Moralia

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Selected essays from Plutarch's Moralia, Penguin Classics edition 1992
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Selected essays from Plutarch's Moralia, Penguin Classics edition 1992

The Moralia (loosely translatable as Matters relating to customs and mores) of the first-century pagan priest Plutarch of Delphi is an eclectic collection of 78 essays and transcribed speeches. They give an insight into Roman and Greek life, but often are also fascinating timeless observations in their own right. Many generations of Europeans have read or imitated them, including Montaigne and the Renaissance Humanists and Enlightenment philosophers.

The Moralia include On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great — an important adjunct to his Life of the great general — On the Worship of Isis and Osiris (a crucial source of information on Egyptian religious rites), and On the Malice of Herodotus (which may, like the orations on Alexander's accomplishments, have been a rhetorical exercise), in which Plutarch criticizes what he sees as systematic bias in the Father of History's work; along with more philosophical treatises, such as On the Decline of the Oracles, On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance, On Peace of Mind and lighter fare, such as Odysseus and Gryllus, a humorous dialog between Homer's Ulysses and one of Circe's enchanted pigs. The Moralia were composed first, while writing the Lives occupied much of the last two decades of Plutarch's own life.

Some editions of the Moralia include several works now known to be pseudepigrapha: among these are the Lives of the Ten Orators (biographies of the Ten Orators of ancient Athens, based on Caecilius of Calacte), The Doctrines of the Philosophers, and On Music. One "pseudo-Plutarch" is held responsible for all of these works, though their authorship is of course unknown. Though the thoughts and opinions recorded are not Plutarch's and come from a slightly later era, they are all classical in origin and have value to the historian.

Since the Stephanus edition of 1572, the Moralia have traditionally been arranged in 14 books, as follows:

