Discourses by Epictetus (good books to read for beginners txt) 📕

him condemnation; and he preferred condemnation to escaping it by entreating the dicasts (judges), and lamenting, and saying and doing things unworthy of himself, as others did. —⁠Plato, Apology, chapters 29⁠–⁠33. Compare book I chapter IX at 16. ↩

See book I chapter XXV at 8. ↩

Read θέλῃς instead of θέλῃ. See Johann Schweighäuser’s note. ↩

See Johann Schweighäuser’s note. This appears to be the remark of Epictetus. If it is so, what follows is not clear. Schweighäuser explains it, “But most of you act otherwise.” ↩

The Roman emperors kept gladiators for their own amusement and that of the people (Lipsius, Saturnalia, ii 16). Seneca says (De Providentia chapter 4), “I have heard a mirmillo (a kind of gladiator) in the time of C. Caesar (Caligula) complaining of the rarity of gladiatorial exhibitions: ‘What a glorious period of life is wasting.’ ” “Virtue,” says Seneca, “is eager after dangers; and it considers only what it seeks, not what it may suffer.” —⁠John Upton ↩

The word is “hypothesis” (ὑπόθεσις), which in this passage means “matter to work on,” “material,” “subject,” as in book II chapter V at 11, where it means the “business of the pilot.” In book I chapter VII hypothesis has the sense of a proposition supposed for the present to be true, and used as the foundation of an argument. ↩

Tropic (τροπικόν), a logical term used by Stoics, which Johann Schweighäuser translates “propositio connexa in syllogismo hypothetico.”

The meaning of the whole is this. You do not like the work which is set before you: as we say, you are not content “to do your duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call you.” Now this is as foolish, says Hieronymus Wolf, as for a man in any discussion to require that his adversary should raise no objection except such as may serve the man’s own case. ↩

There will be a time when Tragic actors shall not know what their business is, but will think that it is all show. So, says Hieronymus Wolf, philosophers will be only beard and cloak, and will not show by their life and morals what they really are; or they will be like false monks, who only wear the cowl, and do not show a life of piety and sanctity. ↩

God is introduced as speaking. —⁠Johann Schweighäuser ↩

The word is Κύριος, the name by which a slave in Epictetus addresses his master (dominus), a physician is addressed by his patient, and in other cases also it is used. It is also used by the Evangelists. They speak of the angel of the Lord (Matthew 1:24); and Jesus is addressed by the same term (Matthew 8:2), Lord or master.

Elizabeth Carter has the following note: “It has been observed that this manner of expression is not to be met with in the Heathen authors before Christianity, and therefore it is one instance of Scripture language coming early into common use.”

But the word (κύριος) is used by early Greek writers to indicate one who has power or authority, and in a sense like the Roman “dominus,” as by Sophocles for instance. The use of the word then by Epictetus was not new, and it may have been used by the Stoic writers long before his time. The language of the Stoics was formed at least two centuries before the Christian era, and the New Testament writers would use the Greek which was current in their age. The notion of “Scripture language coming early into common use” is entirely unfounded, and is even absurd. Carter’s remark implies that Epictetus used the Scripture language, whereas he used the particular language of the Stoics, and the general language of his age, and the New Testament writers would do the same. There are resemblances between the language of Epictetus and the New Testament writers, such as the expression μὴ γένοιτο of Paul, which Epictetus often uses; but this is a slight matter. The words of Peter (Ephesians 2:1, 4), “that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,” are a Stoic expression, and the writer of this Epistle, I think, took them from the language of the Stoics. ↩

The words in the text are: περὶ τῆς νήτης ʽνεάτης᾿ εἶναι ὑπάτην, “When ὑπάτη is translated ‘the lowest chord or note,’ it must be remembered that the names employed in the Greek musical terminology are precisely the opposite to ours. Compare νεάτη ‘the highest note,’ though the word in itself means lowest.” —⁠Thomas Hewitt Key’s Philological Essays, p. 42, note 1 ↩

I think that Johann Schweighäuser’s interpretation is right, that “the instructed” are those who think that they are instructed but are not, as they show by their opinion that they accept in moral matters the judgment of an ignorant man, whose judgment in music or geometry they would not accept. ↩

He names these “small arguments” λογάρια, which Cicero (Tusculan Disputations ii 12) names “ratiunculae.” ↩

“What is the profit, my brethren, if anyone should say that he hath faith and have not works?⁠ ⁠… Thus also faith, if it hath not works, is dead in itself. But a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.” —⁠Epistle of James 2:14⁠–⁠18 ↩

See Johann Schweighäuser’s note on ἐπέστη.