Plutarch - Essays

ESSAYS

PLUTARCH s life spanned the second half of the first century AD and the first quarter of the second century. He came from a wealthy and old-established family at Chaeronea, a provincial town in Boeotia in central Greece. He was highly educated in rhetoric and philosophy at Athens, which remained his intellectual metropolis, but his deep interest in religion also led to an early association with Delphi, the central shrine of Greece, where he was eventually appointed to an important priesthood. He travelled, most crucially to Rome, where he lectured and made many friends of considerable influence in the Roman political world. Nevertheless, through affection for his home town, he spent most of his life at Chaeronea, writing and teaching, yet remaining in contact with leading figures throughout the Graeco-Roman world, and his reputation was recognized by an official honour from the emperor Hadrian. His voluminous works are commonly divided into the Parallel Lives of outstanding Greek and Roman figures, and the Moralia. The latter are a collection of essays and lectures over an extraordinarily wide range of subjects and had a strong influence on European literature, particularly between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

IAN KIDD was born in 1922. He was educated at St Andrews University and at The Queens College, Oxford. He became professor of Ancient Philosophy at St Andrews, and then Professor of Greek there. Visiting appointments included membership of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (twice), and a Visiting Professorship at the University of Texas at Austin. He is now Emeritus Professor of Greek, Honorary Fellow of St Leonards College, St Andrews, a Fellow of the British Academy, and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Research in Classical Philosophy and Science at Princeton. His publications have been mainly in classical and hellenistic philosophy, the most important being the collection (with L. Edelstein) and editing of the fragments of the Stoic philosopher, scientist and historian Posidonius (Posidonius, The Fragments, 1972, 1989); the commentary on them, Posidonius, The Commentary (two volumes, 1988); and their translation, Posidonius, The Translation of the Fragments (1999).

ROBIN WATERFIELD was born in 1952. He graduated from Manchester University in 1974 and went on to research ancient Greek philosophy at Kings College, Cambridge. He has been a university lecturer, and both copy editor and commissioning editor for Penguin. He is now a self-employed writer with publications ranging from academic articles to childrens fiction. He has translated various Greek philosophical texts, including several for Penguin Classics: Xenophons Conversations of Socrates and Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises, Platos Philebus and Theaetetus and (in Platos Early Socratic Dialogues) Hippias Major, Hippias Minor and Euthydemus. His biography of Kahlil Gibran, Prophet: The Life and Times of Kahlil Gibran, is published by Penguin. He has also edited The Voice of Kahlil Gibran for Penguin Arkana.

PLUTARCH

ESSAYS

TRANSLATED BY
ROBIN WATERFIELD

INTRODUCED AND ANNOTATED BY
IAN KIDD

PENGUIN BOOKS

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First published 1992

Translation copyright Robin Waterfield, 1992

Introductions and annotations copyright Ian Kidd, 1992

All rights reserved

The moral right of the authors has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-14-196489-8

The Greek text used for these translations is that of the Loeb Classical Library, as follows:

On Listening, How to Distinguish a Flatterer from a Friend and On Being Aware of Moral Progress, from Plutarchs Moralia volume 1, by F. C. Babbitt (Loeb Classical Library, London and Cambridge, Mass., 1927).

Whether Military or Intellectual Exploits Have Brought Athens More Fame, from Plutarchs Moralia volume 4, by F. C. Babbitt (Loeb Classical Library, London and Cambridge, Mass., 1936).

On the Avoidance of Anger and On Contentment, from Plutarchs Moralia volume 6, by W. Helmbold (Loeb Classical Library, London and Cambridge, Mass., 1939).

On Gods Slowness to Punish, On Socrates Personal Deity and In Consolation to His Wife, from Plutarchs Moralia volume 7, by P. H. De Lacy and B. Einarson (Loeb Classical Library, London and Cambridge, Mass., 1959).

On the Use of Reason by Irrational Animals, from Plutarchs Moralia volume 12, by W. Helmbold (Loeb Classical Library, London and Cambridge, Mass., 1957).

Any occasions where we have translated Greek text which differs from that of these Loeb volumes have been noted in the Textual Appendix ().

The numbers and letters which appear in the margins of the translations are the standard means of precise reference to passages of Plutarchs Moralia: they refer to the pages and sections of pages of the 1599 Frankfurt edition of Moralia (Greek edited by Stephanus, or H. Estienne; Latin translation by Xylander, or W. Holtzman).

The authors take great pleasure in acknowledging the early generosity of Professor Donald Russell, without which this volume would have failed to get started; and considerably less pleasure in acknowledging the collaboration of the National Health Service and London Transport.