--- title: "Whether the Affections of the Soul Are Worse than Those of the Body · Animine an corporis affectiones sint peiores" author: "Plutarch" translator: "Samuel White, rev. William W. Goodwin" languages: [grc, en] shelf: "Philosophy" section: 1 of 1 url: https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-affections-of-soul-and-body/1/ cite: "Plutarch, tr. Samuel White, rev. William W. Goodwin, Whether the Affections of the Soul Are Worse than Those of the Body · Animine an corporis affectiones sint peiores, section 1. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-affections-of-soul-and-body/1/" --- # Whether the Affections of the Soul Are Worse than Those of the Body · Animine an corporis affectiones sint peiores *Plutarch, tr. Samuel White, rev. William W. Goodwin* Sickness of the body can be seen and treated; sickness of the soul hides itself. > Greek: ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit, tlg0007.tlg100, CC BY-SA 4.0). > English: Samuel White, rev. William W. Goodwin, from the Perseus Digital Library (tlg0007.tlg100.perseus-eng4). Notes are not included. > Rows follow the references the two texts share (line numbers), cut where both reach the end of a sentence. ## 1. 2–5 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-affections-of-soul-and-body/1/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-affections-of-soul-and-body/1/#p-N [¶0] HOMER, having contemplated the various kinds of mortal animals, and compared them one with another in respect to their lives and habits, cried out: What wretched creature of what wretched kind, Than man more weak, calamitous, and blind! > Greek: Ὅμηρος μὲν ἐπιβλέψος τὰ θνητὰ τῶν ζῴων γένη καὶ πρὸς ἄλληλα συγκρίνας κατὰ τοὺς βίους καὶ τὰς διαιτήσεις, ἐξεφώνησεν ὡς οὐδέν ἐστιν ὀιζυρώτερον ἀνδρός, [¶1] attributing to man that unhappy primacy of having the superiority in miseries. But we, considering man as having already gained the victory for infelicity, and being publicly declared the most miserable of all animals, will compare him with himself in a contention about his own calamities, not unprofitably but even altogether necessarily dividing his soul from his body; that we may thence learn, whether we live more miserably on account of Fortune or of ourselves. For sickness is indeed, engendered in the body by Nature; but vice and malice in the soul are first its own work, afterward its passion. Now it is of no small advantage towards content of mind, if that which is the worse is curable, and lighter and less violent in its attacks than we feared. The fox in Aesop, disputing with the panther for the superiority in beautiful variety,—when this latter had shown his body, and its superficies curiously stained and spotted, whereas the fox’s tawny skin was ill-favored and unpleasant to the sight,—said thus: “But if you, sir judge, will look within me, you will find me much fuller of variety than this leopard;” manifesting the nimble subtlety of his natural disposition, frequently