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On Reading Plutarch's Moralia1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
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So Clerimont in Ben Jonson's The Silent Woman; and it is to be feared he speaks for many. Plutarch's miscellaneous works, commonly and perhaps unfortunately called Moralia, have never enjoyed the popularity of the Lives. Yet they have enormous interest. They are a collection of short works on all kinds of subjects, the record of a life devoted to learning and a heart both generous and devout. Without them we should not only have lost a mass of knowledge, we should also have a different impression of many of the moral, social, and religious attitudes of the ancient world. Besides, as Bernays told Wilamowitz and Wilamowitz told the world, you can't say ‘I know Greek’ until you have read them.
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page 130 note 2 I. i. It is not clear to me whether Truelove's piece of moralizing, which occasions this outburst, is to be found in Plutarch or is simply a take-off of the manner.
page 130 note 3 A collection of 21 moral works, collectively called ἠθικά, formed the first part of the bigger medieval collections, and has given its name to the whole.
page 130 note 4 Recollections, trans. Richards, G. C. (London, 1930), 100.Google Scholar
page 130 note 5 See now Süss, W., Cicero: eine Einführung in seine philosophischen Schriften (Mainz, 1965).Google Scholar
page 130 note 6 Both are correspondents of Pliny. For their careers, see Sherwin-White, A. N. on Pliny, Epp. i. 13 and iv. 15.Google Scholar For the tradition that Plutarch held an official position, see Barrow, R. H., Plutarch and his Times (London, 1967), 45–50.Google Scholar
page 131 note 1 Consolatio ad Uxorem, Mor. 608 A ff.Google ScholarCons, ad Apollonium is spurious—a collection of consolatory τόποι. See, in general, Kassel, R., Untersuchungen zur griechischen und römischen Konsolationsliteratur (Munich, 1958).Google Scholar
page 131 note 2 One can hardly imagine Cicero as a religiously motivated vegetarian, while both Seneca (Ep. 108. 22) and Plutarch (Quaest. Conv. 635 E) report youthful extravagances in this direction.
page 131 note 3 Mor. 464 E ff. Useful commentary by H. Broecker (diss. Bonn, 1954).
page 131 note 4 Barrow's, R. H.Plutarch and his TimesGoogle Scholar offers the only modern survey in English. The approach is different from that which I have tried to sketch in this paper; the book will probably be most useful for its historical information and for the synopses of individual works.
page 132 note 1 These 78 (9 of them discovered after 1296) form the contents of the magnificent codex Parisinus gr. 1672 (E).
page 132 note 2 De liberis educandis; Consolatio ad Apollonium; Regum et Imperatorum Apophthegmata; Apophthegmata Laconica; Parallela Minora; De Fato; Amatoriae Narrationes; Vitae decent oratorum; De placitis philosophorum; De Musica. This list includes some important books: De lib. educ. was an influential source for Renaissance educational theory; de fato is a middle Platonist text of considerable interest, and the last three named are all vital sources of information on their subjects.
page 132 note 3 Moralia viiGoogle Scholar, Fragmenta, ed. Sandbach, F. H., Teubner 1967, pp. xii ff., 1 ff.Google Scholar; Ziegler, K., Plutarchos (1949), 61 ff. (= RE xxi. 2. 697).Google Scholar
page 132 note 4 See now Jones, C. P., JRS lvi (1966), 61 ff.Google Scholar His dating of Consolatio ad uxorem before 96 is far from certain.
page 132 note 5 e.g. in the student reminiscences of Quaest. Conv. ix (= Mor. 736 C-748D).
page 132 note 6 Ziegler, , op. cit. 16 (= RE I.c. 651).Google Scholar
page 132 note 7 ῾Ρουοστικὸς ἐκεῖνος, ὃν ὕστερον ἀπέκτεινε Δομετιανὸς τῇ δόξῃ φθονήσας … ἐπιστολὴν αὐτῷ Καίσαρος … (de curiositate 522 D–EGoogle Scholar). Barrow, , op. cit. 38Google Scholar, draws the different (and even more conjectural) inference that Rusticus was consul at the time! (He may have been consul in 92, see Sherwin-White on Plin., ep.. 1. 5. 2.)
