- Source
- Aristotle. Aristotelis Ars Rhetorica. Ross, William David, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press,1959 (printing).
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0086.tlg038.humanitext-grc2:2.14.1-2.14.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-27
This section characterizes those in their prime as holding a moderate disposition that balances the extremes of youth and old age, and defines the specific ages at which the body and the soul reach their peaks.
οἱ δʼ ἀκμάζοντες φανερὸν ὅτι1 μεταξὺ τούτων τὸ ἦθος ἔσονται ἑκατέρων, ἀφαιροῦντες τὴν ὑπερβολήν, καὶ οὔτε σφόδρα θαρροῦντες (θρασύτης γὰρ τὸ τοιοῦτον) οὔτε λίαν φοβούμενοι, καλῶς δὲ πρὸς ἄμφω ἔχοντες, οὔτε πᾶσι πιστεύοντες οὔτε πᾶσιν ἀπιστοῦντες, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ ἀληθὲς κρίνοντες μᾶλλον, καὶ οὔτε πρὸς τὸ καλὸν ζῶντες μόνον οὔτε πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον ἀλλὰ πρὸς ἄμφω, καὶ οὔτε πρὸς φειδὼ οὔτε πρὸς ἀσωτίαν ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸ ἁρμόττον, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ πρὸς θυμὸν καὶ πρὸς ἐπιθυμίαν, καὶ σώφρονες μετʼ ἀνδρείας καὶ ἀνδρεῖοι μετὰ σωφροσύνης. ἐν γὰρ τοῖς νέοις καὶ τοῖς γέρουσι διῄρηται ταῦτα· εἰσὶν γὰρ οἱ μὲν νέοι ἀνδρεῖοι καὶ ἀκόλαστοι, οἱ δὲ πρεσβύτεροι σώφρονες καὶ δειλοί. ὡς δὲ καθόλου εἰπεῖν, ὅσα μὲν διῄρηνται ἡ νεότης καὶ τὸ γῆρας τῶν ὠφελίμων,2 ταῦτα ἄμφω ἔχουσιν, ὅσα δὲ ὑπερβάλλουσιν ἢ ἐλλείπουσιν, τούτων τὸ μέτριον καὶ τὸ ἁρμόττον.
Those who are in their prime will clearly have a character intermediate between these two, removing the excess, and neither being over-confident (for such a state is rashness) nor too fearful, but being well-disposed towards both. And they neither trust everyone nor distrust everyone, but rather judge according to the truth; and they live neither for the beautiful alone nor for the useful alone, but for both; and they incline neither towards parsimony nor towards extravagance, but towards what is fitting. Likewise also with respect to anger and desire; and they are self-controlled with courage, and courageous with self-control. For in the young and the old these qualities are divided; for the young are courageous and licentious, while the older men are self-controlled and cowardly. To speak generally, whatever useful qualities youth and old age possess dividedly, they have both, and in whatever qualities those exceed or fall short, they possess the moderation and the fitting measure of these.
ἀκμάζει δὲ τὸ μὲν σῶμα ἀπὸ τῶν τριάκοντα ἐτῶν μέχρι τῶν πέντε καὶ τριάκοντα, ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ περὶ τὰ ἑνὸς δεῖν πεντήκοντα.3 περὶ μὲν οὖν νεότητος καὶ γήρως καὶ ἀκμῆς, ποίων ἠθῶν ἕκαστόν ἐστιν, εἰρήσθω τοσαῦτα.
The body is in its prime from thirty to thirty-five years, and the soul around forty-nine years (one wanting fifty). Concerning youth, then, and old age, and the prime of life, and what kind of character belongs to each, let so much have been said.
- 1390aφανερὸν ὅτι
The expression φανερὸν ὅτι (clearly) developed from an impersonal clause (φανερόν ἐστιν ὅτι, 'it is clear that') into an adverbial formula. Grammatically, the subject οἱ δʼ ἀκμάζοντες is attracted out of the ὅτι-clause as its subject, agreeing with the verb ἔσονται in the third-person plural.
- 1390b5ὅσα μὲν διῄρηνται ἡ νεότης καὶ τὸ γῆρας τῶν ὠφελίμων
The genitive τῶν ὠφελίμων (of the useful things) is a partitive genitive qualifying the relative pronoun ὅσα. The verb διῄρηνται is in the perfect passive, indicating that these qualities have been divided or distributed between youth and old age.
- 1390b10ἑνὸς δεῖν πεντήκοντα
An idiomatic Greek numerical expression meaning '49' (literally, 'fifty wanting one'). The infinitive δεῖν (from δεῖ, 'to lack' or 'to need') functions to modify the numeral.