§22διὸ καὶ πάνυ καλῶς ὁ Πλάτων ἔοικε παραινεῖν ἐν
ταῖς
τοιαύταις
συμφοραῖς ἡσυχίαν ἔχειν, ὡς οὔτε δήλου ὄντος τοῦ κακοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, οὔτʼ εἰς τὸ πρόσθεν οὐδὲν προβαῖνον τῷ χαλεπῶς φέροντι·
Therefore, Plato also seems to advise very beautifully to keep quiet in such misfortunes, since evil and good are not clear, nor does any progress come to the one who bears it hard.
ἐμποδὼν γὰρ γίγνεσθαι τὸ λυπεῖσθαι τῷ βουλεύεσθαι περὶ τοῦ γεγονότος καὶ ὥσπερ ἐν πτώσει κύβων πρὸς τὰ πεπτωκότα τίθεσθαι τὰ ἑαυτοῦ πράγματα, ὅπῃ λόγος αἱρεῖ βέλτιστʼ ἂν ἔχειν.
For grieving becomes a hindrance to deliberating about what has happened, and, just as in the cast of dice, to setting one’s own affairs in the way that reason determines to be best.
οὐ δεῖν οὖν προσπταίσαντας καθάπερ παῖδας ἐχομένους τοῦ πληγέντος βοᾶν, ἀλλʼ ἐθίζειν τὴν ψυχὴν ὅτι τάχιστα γίγνεσθαι περὶ τὸ ἰᾶσθαί τε καὶ ἐπανορθοῦν τὸ πεσόν τε καὶ νοσῆσαν, ἰατρικῇ θρηνῳδίαν ἀφανίζοντας.
One must not, therefore, like children who have stumbled, hold onto the struck part and cry out, but accustom the soul to concern itself as quickly as possible with healing and restoring that which has fallen and is diseased, wiping out lamentation by medicine.
Τὸν τῶν Λυκίων νομοθέτην φασὶ προστάξαι τοῖς αὑτοῦ πολίταις, ἐπὰν πενθῶσι, γυναικείαν ἀμφιεσαμένους ἐσθῆτα πενθεῖν, ἐμφαίνειν βουληθέντα ὅτι γυναικῶδες τὸ πάθος καὶ οὐχ ἁρμόττον ἀνδράσι κοσμίοις καὶ παιδείας ἐλευθερίου μεταπεποιημένοις.
They say that the lawgiver of the Lycians ordered his own citizens, when they mourn, to mourn clothed in women’s garments, wishing to show that this passion is womanish and not fitting for orderly men who claim a liberal education.
θῆλυ γὰρ ὄντως καὶ ἀσθενὲς καὶ ἀγεννὲς; τὸ πενθεῖν· γυναῖκες; γὰρ ἀνδρῶν εἰσι φιλοπενθέστεραι καὶ οἱ βάρβαροι τῶν Ἑλλήνων καὶ οἱ χείρους ἄνδρες τῶν ἀμεινόνων, καὶ αὐτῶν δὲ τῶν βαρβάρων οὐχ οἱ γενναιότατοι Κελτοὶ καὶ Γαλάται καὶ πάντες οἱ φρονήματος ἀνδρειοτέρου πεφυκότες ἔμπλεοι, μᾶλλον δʼ, εἴπερ ἄρα, Αἰγύπτιοί τε καὶ Σύροι καὶ Λυδοὶ καὶ πάντες ὅσοι τούτοις παραπλήσιοι.
For indeed mourning is female and weak and ignoble; for women are more fond of mourning than men, and barbarians more than Greeks, and worse men more than better men; and among the barbarians themselves, not the most noble, such as the Celts and Galatians and all those who by nature are full of a more manly spirit, but rather, if indeed anyone, the Egyptians and Syrians and Lydians and all those who are similar to them.
τούτων γὰρ τοὺς μὲν εἰς βόθρους τινὰς καταδύντας ἱστοροῦσιν ἐπὶ πλείους ἡμέρας μένειν, μηδὲ τὸ τοῦ ἡλίου φῶς ὁρᾶν βουλομένους, ἐπειδὴ καὶ ὁ τετελευτηκὼς ἀπεστέρηται τούτου.
For they record that some of these sink into certain pits and remain there for several days, not even wishing to see the light of the sun, since the deceased also has been deprived of this.
Ἴων γοῦν ὁ τραγικὸς ποιητής, οὐκ ἀνήκοος ὢν τῆς τούτων εὐηθείας, πεποίηκέ τινα λέγουσαν
"
ἐξῆλθον ὑμῶν ἱκέτις ἡβώντων τροφὸς
παίδων, βόθρους λιποῦσα πενθητηρίους
"
τινὲς δὲ τῶν βαρβάρων καὶ μέρη τοῦ σώματος ἀποτέμνουσι, ῥῖνας καὶ ὦτα καὶ τὸ ἄλλο σῶμα καταικίζοντες, δοκοῦντές τι χαρίζεσθαι τοῖς τετελευτηκόσιν ἀπαρτώμενοι τῆς κατὰ φύσιν ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις μετριοπαθείας.