  • I.
    • 1. de liberis educandis "on the education of children"
    • 2. How the young man should study poetry
    • 3. de recta ratione audiendi "on hearing"
    • 4. How to tell a flatterer from a friend
    • 5. How a man may become aware of his progress in virtue
  • II.
    • 6. How to profit by one's enemies
    • 7. On having many friends - De amicorum multitudine
    • 8. Chance - De fortuna
    • 9. Virtue and Vice - De virtute et vitio
    • 10. Letter of condolence to Apollonius - Consolatio ad Apollonium
    • 11. Advice about keeping well - De tuenda sanitate praecepta
    • 12. Advice to bride and groom - Coniugalia praecepta
    • 13. Dinner of the seven wise men - Septem sapientium convivium
    • 14. Superstition - De superstitione
  • III.
    • 15. regum et imperatorem apophthegmata "sayings of kings and commanders"
    • 16. apophthegmata Laconica "sayings of the Spartans"
    • 17. instituta Laconica "institutions of the Spartans"
    • 18. Lacaenarum apophthegmata "sayings of the Spartan women"
    • 19. mulierum virtutes "women's virtues"
  • IV.
    • 20. Roman questions - Quaestiones Romanae
    • 21. Greek questions - Quaestiones Graecae
    • 22. Greek and Roman parallel stories - Parallela minora (pseudo-Plutarch)
    • 23. On the fortune of the Romans - De fortuna Romanorum
    • 24. On the fortune or the virtue of Alexander
    • 25. Were the Athenians more famous in war or in wisdom?
  • V.
    • 26. Isis and Osiris - De Iside et Osiride
    • 27. The EI at Delphi - De E apud Delphos
    • 28. Oracles at Delphi no longer given in verse - De Pythiae oraculis
    • 29. The obsolescence of oracles - De defectu oraculorum
  • VI.
    • 30. Can virtue be taught? - An virtus doceri possit
    • 31. On moral virtue - De virtute morali
    • 32. On the control of anger - De cohibenda ira
    • 33. On tranquillity of mind - De tranquillitate animi
    • 34. On brotherly love - De fraterno amore
    • 35. On affection for offspring - De amore prolis
    • 36. Whether vice is sufficient to cause unhappiness
    • 37. Whether affections of the soul are worse than those of the body
    • 38. On talkativeness - De garrulitate
    • 39. On being a busybody - De curiositate
  • VII.
    • 40. On love of wealth - De cupiditate divitiarum
    • 41. On compliancy - De vitioso pudore
    • 42. On envy and hate - De invidia et odio
    • 43. On praising oneself inoffensively
    • 44. On the delays of divine vengeance - De sera numinis vindicta
    • 45. On fate - De fato
    • 46. On the sign of Socrates - De genio Socratis
    • 47. On exile - De exilio
    • 48. Consolation to his wife - Consolatio ad uxorem
  • VIII.
    • 49. Table talk, books i-vi - Quaestiones Convivales libri vi
  • IX.
    • Table talk, books vii-ix - Quaestiones Convivales libri iii
    • 50. Dialogue on love - Amatorius
  • X.
    • 51. Love stories - Amatoriae narrationes
    • 52. A philosopher ought to converse especially with men in power
    • 53. To an uneducated ruler - Ad principem ineruditum
    • 54. Whether an old man should engage in public affairs
    • 55. Precepts of statecraft - Praecepta gerendae reipublicae
    • 56. On monarchy, democracy and oligarchy
    • 57. That we ought not to borrow - De vitando aere alieno
    • 58. Lives of the ten orators - Vitae decem oratorum (pseudo-Plutarch)
    • 59. Comparison between Aristophanes and Menander
  • XI.
    • 60. On the malice of Herodotus - De malignitate Herodoti
    • 61. On the opinions of the philosophers - De placitis philosophorum
    • 62. Causes of natural phenomena - Quaestiones naturales
  • XII.
    • 63. On the face which appears in the orb of the moon
    • 64. On the principle of cold - De primo frigido
    • 65. Whether fire or water is more useful
    • 66. Whether land or sea animals are cleverer
    • 67. Beasts are rational - Bruta animalia ratione uti
    • 68. On the eating of flesh - De esu carnium
  • XIII.
    • 69. Platonic questions - Platonicae quaestiones
    • 70. On the birth of the spirit in Timaeus
    • 71. Summary of the birth of the spirit
    • 72. On Stoic self-contradictions - De Stoicorum repugnantiis
    • 73. The Stoics speak more paradoxically than the poets
    • 74. Against the Stoics, on common conceptions
  • XIV.
    • 75. non posse suaviter vivi secundum Epicurum "it is impossible to live pleasantly in the manner of Epicurus"
    • 76. adversus Colotem "against Colotus"
    • 77. an recte dictum sit latenter esse vivendum "is the saying 'live in obscurity' right?"
    • 78. de Musica "on music" (pseudo-Plutarch)

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The Works of Plutarch
The Works Parallel Lives | The Moralia | Pseudo-Plutarch
The Lives

Alcibiades and Coriolanus1 • Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar • Aratus of Sicyon & Artaxerxes and Galba & Otho2 • Aristides and Cato the Elder1
Crassus and Nicias1 • Demetrius and Antony1 • Demosthenes and Cicero1 • Dion and Brutus1 • Fabius and Pericles1 • Lucullus and Cimon1
Lysander and Sulla1 • Numa and Lycurgus1 • Pelopidas and Marcellus1 • Philopoemen and Flamininus1 • Phocion and Cato the Younger
Pompey and Agesilaus1 • Poplicola and Solon1 • Pyrrhus and Gaius Marius • Romulus and Theseus1 • Sertorius and Eumenes1
Tiberius Gracchus & Gaius Gracchus and Agis & Cleomenes1 • Timoleon and Aemilius Paulus1 • Themistocles and Camillus
The Translators John Dryden | Thomas North | Jacques Amyot | Philemon Holland | Arthur Hugh Clough
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1 Comparison extant 2 Four unpaired Lives
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