--- title: "On Envy and Hate · De invidia et odio" author: "Plutarch" translator: "P. Lancaster, rev. William W. Goodwin" languages: [grc, en] shelf: "Philosophy" url: https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-envy-and-hate/ cite: "Plutarch, tr. P. Lancaster, rev. William W. Goodwin, On Envy and Hate · De invidia et odio. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-envy-and-hate/" --- # On Envy and Hate · De invidia et odio *Plutarch, tr. P. Lancaster, rev. William W. Goodwin* How envy differs from hatred. > Greek: ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit, tlg0007.tlg105, CC BY-SA 4.0). > English: P. Lancaster, rev. William W. Goodwin, from the Perseus Digital Library (tlg0007.tlg105.perseus-eng2). Notes are not included. > Rows follow the references the two texts share (chapters and sections), cut where both reach the end of a sentence. ## Contents 1. [Sections 1–8](https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-envy-and-hate/1.md) ## 1. Sections 1–8 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-envy-and-hate/1/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/plutarch-envy-and-hate/1/#p-N [¶0] 1. Envy and hatred are passions so like each other that they are often taken for the same. And generally, vice has (as it were) many hooks, whereby it gives unto those passions that hang thereto many opportunities to be twisted and entangled with one another; for as differing diseases of the body agree in many like causes and effects, so do the disturbance of the mind. He who is in prosperity is equally an occasion of grief to the envious and to the malicious man; therefore we look upon benevolence, which is a willing our neighbor’s good, as an opposite to both envy and hatred, and fancy these two to be the same because they have a contrary purpose to that of love. But their resemblances make them not so much one as their unlikeness makes them distinct. Therefore we endeavor to describe each of them apart, beginning at the original of either passion. > Greek: 1. οὕτω δὴ καὶ δοκεῖ μηθὲν τοῦ μίσους διαφέρειν ὁ φθόνος ἀλλʼ ὁ αὐτὸς εἶναι. καθόλου μὲν γὰρ ὥσπερ πολυάγκιστρον ἡ κακία τοῖς ἐξηρτημένοις αὐτῆς πάθεσι κινουμένη δεῦρο κἀκεῖσε πολλὰς πρὸς ἄλληλα συναφὰς καὶ περιπλοκὰς ἐνδίδωσι ταῦτα δʼ ὥσπερ νοσήματα συμπαθεῖ ταῖς ἀλλήλων φλεγμοναῖς. ὁ γὰρ εὐτυχῶν ὁμοίως καὶ τὸν μισοῦντα λυπεῖ καὶ τὸν φθονοῦντα. διὸ καὶ τὴν εὔνοιαν ἀμφοτέροις νομίζομεν ἀντικεῖσθαι, βούλησιν οὖσαν ἀγαθῶν τοῖς πλησίον· καὶ τῷ μισεῖν τὸ φθονεῖν ταὐτὸν εἶναι, ὅτι τὴν ἐναντίαν τῷ φιλεῖν ἔχει προαίρεσιν. ἐπεὶ δʼ οὐχ οὕτω ταὐτὸν αἱ ὁμοιότητες ὡς ἕτερον αἱ διαφοραὶ ποιοῦσι, κατὰ ταύτας ζητοῦμεν ἑὰν μεταδιώξωμεν, ἀπὸ τῆς γενέσεως ἀρξάμενοι τῶν παθῶν. [¶1] 2. Hatred proceeds from an opinion that the person we hate is evil, if not generally so, at least in particular to us. For they who think themselves injured are apt to hate the author of their wrong; yea, even those who are reputed injurious or malicious to others than ourselves we usually nauseate and abhor. But envy has only one sort of object, the felicity of others. Whence it becomes infinite, and, like an evil or diseased eye, is offended with every thing that is bright. On the other hand, hatred is always