Ion, at any rate, the tragic poet, who was not without hearing of their foolishness, has made a certain woman say: "I have come out as a suppliant of your youth, the nurse of your children, leaving the mourning pits "And some of the barbarians even cut off parts of their body, mutilating noses and ears and the rest of their body, thinking that they are granting some favor to the deceased by separating themselves from the moderation in such matters that is according to nature.
§23ἀλλὰ νὴ Δία τινὲς ὑποτυγχάνοντες οὐκ ἐπὶ παντὶ θανάτῳ τὰ πένθη δεῖν οἴονται γίγνεσθαι, ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀώροις, διὰ τὸ μηδενὸς τετυχηκέναι τῶν ἐν τῷ βίῳ νενομισμένων ἀγαθῶν, οἷον γάμου παιδείας τελειότητος πολιτείας ἀρχῶν (ταῦτα γὰρ εἶναι τὰ λυποῦντα μάλιστα τοὺς ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀώροις ἀτυχοῦντας, διὰ τὸ ἀφῃρῆσθαι πρὸ τοῦ δέοντος τῆς ἐλπίδος), ἀγνοοῦντες ὅτι ὁ ἄωρος θάνατος ὡς πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσιν οὐδὲν διαφέρει.
But indeed, by Zeus, some people object and think that mourning should not happen for every death, but for those that are untimely, because of having obtained none of the things customary as good in life, such as marriage, education, maturity, citizenship, and offices (for these are the things that most grieve those who are unfortunate in untimely deaths, because they have been deprived of hope before the proper time), being ignorant that untimely death, in relation to human nature, differs in nothing.
καθάπερ γὰρ τῆς εἰς κοινὴν πατρίδα πορείας προκειμένης πᾶσιν ἀναγκαίας καὶ ἀπαραιτήτου οἱ μὲν προπορεύονται οἱ δʼ ἐπακολουθοῦσι, πάντες δʼ ἐπὶ ταὐτὸν ἔρχονται, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον τῶν εἰς τὸ χρεὼν ὁδευόντων οὐδὲν πλέον ἔχοντες, τυγχάνουσιν οἱ βραδύτερον ἀφικνούμενοι τῶν θᾶττον παραγιγνομένων.
For just as, when the journey to the common homeland is set before all as necessary and unavoidable, some go before and others follow, but all come to the same place, in the same way, among those traveling to what is fated, those arriving more slowly have no advantage over those arriving more quickly.
εἴ γε μὴν ὁ ἄωρος θάνατος κακόν ἐστιν, ἀωρότατος ἂν εἴη ὁ τῶν νηπίων καὶ παίδων καὶ ἔτι μᾶλλον ὁ τῶν ἄρτι γεγονότων.
If indeed untimely death is an evil, most untimely would be that of infants and children, and still more that of those just born.
ἀλλὰ τοὺς τούτων θανάτους ῥᾳδίως φέρομεν καὶ εὐθύμως, τοὺς δὲ τῶν ἤδη προβεβηκότων δυσχερῶς καὶ πενθικῶς· διὰ τὸν ἐκ ματαίων ἐλπίδων ἀναπλασμόν, ἤδη νομιζόντων ἡμῶν βεβαίαν ἔχειν τὴν τῶν τηλικούτων διαμονήν.
But we bear the deaths of these easily and cheerfully, but those of people already advanced in age with difficulty and with mourning, because of the formation of belief from vain hopes, as we already think that the survival of people of such age is secure.
εἰ δʼ ὁ τῆς ζωῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων χρόνος εἰκοσαέτης ἦν, τὸν πεντεκαιδεκαέτη ἀπογενόμενον ἐνομίζομεν ἂν μηκέτʼ ἄωρον τελευτᾶν ἀλλʼ ἤδη μέτρον ἡλικίας ἔχοντα ἱκανόν· τὸν δὲ τὴν τῶν εἴκοσιν ἐτῶν προθεσμίαν ἐκπληρώσαντα ἢ τὸν ἐγγὺς γενόμενον τοῦ τῶν εἴκοσιν ἐτῶν ἀριθμοῦ πάντως ἂν ἐμακαρίζομεν ὡς εὐδαιμονέστατον καὶ τελειότατον διαπεράσαντα βίον.
But if the span of human life were twenty years, we would think that one dying at fifteen died no longer untimely, but already possessing a sufficient measure of age; and we would certainly bless the one who completed the limit of twenty years, or the one who came near to the number of twenty years, as having passed through a life most happy and most complete.
εἰ δὲ διακοσίων ἐτῶν ἦν, τὸν ἑκατὸν ἐτῶν τελευτήσαντα πάντως ἂν ἄωρον νομίζοντες εἶναι πρὸς ὀδυρμοὺς καὶ θρήνους ἐτραπόμεθα.
But if it were two hundred years, we would certainly think that one dying at one hundred was untimely, and we would turn ourselves to wailing and lamentations.