changing as occasions require. Let us then say also to ourselves: Thy body, O man, naturally of itself breeds many diseases and passions, and many it receives befalling it from without; but if thou shalt open thy interior, thou wilt find a certain various and abundantly furnished storehouse and (as Democritus says) treasury of evils, not flowing into it from abroad, but having as it were their inbred and original springs, which vice, exceedingly affluent and rich in passions, causes to break forth. Now, whereas the diseases in the flesh are discerned by the pulses, and the flushings in the color of the skin, and discovered by unusual heats and sudden pains, and these maladies of the soul lie hid from many who are affected with them; these are therefore worse, as removing from them the sense of the patient. For if the reason is sound, it is sensible of the body’s diseases; but being itself diseased with those of the soul, it has no judgment in what it suffers; for it suffers by what it judges. We ought therefore to account, that the first and greatest of the soul’s diseases is folly, by which vice being rendered incurable cohabits, lives, and dies together with most men. For the beginning of the cure is the sense of the disease, leading the patient to the use of what is helpful; but he who, through his not believing himself sick, is ignorant of his own necessities, though a remedy is presented him, refuses it. For also amongst the diseases of the body, those are indeed the worst which are accompanied with a stupefaction of the senses,—as lethargies, headaches, epilepsies, apoplexies, and those burning fevers which, carrying on the inflammation even to the loss of the wits, and disturbing the senses, as it were in a musical instrument, “move the heart-strings till then untouched.” Wherefore the physicians do in the first place indeed desire that a man should not be sick, and next, that being sick he should not be ignorant that he is so; which nevertheless befalls all the diseases of the soul. For neither those who are mad, those that are lascivious, nor those who act unjustly, think that they sin; nay, some of them are on the contrary persuaded even that they do well. Never yet did any man call a fever health, a consumption a good constitution of body, the gout swift-footedness, or the wanness of the face a fresh color; but many there are who term anger courage, unchaste love amity, envy emulation, and cowardice cautiousness. Moreover, those who are troubled with corporeal sickness send for physicians, for they are sensible what they stand in need of for the cure of their diseases; but these who are sick in mind shun philosophers, because they think themselves to act excellently in those very things in which they most offend. For making use of this reasoning, we affirm that the blearness or soreness of the eyes is a less malady than madness, and the gout in the feet than a frenzy in the brain; for in the one a man is sensible of his distemper, and