Plutarch: Moralia, Volume XII, Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon. On the Prin

by Plutarch

Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. 45-120 CE, was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia in central Greece, studied philosophy at Athens, and, after coming to Rome as a teacher in philosophy, was given consular rank by the emperor Trajan and a procuratorship in Greece by Hadrian. He was married and the father of one daughter and four sons. He appears as a man of kindly character and independent thought, studious and learned.

Plutarch wrote on many subjects. Most popular have always been the 46 Parallel Lives, biographies planned to be ethical examples in pairs (in each pair, one Greek figure and one similar Roman), though the last four lives are single. All are invaluable sources of our knowledge of the lives and characters of Greek and Roman statesmen, soldiers and orators. Plutarch's many other varied extant works, about 60 in number, are known as Moralia or Moral Essays. They are of high literary value, besides being of great use to people interested in philosophy, ethics and religion.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of the Moralia is in fifteen volumes, volume XIII having two parts.

608 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

Plutarch (later named, upon becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus; AD 46–AD 120) was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist. Plutarch's surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers.

Reviews

[شمس · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mere reason is implanted by nature, but real and perfect reason is the product of care and education. —Whether Land or Sea Animals are Cleverer, 962c

What is more profitable to life than Art? —Whether Fire or Water is More Useful, 958d
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. . . diffused through the body a relaxed and pleasantly warm sensation which homer calls “to be aglow.”—On the Principle of Cold, 947c/d

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This volume contains the following essays:
• Concerning the Face which Appears in the Orb of the Moon
• On the Principle of Cold
• Whether Fire or Water is More Useful
• Whether Land or Sea Animals are Cleverer
• Beasts are Rational
• On the Eating of Flesh
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Some essays centred around Natural History/Science.

Excepting the dialogue about the Moon, I found these Essays very enjoyable, particularly the ones about animals.
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Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon
Bedimmed by the circumambient ether . . . (933d)

The food of the gods themselves . . . (938c)

Suffused with fragrance scattered from the rock as from a fountain. (941f)

The titanic affections and motions of his soul make him rigidly tense until sleep restores his repose once more and the royal and divine element is all by itself, pure and unalloyed. (942a)

He discovered certain sacred parchments that had been secretly spirited off to safety when the earlier city was being destroyed and had lain unnoticed in the ground for a long time. (942c)

Retains certain vestiges and dreams of life as it were. (944f)

. . . had been fond of a leisurely, unmeddlesome, and philosophical life. (945a)
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Whether Fire or Water is More Useful
Man has often existed without fire, but without water never. (956a)

What is more profitable to life than Art? (958d)

Man has ben granted but a little time to live and, as Ariston says, sleep, like a tax-collector, takes away half of that. (958d)
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Whether Land or Sea Animals are Cleverer
Habituation has a strange power to lead men owned by a gradual familiarisation of the feelings. (959f)

Often it is true, while we are busy reading, the letters may fall on our eyes, or words may fall on our ears, which escape our attention since our minds are intent on other things. (961a)

Mere reason is implanted by nature, but real and perfect reason is the product of care and education. (962c)

For living is not abolished or life terminated when a man has no more platters of fish or pâté de foie gras . . . (965a)

Cleanthes, even though he declared that animals are not endowed with reason, says that he witnessed the following spectacle: some ants came to a strange anthill carrying a dead ant. Other ants then emerged from the hill and seemed, as it were, to hold converse with the first party and then went back again. This happened two or three times until at last they brought up a grub to serve as the dead ant’s ransom, whereupon the first party picked up the grub, handed over the corpse, and departed. (967e)

Self-instruction implies more reason than does readiness to learn from others. (973e)

A taste for unnatural pleasures and modes of life . . . (987f)

You lack true culture. (989c)

Now I am rid and purified of all those empty illusions. (989e)

Scented, as they are, with pure dew and grassy meadows. (990c)
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On the Eating of Flesh
A man's frame is in no way similar to those creatures who were made for flesh-eating: he has no hooked beak or sharp nails or jagged teeth . . . If you declare that you are naturally designed for such a diet, then first kill for yourself what you want to eat. Do it, however, only through your own resources, unaided by cleaver or cudgel of any kind or axe. Rather, just as wolves and bears and lions themselves slay what they eat, so you are to fell an ox with your fangs or a boar with your jaws, or tear a lamb or hare in bits. Fall upon it and eat it still living, as animals do. (995a)

The art of hearing has fallen sick, corrupting musical taste. (997b)

For what sort of dinner is not costly for which a living creature loses its life? Do wee hold a life so cheap? I do not yet go so far as to say that it may well be the life of your mother or father or some friend or child, as Empedocles declared. Yet it doe, at least, possess some perception, hearing, seeing, imagination, intelligence, which also every creature receives from Nature to enable it to acquire what is proper for it and to evade what is not. (997d)

[Alexander Rolfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plutarch's other writings are more interesting than this batch of essays. Unless you're into ancient science; I'm not. I'm mildly interested in what they did and didn't know, and I'm mildly interested in how they figured those things out. Mainly I was glad to meet Plutarch's big brother, Lamprias, and his father, Autobulus.

The essays on animals were a little more fun. One of the benefits of reading essays on odd topics like that is that it helps delineate human nature across cultures and centuries.