page 133 note 1 For the theory see, e.g., Sinko, T., Symbolae Chronologicae ad scripta Plutarchi et Luciani (Cracow, 1947).Google Scholar
page 133 note 2 Aqua an ignis … (955 D ff.)Google Scholar; animine an corporis … (500 B ff.).Google Scholar
page 133 note 3 e.g. Apuleius (Met. 1. 2) represents his hero Lucius as descended ‘a Plutarcho illo inclito et mox Sexto philosopho nepote eius’. This Sextus was a teacher of M. Aurelius. See further Barrow, , op. cit. 178.Google Scholar
page 133 note 4 Hence semi-popular books like Oakesmith, J., The Religion of Plutarch (1902)Google Scholar; Latzarus, B., Les Idées religieuses de Plutarque (1920).Google Scholar Oakesmith's introductory note reflects a happier age: ‘my thanks are also owing to my colleagues in the Civil Service, especially to those in the General Post Office, London.’
page 133 note 5 Three of the ‘Pythian dialogues’ are in vol. v of the Loeb edition; there is also a convenient school edition of de Pythiae oraculis by Flacelière, R., Collection Érasme; (1962).Google Scholar The fourth (Divine Punishment Delayed, de sera numinis vindicta) and the Socrates dialogue (de genio Socratis) are edited with helpful notes in Loeb vii; The Face in the Moon (de facie in orbe lunae) is edited by H. Cherniss in Loeb xii, with very valuable commentary.
page 133 note 6 Hirzel, R., Plutarch (Leipzig, 1912), 83 ff.Google Scholar Plutarch's influence is clearest in Clement of Alexandria and, later, in St. Basil and the other Cappadocian Fathers.
page 134 note 1 Flacelière, R., op. cit. 4 ff.Google Scholar
page 134 note 2 Parallels with die New Testament are collected in Almquist's, H.Plutarch und das neue Testament (Uppsala, 1946).Google Scholar
page 134 note 3 Also the addressee of Noble Deeds of Women (mulierum virtutes), a collection of stories drawn from Plutarch's historical reading: see Stadter, P. A., Plutarch's historical methods. (Harvard, 1965).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 134 note 4 2. 42.
page 134 note 5 Isis and Osiris 67, 377 F ff.Google Scholar
page 134 note 6 Mor. 164 E–71 E.Google Scholar See P. J. Koets, Δεισιδαιμονία (Purmerend, 1929). Extract with commentary in Wilamowite's Griechisches Lesebuch.
page 134 note 7 Isis and Osiris 379 E.Google Scholar
page 134 note 8 Non posse suaviter … 1104 A ff.Google Scholar: spoken by Theon, a mysterious figure (RE v A 2059–2066), but no doubt here the mouthpiece of Plutarch's own views.
page 135 note 1 See especially Isis and Osiris 25 ff.Google Scholar, de defectu oraculorum 10 ff.Google Scholar; Soury, G., La Démonologie de Plutarque (Paris, 1942).Google Scholar
page 135 note 2 See Flacelière, R.RÉG lvi (1943), 1–40, for Plutarch's various opinions.Google Scholar
page 135 note 3 Works and Days 109 ff.Google Scholar; Empedocles B 24; Sympos. 202 D ff.Google Scholar
page 135 note 4 Heinze, R., Xenokrates (Leipzig, 1892), 78–123.Google Scholar
page 135 note 5 Hani, J., RÉG lxxvii (1964), 489–525, esp. 520 ff.: ‘le mazdéisme … sert … d'étai au platonisme.’Google Scholar
page 135 note 6 See Hirzel, R., op. cit., c. iv: ‘Philanthropie’.Google Scholar
page 136 note 1 e.g. de genio 15 (584 B ff.)Google Scholar; de Pythiae oraculis 3 (395 D ff.).Google Scholar
page 136 note 2 Quaestiones Romanae 47 (276 B).Google Scholar
page 136 note 3 De amicitia 4.Google Scholar Cf. also what Plutarch says (de audiendis poetis 1, 14 Dff.Google Scholar) about Heraclides' Abaris and similar colourful works.