crying out calls for the physician, to whom, when he is come, he shows his eye to be anointed, stretches out his vein to be opened, and gives up his head to be cured; but on the contrary, you hear Agave, when seized with madness, through the violence of her passion not knowing the dearest pledges of her womb, to cry out: From the hill’s top into the plain, Bring me this young fawn, newly slain, > Greek: πάντων ὅσσα τε γαῖαν ἔπι πνείει τε καὶ ἕρπει πρωτεῖον οὐκ εὐτυχὲς εἰς κακῶν ὑπεροχὴν ἀποδιδοὺς τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ. ἡμεῖς δʼ ὥσπερ ἤδη νικῶντα κακοδαιμονίᾳ τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀθλιώτατον ζῴων ἀνηγορευμένον, αὐτὸν αὑτῷ συγκρίνωμεν, εἰς ἰδίων κακῶν ἀγῶνα σῶμα καὶ ψυχὴν διαιροῦντες οὐκ ἀχρήστως ἀλλὰ καὶ πάνυ δεόντως, ἵνα μάθωμεν πότερον διὰ τὴν τύχην ἢ διʼ ἑαυτοὺς ἀθλιώτερον ζῶμεν. νόσος μὲν γὰρ ἐν σώματι φύεται διὰ φύσιν, κακία δὲ καὶ μοχθηρία περὶ ψυχὴν ἔργον ἐστὶ πρῶτον εἶτα πάθος αὐτῆς. οὐ μικρὸν δὲ πρὸς εὐθυμίαν ὄφελος, ἂν ἰάσιμον τὸ χεῖρον καὶ κουφότερον καὶ ἄσφυκτον. ἡ μὲν οὖν Αἰσώπειος ἀλώπηξ περὶ ποικιλίας δικαζομένη πρὸς τὴν πάρδαλιν, ὡς ἐκείνη τὸ σῶμα καὶ τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν εὐανθῆ καὶ κατάστικτον ἐπεδείξατο, τῇ δʼ ἦν τὸ ξανθὸν αὐχμηρὸν καὶ οὐχ ἡδὺ προσιδεῖν· ἀλλʼ ἐμοῦ τοι τὸ ἐντός ἔφη σκοπῶν, ὦ δικαστά, ποικιλωτέραν με τῆσδʼ ὄψει δηλοῦσα τὴν περὶ τὸ ἦθος εὐτροπίαν ἐπὶ πολλὰ ταῖς χρείαις ἀμειβομένην. λέγωμεν οὖν ἐν ἡμῖν, ὅτι πολλὰ μέν, ὦ ἄνθρωπε, σοὶ καὶ τὸ σῶμα νοσήματα καὶ πάθη φύσει τʼ ἀνίησιν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ προσπίπτοντα δέχεται θύραθεν· ἂν δὲ σαυτὸν ἔνδοθεν ἀνοίξῃς, ποικίλον τι καὶ πολυπαθὲς κακῶν ταμιεῖον εὑρήσεις καὶ θησαύρισμα, ὥς φησι Δημόκριτος, οὐκ ἔξωθεν ἐπιρρεόντων, ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ἐγγείους καὶ αὐτόχθονας πηγὰς ἐχόντων, ἃς ἀνίησιν ἡ κακία πολύχυτος καὶ δαψιλὴς; οὖσα τοῖς πάθεσιν. εἰ δὲ τὰ μὲν ἐν σαρκὶ νοσήματα σφυγμοῖς καὶ ὢχραις ἐρυθαινόμενα φωρᾶται, καὶ θερμότητες αὐτὰ καὶ πόνοι προπετεῖς ἐλέγχουσι, τὰ δʼ ἐν ψυχῇ λανθάνει τοὺς πολλοὺς κακὰ ὄντα, διὰ τοῦτʼ ἐστι κακίω, προσαφαιρούμενα τὴν ἐπʼ αὐτοῖς τοῦ πάσχοντος αἴσθησιν. τῶν μὲν γὰρ περὶ τὸ σῶμα νοσημάτων ἐρρωμένος ὁ λογισμὸς αἰσθάνεται· τοῖς δὲ τῆς ψυχῆς συννοσῶν αὐτὸς οὐκ ἔχει κρίσιν ἐν οἷς πάσχει, πάσχει γὰρ ᾧ κρίνει· καὶ δεῖ τῶν ψυχικῶν πρῶτον καὶ μέγιστον ἀριθμεῖν τὴν ἄνοιαν, διʼ ἧς ἀνήκεστος ἡ κακία τοῖς πολλοῖς συνοικεῖ καὶ συγκαταβιοῖ καὶ συναποθνῄσκει. ἀρχὴ γὰρ ἀπαλλαγῆς νόσου μὲν αἴσθησις εἰς χρείαν ἄγουσα τοῦ βοηθοῦντος τὸ πάσχον ὁ δʼ ἀπιστίᾳ τοῦ νοσεῖν οὐκ εἰδὼς ὧν δεῖται, κἂν παρῇ τὸ θεραπεῦον, ἀρνεῖται. καὶ γὰρ τῶν περὶ τὸ σῶμα νοσημάτων τὰ μετʼ ἀναισθησίας χείρονα, λήθαργοι κεφαλαλγίαι ἐπιληψίαι ἀποπληξίαι· αὐτοί τε πυρετοὶ συντείναντες εἰς παρακοπὴν τὸ φλεγμαῖνον καὶ τὴν αἴσθησιν ὥσπερ ἐν ὀργάνῳ διαταράξαντες κινοῦσι χορδὰς τὰς ἀκινήτους φρενῶν. διὸ παῖδες ἰατρῶν βούλονται μὲν μὴ νοσεῖν τὸν ἄνθρωπον, νοσοῦντα δὲ μὴ ἀγνοεῖν ὅτι νοσεῖ· ὃ τοῖς ψυχικοῖς πάθεσι πᾶσι συμβέβηκεν. οὔτε γὰρ ἀφραίνοντες οὔτʼ ἀσελγαίνοντες οὔτʼ ἀδικοπραγοῦντες ἁμαρτάνειν δοκοῦσιν, ἀλλʼ ἔνιοι καὶ κατορθοῦν. πυρετὸν μὲν γὰρ οὐδεὶς ὑγίειαν ὠνόμασεν οὐδὲ φθίσιν εὐεξίαν οὐδὲ ποδάγραν ποδώκειαν οὐδʼ ὠχρίασιν ἐρύθημα, θυμὸν δὲ πολλοὶ καλοῦσιν ἀνδρείαν καὶ ἔρωτα φιλίαν καὶ φθόνον ἅμιλλαν καὶ δειλίαν ἀσφάλειαν. εἶθʼ οἱ μὲν καλοῦσι τοὺς ἰατρούς, αἰσθάνονται γὰρ ὧν δέονται πρὸς ἃ νοσοῦσιν οἱ δὲ φεύγουσι τοὺς φιλοσόφους, οἴονται γὰρ ἐπιτυγχάνειν ἐν οἷς διαμαρτάνουσιν. ἐπεὶ τούτῳ γε τῷ λόγῳ χρώμενοι λέγομεν, ὅτι κουφότερόν ἐστιν ὀφθαλμία μανίας καὶ ποδάγρα φρενίτιδος. ὁ μὲν γὰρ αἰσθάνεται καὶ καλεῖ τὸν ἰατρὸν κεκραγώς καὶ παρόντι τὴν ὄψιν ἀλεῖψαι παρέχει, τὴν φλέβα τεμεῖν, τὴν κεφαλὴν θεραπεῦσαι παραδίδωσιν τῆς δὲ μαινομένης Ἀγαύης ἀκούεις ὑπὸ τοῦ πάθους τὰ φίλτατʼ ἠγνοηκυίας, ἄγομεν ἐξ ὄρεος ἕλικα νεότομον ἐπὶ μέλαθρα, μακάριον θήραμα. [¶2] Which happily’s become our prey. For he who is sick in body, presently yielding and betaking himself to his bed, lies there quiet, till he is cured; and if the accession of some violent hot fit makes him a little tumble and toss his body, any one of those who are by saying to him, “Lie still at ease, poor wretch, keep in thy bed,” easily stays and retains him; but those, on the other side, who are surprised with the passions of the soul are then most active, then least at quiet; for the impulses of the mind are the principal causes of actions, and passions are the violent fits of such impulses. Wherefore, they suffer not the soul to be at rest; but when a man has most need of patience, silence, and retirement, then is he drawn forth into the light, then is he chiefly discovered by his choleric humors, his eagerness in contending, his dishonest loves, and his heart-breaking sorrows, which force him to commit many irregular actions, and speak many words unfitting for the times. As therefore that storm which hinders a ship from entering into the port is more dangerous than that which suffers it not to sail; so the tempests of the soul are more difficult, which permit not a man to restrain himself, nor to settle his disturbed reason, so that, being without pilot or cables, he is through tumult and deceit hurried headlong by rash and pernicious courses, till he falls into some terrible shipwreck, where he casts away his life. So that also for these reasons it is worse to be sick in the soul than body; for to the one it happens only to suffer, but to the other both to suffer and do amiss. And what need is there to reckon up the greater number of our passions? This very nick of time is a sufficient remembrance. Do you see this vast and promiscuous multitude, here crowding and thrusting each other about the tribunal and forum? They are not assembled to sacrifice to their country Gods, nor to participate together in the sacred ceremonies. They are not come to offer up to Jupiter Ascraeus the first of the Lydian fruits, nor to celebrate the solemnities of Bacchus by the observance of festival nights and common revellings; but a mighty