Moralia

Plutarch
Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus
Μέστριος Πλούταρχος

Bust of Plutarch located at the Archaeological Museum of Delphi.
Born Circa 46 CE
Chaeronea, Boeotia
Died Circa 120 CE (aged 74)
Delphi, Phocis
Occupation Biographer, essayist, priest, ambassador, magistrate
Nationality Roman (Greek ethnicity)
Subjects Biography, various
Literary movement Middle Platonism,
Hellenistic literature

The Moralia (ancient Greek Ἠθικά — loosely translatable as Matters relating to customs and mores) of the 1st-century Greek scholar Plutarch of Chaeronea 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 Odysseus 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.

The book is famously the first reference to the problem of the Chicken and the egg.

Contents

Reincarnation

Moralia asserts a belief in reincarnation:

"The soul, being eternal, after death is like a caged bird that has been released. If it has been a long time in the body, and has become tame by many affairs and long habit, the soul will immediately take another body and once again become involved in the troubles of the world. The worst thing about old age is that the soul's memory of the other world grows dim, while at the same time its attachment to things of this world becomes so strong that the soul tends to retain the form that it had in the body. But that soul which remains only a short time within a body, until liberated by the higher powers, quickly recovers its fire and goes on to higher things." (From The Consolation.)

Mind

Mind or Nous ( /ˈnuːs/, Greek: νοῦς) is a philosophical term for intellect. In Moralia, Plutarch agrees with Plato that the soul is more divine than the body while nous is more divine than the soul. The mix of soul and body produces pleasure and pain; the conjunction of mind and soul produces reason which is the cause or the source of virtue and vice. (From: “On the Face in the Moon”) [1]

Books

Since the Stephanus edition of 1572, the Moralia have traditionally been arranged in 14 books, as in the following list which includes the English, the original Greek and the Latin title:

Editions

References

  1. ^ Lacus Curtius online text: On the Face in the Moon par. 28
  2. ^ [Lacus Curtius online text Isis and Osiris
  3. ^ Lacus Curtius online text On the Face in the Moon

External links

The works of Plutarch
Works
Lives
Translators and editors
  • 1 Comparison extant
  • 2 Four unpaired Lives