determined by the subject it adheres to. > Greek: 2. γεννᾶται τοίνυν τὸ μῖσος ἐκ φαντασίας τοῦ ὅτι πονηρὸς ἢ κοινῶς ἢ πρὸς αὐτόν ἐστιν ὁ μισούμενος· καὶ γὰρ ἀδικεῖσθαι δόξαντες αὐτοὶ πεφύκασι μισεῖν, καὶ τοὺς ἄλλως ἀδικητικοὺς ἢ πονηροὺς προβάλλονται καὶ δυσχεραίνουσι φθονοῦσι δʼ ἁπλῶς τοῖς εὖ πράττειν δοκοῦσιν. ὅθεν ἔοικεν ὁ μὲν φθόνος ἀόριστος εἶναι, καθάπερ ὀφθαλμία πρὸς ἅπαν τὸ λαμπρὸν ἐκταρασσόμενος· τὸ δὲ μῖσος ὥρισται καθʼ ὑποκειμένων ἀεί τινων ἀπερειδόμενον πρὸς αὐτόν. [¶2] 3. Secondly, hatred may be conceived even against brutes; for there are some men who have an antipathy to cats or beetles or toads or serpents. Germanicus could endure neither the crowing nor the sight of a cock; and the Persian Magi were killers of mice, as creatures which they both hated themselves and accounted odious to God. In like manner also all the Arabians and Ethiopians abhor them. But envy is purely a human passion, and directed only against man. > Greek: 3. δεύτερον δὲ τὸ μισεῖν γίγνεται καὶ πρὸς ἄλογα ζῷα· καὶ γὰρ γαλᾶς καὶ κανθαρίδας ἔνιοι μισοῦσι καὶ φρύνους καὶ ὄφεις· Γερμανικὸς δʼ ἀλεκτρυόνος οὔτε φωνὴν οὔτʼ ὄψιν ὑπέμενεν οἱ δὲ Περσῶν μάγοι τοὺς μῦς ἀπεκτίννυσαν, ὡς αὐτοί τε μισοῦντες καὶ τοῦ θεοῦ δυσχεραίνοντος τὸ ζῷον· ὁμοῦ τι γὰρ πάντες Ἄραβες καὶ Αἰθίοπες μυσάττονται. τὸ μέντοι φθονεῖν πρὸς; μόνον ἄνθρωπον ἀνθρώπῳ γίγνεται. [¶3] 4. Envy is not likely to be found among brutes, whose fancies are not moved by the apprehensions of each other’s good or evil; neither can they be spirited with the notions of glorious or dishonorable, by which envy is chiefly stirred up. Yet they have mutual hatred; they kill each other, and wage most incredible wars. The eagles and the dragons fight, the crows and the owls, yea, the little titmouse and linnet; insomuch that it is said, the very blood of these creatures, when slain, will by no means be mixed; but though you would temper them together, they will immediately separate again. The lion also vehemently hates the cock, and the elephant the hog; but this probably proceeds from fear; for what they fear, the same are they inclined to hate. We see then herein a great difference betwixt envy and hate, that the one is natural to brutes, but they are not at all capable of the other. > Greek: 4. κἂν τοῖς θηρίοις δὲ φθόνον μὲν οὐκ εἰκὸς ἐγγίνεσθαι πρὸς ἄλληλα· τοῦ γὰρ εὖ πράττειν ἢ κακῶς ἕτερον φαντασίαν οὐ λαμβάνουσιν, οὐδʼ ἅπτεται τὸ ἔνδοξον ἢ ἄδοξον αὐτῶν, οἷς ὁ φθόνος ἐκτραχύνεται μάλιστα. μισοῦσι δʼ ἄλληλα καὶ ἀπεχθάνονται καὶ πολεμοῦσιν ὥσπερ ἀσπείστους τινὰς πολέμους ἀετοὶ καὶ δράκοντες, κορῶναι καὶ γλαῦκες, αἰγιθαλλοὶ καὶ ἀκανθυλλίδες· ὥστε τούτων γέ φασι μηδὲ τὸ αἷμα κίρνασθαι σφαττομένων, ἀλλὰ κἂν μίξῃς, ἰδίᾳ πάλιν ἀπορρεῖν διακρινόμενον. εἰκότως; δʼ ἔχει τῷ λέοντι πρὸς τὸν ἀλεκτρυόνα καὶ τῷ ἐλέφαντι πρὸς τὴν ὗν μῖσος ἰσχυρὸν γεγεννηκέναι τὸν φόβον· ὃ γὰρ δεδίασι, καὶ μισεῖν πεφύκασιν ὥστε καὶ ταύτῃ φαίνεσθαι διαφέροντα τοῦ μίσους τὸν φθόνον, τὸ μὲν δεχομένης τῆς τῶν θηρίων φύσεως τὸν δὲ μὴ δεχομένης. [¶4] 5. Further, envy is always unjust; for none wrong by being happy, and upon this sole account they are envied. But hatred is often just; for there are some men so much to be avoided and disliked, that we should judge those worthy to be hated themselves who do not shun and detest them. And of this it is no weak evidence, that many will acknowledge they hate, but none will confess they envy; and hatred of the evil is registered amongst laudable things. Therefore, as some were commending Charillus, the nephew of Lycurgus and king of Sparta, for his universally mild and gentle disposition,—How, answered his colleague, can Charillus be a virtuous person, who is pleasing even to the vicious? So the poet too, when he had variously and with an infinite curiosity described the deformities of Thersites’s body, easily couched all the baseness of his manners in a word,— “Most hateful to Achilles and Ulysses too;” for to be an enemy to the good is the greatest extravagance of vice. Men will deny the envy; and when it is alleged, will feign a thousand excuses, pretending they were angry, or that they feared or hated the person, cloaking envy with the name of any passion they can think of, and concealing it as the most loathsome sickness of the soul. > Greek: 5. ἔτι τοίνυν τὸ μὲν φθονεῖν πρὸς οὐδένα γίγνεται δικαίως· οὐδεὶς γὰρ ἀδικεῖ τῷ εὐτυχεῖν, ἐπὶ τούτῳ δὲ φθονοῦνται μισοῦνται δὲ πολλοὶ δικαίως, ὡς οὓς ἀξιομισήτους καλοῦμεν, ἂν μὴ φεύγωσι τοὺς τοιούτους μηδὲ βδελύττωνται καὶ δυσχεραίνωσι. μέγα δὲ τούτου τεκμήριον, ὅτι μισεῖν μὲν πολλοὺς ὁμολογοῦσιν ἔνιοι φθονεῖν δʼ οὐδενὶ λέγουσι. καὶ γὰρ ἡ μισοπονηρία τῶν ἐπαινουμένων ἐστί· καὶ τὸν ἀδελφιδοῦν τοῦ Λυκούργου Χάριλλον, βασιλεύοντα τῆς Σπάρτης ἐπιεικῆ δʼ ὄντα καὶ πρᾶον ἐπαινούντων τινῶν, ὁ συνάρχων καὶ πῶς ἔφη χρηστός ἐστι Χάριλλος, ὃς οὐδὲ τοῖς πονηροῖς χαλεπός ἐστι; καὶ τοῦ Θερσίτου ὁ ποιητὴς τὴν μὲν τοῦ σώματος κακίαν πολυμερῶς καὶ περιωδευμένως ἐξεμόρφησε, τὴν δὲ τοῦ ἤθους μοχθηρίαν συντομώτατα καὶ διʼ ἑνὸς ἔφρασεν, ἔχθιστος δʼ Ἀχιλῆι μάλιστʼ ἦν ἠδʼ Ὀδυσῆι ὑπερβολὴ γάρ τις φαυλότητος τὸ τοῖς κρατίστοις ἐχθρὸν εἶναι. καὶ φθονεῖν δʼ ἀρνοῦνται κἂν ἐλέγχωνται, μυρίας σκήψεις προΐσχονται, ὀργίζεσθαι λέγοντες ἢ φοβεῖσθαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἢ μισεῖν ἢ ὁ τι ἂν τύχωσιν ἄλλο τῷ φθόνῳ τοῦ πάθους ὄνομα περιβάλλοντες καὶ καλύπτοντες, ὡς μόνον τοῦτο τῶν ψυχῆς νοσημάτων ἀπόρρητον. [¶5] 6. Moreover, these disturbances of the mind, like plants, must be nourished and augmented by the same roots from which they spring; therefore hatred increases as the persons hated grow worse, while envy swells bigger as the envied rise higher in the true braveries of virtue. Upon this consideration Themistocles, whilst he was yet young, said that he had done nothing gallant, for he was not yet envied. And we know that, as the cantharis is most busy with ripe fruits and roses in their beauty, so envy is most employed about the eminently good and those who are glorious in their places and esteem. Again, extreme badness makes hatred more vehement and bitter. The Athenians therefore had so utter an abhorrence of those who accused Socrates, that they would neither lend them fire, nor answer them any question, nor wash with them in the same water, but commanded the servants to pour it out as polluted; till these sycophants, no longer able to bear up under the pressure of this hatred, put an end to their own lives. Yet envy often gives place to the splendor of a matchless prosperity. For it is not likely