pestilence, as it were by yearly revolutions irritating Asia, drives them hither to manage their processes and suits at law; and a multitude of affairs, as it were of impetuous torrents, fall into one market-place, where they grow hot and are eagerly prosecuted both by those that destroy and by those that are destroyed. Of what fevers, of what agues, are these the effects? What lodgements, what irruptions, what distemperature of heat, what superfusion of humors produces them? Should you ask every suit at law as if it were a man, whence it had its original, whence it proceeded; you would find, that audacious anger generated one, furious obstinacy another, and unjust covetousness a third... > Greek: Καὶ γὰρ ὁ μὲν τῷ σώματι νοσῶν εὐθὺς ἐνδοὺς καὶ καθεὶς εἰς τὸ κλινίδιον ἑαυτὸν ἡσυχίαν ἄγει θεραπευόμενος· ἂν δέ που μικρὸν ἐξᾴξῃ καὶ διασκιρτήσῃ τὸ σῶμα φλεγμονῆς προσπεσούσης, εἰπών τις τῶν παρακαθημένων πράως μένʼ, ὦ ταλαίπωρʼ, ἀτρέμα σοῖς ἐν δεμνίοις ἐπέστησε καὶ κατέσχεν. οἱ δʼ ἐν τοῖς ψυχικοῖς πάθεσιν ὄντες, τότε μάλιστα πράττουσι, τόθʼ ἥκιστα ἡσυχάζουσιν αἱ γὰρ ὁρμαὶ τῶν πράξεων ἀρχή, τὰ δὲ πάθη σφοδρότητες ὁρμῶν. διὸ τὴν ψυχὴν ἠρεμεῖν οὐκ ἐῶσιν, ἀλλʼ ὅτε μάλιστα δεῖται μονῆς καὶ σιωπῆς καὶ ὑποστολῆς ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τότʼ αὐτὸν εἰς ὕπαιθρον ἕλκουσι, τότʼ ἀποκαλύπτουσιν οἱ θυμοὶ αἱ φιλονεικίαι οἱ ἔρωτες αἱ λῦπαι, πολλὰ καὶ δρᾶν ἄνομα καὶ λαλεῖν ἀνάρμοστα τοῖς καιροῖς ἀναγκαζόμενον. ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐπισφαλέστερος χειμὼν τοῦ πλεῖν οὐκ ἐῶντος ὁ κωλύων καθορμίσασθαι· οὕτως οἱ κατὰ ψυχὴν χειμῶνες βαρύτεροι στείλασθαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἐῶντες οὐδʼ ἐπιστῆσαι τεταραγμένον τὸν λογισμόν· ἀλλʼ ἀκυβέρνητος καὶ ἀνερμάτιστος ἐν ταραχῇ καὶ πλάνῃ δρόμοις ὀλεθρίοις καὶ παραφόροις διατραχηλιζόμενος εἴς τι ναυάγιον φοβερὸν ἐξέπεσε καὶ συνέτριψε τὸν ἑαυτοῦ βίον. ὥστε καὶ διὰ ταῦτα καὶ τούτοις χεῖρον νοσεῖν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἢ τοῖς σώμασιν· τοῖς μὲν γὰρ πάσχειν μόνον τοῖς δὲ καὶ πάσχειν καὶ ποιεῖν κακῶς συμβέβηκε. καὶ τί δεῖ τὰ πολλὰ λέγειν τῶν παθῶν, ὧν αὐτὸς ὁ καιρὸς ὑπόμνησίς ἐστιν; ὁρᾶτε τὸν πολὺν καὶ παμμιγῆ τοῦτον τὸν ἐνταῦθα συνηραγμένον καὶ κυκώμενον ὄχλον περὶ τὸ βῆμα καὶ τὴν ἀγοράν; οὐ θύσοντες οὗτοι συνεληλύθασι πατρίοις θεοῖς οὐδʼ ὁμογνίων μεθέξοντες ἱερῶν ἀλλήλοις, οὐκ Ἀσκραίῳ Διὶ Λυδίων καρπῶν ἀπαρχὰς φέροντες οὐδὲ Διονύσῳ βεβακχευμένον θύσθλον ἱεραῖς νυξὶ καὶ κοινοῖς ὀργιάσοντες κώμοις· ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ἐτησίοις περιόδοις ἀκμὴ νοσήματος ἐκτραχύνασα τὴν Ἀσίαν ἐπὶ δίκας καὶ ἀγῶνας ἐμπροθέσμως ἥκουσαν ἐνταῦθα συμβάλλει· καὶ πλῆθος ὥσπερ ῥευμάτων ἀθρόων εἰς μίαν ἐμπέπτωκεν ἀγορὰν καὶ φλεγμαίνει καὶ· συνέρρωγεν ὀλλύντων τε καὶ ὀλλυμένων ποίων ταῦτα πυρετῶν ἔργα ποίων δʼ ἠπιάλων; τίνες ἐνστάσεις ἢ παρεμπτώσεις ἢ δυσκρασία θερμῶν ἢ ὑπέρχυσις ὑγρῶν; ἂν ἑκάστην δίκην ὥσπερ ἄνθρωπον ἀνακρίνῃς πόθεν πέφυκε πόθεν ἥκει, τὴν μὲν θυμὸς αὐθάδης γεγέννηκε τὴν δὲ μανιώδης φιλονεικία τὴν δʼ ἄδικος ἐπιθυμία ….