A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the EncheiridionEpictetus
Philosophy
A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion
Epictetus
Philosophy -- Early works to 1800
Wretch, which of your affairs goes badly? Your possessions? No. Your
body? No. But you are rich in gold and copper. What then is the matter
with you? That part of you, whatever it is, has been neglected by you
and is corrupted, the part with which we desire, with which we avoid,
with which we move towards and move from things. How neglected? He
knows not the nature of good for which he is made by nature and the
nature of evil; and what is his own, and what belongs to another; and
when anything that belongs to others goes badly, he says, Woe to me,
for the Hellenes are in danger. Wretched is his ruling faculty, and
alone neglected and uncared for. The Hellenes are going to die
destroyed by the Trojans. And if the Trojans do not kill them, will
they not die? Yes; but not all at once. What difference then does it
make? For if death is an evil, whether men die altogether, or if they
die singly, it is equally an evil. Is anything else then going to
happen than the separation of the soul and the body? Nothing. And if
the Hellenes perish, is the door closed, and is it not in your power to
die? It is. Why then do you lament (and say), Oh, you are a king and
have the sceptre of Zeus? An unhappy king does not exist more than an
unhappy god. What then art thou? In truth a shepherd: for you weep as
shepherds do, when a wolf has carried off one of their sheep: and these
who are governed by you are sheep. And why did you come hither? Was
your desire in any danger? was your aversion ([Greek: echchlisis])? was
your movement (pursuits)? was your avoidance of things? He replies, No;
but the wife of my brother was carried off. Was it not then a great
gain to be deprived of an adulterous wife? Shall we be despised then by
the Trojans? What kind of people are the Trojans, wise or foolish? If
they are wise, why do you fight with them? If they are fools, why do
you care about them?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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