that any envied Alexander or Cyrus, when they arrived at the height of their conquests and became lords of all. But as the sun, where he passes highest and sends down his beams most directly, has none or very little shadow, so they who are exalted to the meridian of fortune, shining aloof over the head of envy, have scarce any thing of their brightness eclipsed, while envy retires, being driven away by the brightness overspreading it. On the contrary, hatred is not vanquished by the greatness and glory of its objects. For though Alexander had not one to envy him, yet he had many haters, by whose treacheries at last he fell. So, on the other side, misfortunes cause envy to cease, but take not enmity away; for men will be malicious even toward abject enemies, but none envy the distressed. However, what was said by one of our Sophists, that the envious are tenderly inclinable to pity, is true; and in this appears a great unlikeness of these passions, that hatred leaves neither the happy nor the miserable, but envy becomes languid when its object has either prosperity or adversity in excess. > Greek: 6. ἀνάγκη τοίνυν τὰ πάθη ταῦτα τοῖς αὐτοῖς ὥσπερ τὰ φυτὰ καὶ τρέφεσθαι καὶ αὔξεσθαι καὶ ἐπιγίγνεσθαι πέφυκεν ἀλλήλοις. μισοῦμέν γε μᾶλλον τοὺς μᾶλλον εἰς πονηρίαν ἐπιδιδόντας, φθονοῦσι δὲ μᾶλλον τοὺς μᾶλλον ἐπʼ ἀρετῇ προϊέναι δοκοῦσι. διὸ καὶ Θεμιστοκλῆς ἔτι μειράκιον ὢν οὐδὲν ἔφη πράττειν λαμπρόν· οὔπω γὰρ φθονεῖσθαι. καθάπερ γὰρ αἱ κανθαρίδες ἐμφύονται μάλιστα τῷ ἀκμάζοντι σίτῳ καὶ τοῖς εὐθαλέσι ῥόδοις, οὕτως ὁ φθόνος ἅπτεται μάλιστα τῶν χρηστῶν καὶ αὐξομένων πρὸς ἀρετὴν καὶ δόξαν ἠθῶν καὶ προσώπων. καὶ τοὐναντίον αὖ πάλιν αἱ μὲν ἄκρατοι πονηρίαι συνεπιτείνουσι τὸ μῖσος. τοὺς γοῦν Σωκράτη συκοφαντήσαντας ὡς εἰς ἔσχατον κακίας ἐληλακότας οὕτως ἐμίσησαν οἱ πολῖται καὶ ἀπεστράφησαν, ὡς μήτε πῦρ αὔειν μήτε ἀποκρίνεσθαι πυνθανομένοις μήτʼ λουομένοις κοινωνεῖν ὕδατος, ἀλλʼ ἀναγκάζειν ἐκχεῖν ἐκεῖνο τοὺς παραχύτας ὡς μεμιασμένον, ἕως ἀπήγξαντο μὴ φέροντες τὸ μῖσος. αἱ δὲ τῶν εὐτυχημάτων ὑπεροχαὶ καὶ λαμπρότητες πολλάκις τὸν φθόνον κατασβεννύουσιν. οὐ γὰρ εἰκὸς Ἀλεξάνδρῳ τινὰ φθονεῖν οὐδὲ Κύρῳ, κρατήσασι καὶ γενομένοις κυρίοις ἁπάντων. ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ὁ ἥλιος, ὧν ἂν ὑπὲρ κορυφῆς γένηται, καταχεόμενος τὸ φῶς ἢ παντάπασι τὴν σκιὰν ἀνεῖλεν ἢ μικρὰν ἐποίησεν, οὕτω πολὺ τῶν ὕψος λαβόντων καὶ γενομένων κατὰ κεφαλῆς τοῦ φθόνου, συστέλλεται καὶ ἀναχωρεῖ καταλαμπόμενος. τὸ μέντοι μῖσος οὐκ ἀνίησιν ἡ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ὑπεροχὴ καὶ δύναμις. ὁ γοῦν Ἀλέξανδρος φθονοῦντα μὲν οὐδένʼ εἶχε, μισοῦντας δὲ πολλοὺς ὑφʼ ὧν τέλος ἐπιβουλευθεὶς ἀπέθανεν. ὁμοίως τοίνυν καὶ τὰ δυστυχήματα τοὺς μὲν φθονοῦντας παύει τὰς δʼ αὖ ἔχθρας οὐκ ἀναιρεῖ· μισοῦσι γὰρ καὶ ταπεινοὺς τοὺς ἐχθροὺς γενομένους, φθονεῖ δʼ οὐδεὶς τῷ δυστυχοῦντι. ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ῥηθὲν ὑπό τινος τῶν καθʼ ἡμᾶς σοφιστῶν, ὅτι ἥδισθʼ οἱ φθονοῦντες ἐλεοῦσιν, ἀληθές ἐστιν· ὥστε καὶ ταύτῃ μεγάλην εἶναι τῶν παθῶν διαφοράν, ὡς τὸ μὲν μῖσος οὔτʼ εὐτυχούντων οὔτε δυστυχούντων ἀφίστασθαι πέφυκεν, ὁ δὲ φθόνος πρὸς τὴν ἀμφοῖν ὑπερβολὴν ἀπαγορεύει. [¶6] 7. We shall better understand this from the poising them together. Men let go their enmity and hatred, when either they are persuaded they were not injured at all, or if they now believe them to be good whom before they hated as evil, or, lastly, when they are appeased by the insinuations of a benefit received. For as Thucydides saith, A later service or good turn, if it be done at the right moment, will take away the ill resenting of a former fault, though this was greater than the recompense. Yet the first of these removes not envy, for men will persist in this vice, though they know they are not wronged; and the two latter (the esteem or credit of a person, and the bestowing a favor) do exasperate it more. For they most envy the virtuous, as those who are in possession of the chiefest good; and when they receive a kindness from any in prosperity, it is with reluctance, as though they grudged then not only the power but the will of conferring it; the one of which comes from their happy fortune, the other from their virtue. Both are good. Therefore envy is an entirely distinct affection from hatred, since, as we see, the very things that appease the one only rouse and exasperate the other. > Greek: 7. ἔτι τοίνυν καὶ μᾶλλον οὕτως ἀπὸ τῶν ἐναντίων ταὐτὸ σκοπῶμεν. λύουσι γὰρ ἔχθρας καὶ μῖσος ἢ πεισθέντες μηδὲν ἀδικεῖσθαι, ἢ δόξαν ὡς χρηστῶν, οὓς ἐμίσουν ὡς πονηρούς, λαβόντες· ἢ τρίτον εὖ παθόντες· ἡ γὰρ τελευταία χάρις ὡς Θουκυδίδης φησὶ κἂν ἐλάττων ᾖ, καιρὸν ἔχουσα δύναται μεῖζον ἔγκλημα λῦσαι τούτων δὲ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον οὐ λύει τὸν φθόνον· πεπεισμένοι γὰρ ἐξ ἀρχῆς μηδὲν ἀδικεῖσθαι φθονοῦσι τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ καὶ παροξύνει τοῖς τε γὰρ δοκοῦσι χρηστοῖς βασκαίνουσι μᾶλλον, ὡς δὴ τὸ μέγιστον ἀγαθὸν τὴν ἀρετὴν ἔχουσι κἂν εὖ πάσχωσιν ὑπὸ τῶν εὐτυχούντων, ἀνιῶνται, φθονοῦντες αὐτοῖς καὶ τῆς προαιρέσεως καὶ τῆς δυνάμεως· τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἀρετῆς ἐστι τὸ δʼ εὐτυχίας,. ἀγαθὰ δʼ ἀμφότερα, διὸ παντελῶς ἕτερόν ἐστι τοῦ μίσους πάθος ὁ φθόνος, εἰ, διʼ ὧν ἐκεῖνο πραΰνεται, τοῦτο λυπεῖται καὶ παροξύνεται. [¶7] 8. Now let us consider a little the inclination and bent of either passion. The design of hatred is to endamage; and hence they define it, an insidious desire and purpose of doing hurt. But envy aims not at this. Many envy their familiars and kinsfolk, but have no thoughts of their ruin nor of so much as bringing any troubles upon them; only their felicity is a burden. Though they will perhaps diminish their glory and splendor what they can, yet they endeavor not their utter subversion; being, as it were, content to pull down so much only of an high stately house as hindered the light and obscured them with too great a shade. > Greek: 8. ἤδη τοίνυν καὶ τὴν προαίρεσιν αὐτὴν ἑκατέρου πάθους σκοπῶμεν. ἔστι δὲ μισοῦντος μὲν προαίρεσις κακῶς ποιῆσαι κατὰ δύναμιν· καὶ οὕτως ὁρίζονται, διάθεσίν τινα καὶ προαίρεσιν ἐπιτηρητικὴν τοῦ κακῶς ποιῆσαι. τῷ φθόνῳ δὲ τοῦτο γοῦν ἄπεστι πολλοὺς γὰρ οἱ φθονοῦντες τῶν συνήθων καὶ οἰκείων ἀπολέσθαι μὲν οὐκ ἂν ἐθέλοιεν οὐδὲ δυστυχῆσαι, βαρύνονται δʼ εὐτυχοῦντας· καὶ κωλύουσι μέν, εἰ δύνανται, τὴν δόξαν αὐτῶν καὶ λαμπρότητα, συμφορὰς δʼ ἀνηκέστους οὐκ ἂν προσβάλοιεν· ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ οἰκίας ὑπερεχούσης τὸ ἐπισκοτοῦν αὐτοῖς καθελόντες ἀρκοῦνται.