the birds fought also with one another.
168. Upton supposed that the words Αλλ’ οὐχ ὅμοιον . . . . to κακῶς ἐνεργῆσαι, in the translation, But the one case is not, . . . to fly from evil acts, are said by the adversary of Epictetus, and Mrs. Carter has followed Upton in the translation. But then there is no sense in the last sentence Οἱ πόνοι ἄρα etc., in the translation, sufferings then etc. The reader may consult Schweighaeuser’s note. I suppose that Epictetus is speaking the words But the one case etc. to the end of the chapter. The adversary, who is not punished like a slave, and has no pains to remind him of his faults, is supposed so far not to have felt the consequences of his bad acts; but Epictetus concludes that sufferings of a painful character would be useful to him, as they are to all persons who do what they ought not to do. There is perhaps some difficulty in the word πειρατηρίων. But I think that Schweig. has correctly explained the passage.
169.
Compare this chapter with the beautiful and affecting discourses of our Saviour on the same subject, Matthew vi. 25–34; Luke xii. 22–30.
Mrs. Carter. The first verse of Matthew begins,
Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink
etc. No Christian literally follows the advice of this and the following verses, and he would be condemned by the judgment of all men if he did.
170. It is very absurd to suppose that no fugitive slave ever died of hunger. How could Epictetus know that?
171. He supposes that the man who is dying of hunger has also wife and children, who will suffer the same dreadful end. The consolation, if it is any, is that the rich and luxurious and kings will also die. The fact is true. Death is the lot of all. But a painful death by hunger cannot be alleviated by a man knowing that all must die in some way. It seems as if the philosopher expected that even women and children should be philosophers, and that the husband in his philosophy should calmly contemplate the death of wife and children by starvation. This is an example of the absurdity t? which even a wise man carried his philosophy; and it is unworthy of the teacher’s general good sense.
172. We see many old beggars who endure what others could not endure; but they all die at last, and would have died earlier if their beggar life had begun sooner. The living in the open air and wandering about help them to last longer; but the exposure to cold and wet and to the want of food hastens their end. The life of a poor old beggar is neither so long nor so comfortable as that of a man, who has a good home and sufficient food, and lives with moderation.
173. See iii. c. 2.
174. Plato using the same simile
teaches that last of all disciplines dialectic ought to be learned.
Schweighaeuser.
175. ἀποσαλεύεσθαι. Paul, Ep. to the Thessalonians (ii. 2. 2) has
εἰς τὸ μὴ ταχέως σαλευθῆναι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ νοός
. Upton.
176. This is good advice. When you propose to measure, to estimate things, you should first tell us what the things are before you attempt to fix their value; and what is the measure or scales that you use.
177. Cleanthes, the successor of Zeno in his school, was a great example of the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties: during the night he used to draw water from the wells for the use of the gardens: during the day he employed himself in his studies. He was the author of a noble hymn to Zeus, which is extant,
178. It seems strange that Epictetus should make such assertions when we know that they are not true. Shortly after he himself speaks even of the good man not being supplied with food by God.
179. See i. 29. 29.
180. The word is ἐπευφημῶν. Compare ἐπευφήμησαν, Homer, Iliac i. 22.
181. See i. 16. 15.
182.
Compare Hebrews xi. and xii., in which the Apostle and Philosopher reason in nearly the same manner and even use the same terms; but how superior is the example urged by the Apostle to Hercules and Ulysses.
Mrs. Carter.
183. The story of Ulysses asking Nausicaa and her maids for help when he was cast naked on the land is in the Odyssey vi. 127.
184. Manes is a slave’s name. Diogenes had a slave named Manes, his only slave, who ran away, and though Diogenes was informed where the slave was, he did not think it worth while to have him brought back. He said, it would be a shame if Manes could live without Diogenes, and Diogenes could not live without Manes