page 137 note 1 Le Sage et son Démon (Paris, 1950), 96.Google Scholar
page 137 note 2 The Book of Love (᾽Ερωτικός, Amatorius: Mar. 748Google Scholar E ff., in Loeb vol. x) is also a mixture of action and discussion: The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men (146 B ff., ed. Defradas, J. [Paris, 1954])Google Scholar reads like an instructive children's book. For the others, see p. 133, note 5.
page 137 note 3 See (e.g.) Wendland, P., Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur (Tübingen, 1912), 39 ff.Google Scholar; Fiske, G. C., Lucilius and Horace (Madison, 1920)Google Scholar; the Introduction to P. Lejay's edition of Horace's Satires.
page 137 note 4 Stobaeus, iii. 1. 98.Google Scholar
page 137 note 5 On this simile, see Barigazzi, F., Favorino di Arelate, pp. 414 ff.Google Scholar; Rudd, N., The Satires of Horace (Cambridge, 1966), 29 with n. 50.Google Scholar
page 138 note 1 Cf. Iliad i. 335Google Scholar: οὔ τί μοι ὔμμες ἐπαίτιοι, ἀλλ' ᾽Αγαμέμνων.
page 138 note 2 Reading παραφερόμενοι (p. 40, 10 Wachsmuth-Hense).
page 140 note 1 Odyssey xxi. 151.Google Scholar
page 140 note 2 περὶ μιμήσεως fr. A. iv (p. 201, 21 Usener—Radermacher).
page 140 note 3 E.N. 1126a5. Cf. Cicero, , Tusc. Disp. 4. 19. 43Google Scholar for a Peripatetic evaluation of anger as of value in exciting courage.
page 140 note 4 Essay lvii, Of Anger.
page 140 note 5 Fragments 21–23 (Wehrli).
page 140 note 6 See Rabbow, P., Die Therapie des Zorns (Leipzig, 1914).Google Scholar
page 140 note 7 Romulus 15Google Scholar, οὔτε μουσῶν οὔτε χαρίτων ἐπιδεὴς ἀνήρ. See also (e.g.) Quaest. Conv. 2. 3, 3. 3; de facie.Google Scholar
page 141 note 1 Cf. De tranquillitate animi 464 E.Google Scholar
page 141 note 2 453 D–E (hellebore; τὰ μὲν ἄλλα … ὁ δὲ θυμός …; the Melanthius quotation). Fuhrmann, M., Les Images de Plutarque (1964)Google Scholar, does not clearly distinguish this type; but see his examples of the μέν … δέ … form (p. 34), e.g. comm. not. 1065 B, tranq. an. 469 A–B.
page 141 note 3 Ep. 3. 11. 5.Google Scholar
page 141 note 4 e.g. Sen. Epp. 74. 19–20Google Scholar; 82. 4–5.
page 142 note 1 Fragm. 22 (Wehrli).
page 142 note 2 de ira 3. 13. 3.Google Scholar
page 142 note 3 Mor. 129 A, 503 A.Google Scholar
page 142 note 4 Iliad v. 215.Google Scholar
page 142 note 5 See Mayor, on Juvenal, 10. 173–84.Google Scholar
page 142 note 6 Same point in another context: Ovid, Ars Amat. iii. 501 ff.Google Scholar: especially ‘vos quoque si media speculum spectetis in ira/cognoscat faciem vix satis ulla suam’ (507–8).
page 143 note 1 457 D; cf. Coriolanus 22.Google Scholar
page 143 note 2 458 B. Zeus Maimaktes and Zeus Meilichios were both honoured in the month Maimakterion: Deubner, L., Attische Feste (Berlin, 1932), 157, 176.Google Scholar
page 143 note 3 Similar reasoning about kindness to animals: Cato Maior 5.Google Scholar
page 144 note 1 Cf. Pericles 1.Google Scholar
page 144 note 2 Meanness might euphemistically (hypocoristically) be called πρόνοια, extravagance ἐλευθριότης, superstition εὐσέβεια. The idea of such revaluations of moral terms is an old one: see, e.g., Thuc. iii. 82, Ar. Rhet. 1367a33.
page 145 note 1 474 D–E.
page 146 note 1 On the lack of altruism in pagan ethics, see now Dihle, A., Realenzyklopädie für Antike und Christentum, s.v. Ethik, 686 f.Google Scholar