§3αἰσχρὰ μὲν δὴ πάντα τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς νοσήματα καὶ πάθη, τὸ δὲ γαῦρον ἐνίοις ὅμως καὶ ὑψηλὸν καὶ διηρμένον ἔνεστιν ὑπὸ κουφότητος, δραστηρίου δʼ ὁρμῆς οὐδὲν ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν ἀπεστέρηται.
All the diseases and passions of the soul are indeed shameful, yet some of them nevertheless possess a certain pride, loftiness, and elevation, due to flightiness, and, so to speak, not one of them is deprived of active impulse.
ἀλλὰ τοῦτο δὴ τὸ κοινὸν ἔγκλημα παντὸς πάθους ἐστίν, ὅτι ταῖς πρακτικαῖς ὁρμαῖς ἐκβιαζόμενα κατεπείγει καὶ συντείνει τὸν λογισμόν.
But this is indeed the common charge against every passion, that, being forced by active impulses, they urge on and strain the reasoning power.
μόνος δʼ ὁ φόβος, οὐχ ἧττον ὢν τόλμης ἐνδεὴς ἢ λογισμοῦ, ἄπρακτον ἔχει καὶ ἄπορον καὶ ἀμήχανον τὸ ἀλόγιστον.
But fear alone, being no less lacking in courage than in reason, keeps its irrationality inactive, helpless, and without resource.
ᾗ καὶ δεῖμα καὶ τάρβος αὐτοῦ τὸ συνδέον ὁμοῦ τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ ταράττον ὠνόμασται.
Wherefore also its names, deima (dread) and tarbos (terror), have been derived from its binding fast and at the same time disturbing the soul.
φόβων δὲ πάντων ἀπρακτότατος καὶ ἀπορώτατος ὁ τῆς δεισιδαιμονίας.
And of all fears, the most inactive and helpless is that of superstition.
οὐ φοβεῖται θάλασσαν ὁ μὴ πλέων οὐδὲ πόλεμον ὁ μὴ στρατευόμενος, οὐδὲ λῃστὰς ὁ οἰκουρῶν οὐδὲ συκοφάντην ὁ πένης οὐδὲ φθόνον ὁ ἰδιώτης, οὐδὲ σεισμὸν ὁ ἐν Γαλάταις οὐδὲ κεραυνὸν ὁ ἐν Αἰθίοψιν·
He who does not sail does not fear the sea, nor does he who does not serve in the army fear war; neither does the stay-at-home fear robbers, nor the poor man the sycophant, nor the private citizen envy, nor the inhabitant of Gaul earthquakes, nor the Ethiopian thunderbolts.
ὁ δὲ θεοὺς δεδιὼς πάντα δέδιε, γῆν θάλατταν ἀέρα οὐρανὸν σκότος φῶς κληδόνα σιωπὴν ὄνειρον.
But he who fears the gods fears everything— earth, sea, air, heaven, darkness, light, a voice of omen, silence, a dream.
οἱ δοῦλοι τῶν δεσποτῶν ἐπιλανθάνονται καθεύδοντες, τοῖς πεδήταις ἐπελαφρύνει τὸν δεσμὸν ὁ ὕπνος, φλεγμοναὶ περὶ τραύματα καὶ νομαὶ σαρκὸς θηριώδεις καὶ περιωδυνίαι κοιμωμένων ἀφίστανται· "
ὦ φίλον ὕπνου θέλγητρον ἐπίκουρον νόσου,
ὡς ἡδύ μοι προσῆλθες ἐν δέοντί γε.
Slaves forget their masters when they are asleep, sleep lightens the chain for those in fetters, and inflammations around wounds, savage eating-sores of the flesh, and intense pains depart from those who sleep: "O sweet charm of sleep, helper in disease, how gratefully you came to me in my time of need!
"
τοῦτʼ οὐ δίδωσιν εἰπεῖν ἡ δεισιδαιμονία (μόνη γὰρ οὐ σπένδεται πρὸς τὸν ὕπνον, οὐδὲ τῇ ψυχῇ ποτε γοῦν δίδωσιν ἀναπνεῦσαι καὶ ἀναθαρρῆσαι τὰς πικρὰς καὶ βαρείας περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ δόξας ἀπωσαμένῃ), ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ἐν ἀσεβῶν χώρῳ τῷ ὕπνῳ τῶν δεισιδαιμόνων εἴδωλα φρικώδη καὶ τεράστια φάσματα καὶ ποινάς τινας ἐγείρουσα καὶ στροβοῦσα τὴν ἀθλίαν ψυχὴν ἐκδιώκει τοῖς ὀνείροις ἐκ τῶν ὕπνων, μαστιζομένην καὶ κολαζομένην αὐτὴν ὑφʼ αὑτῆς ὡς ὑφʼ ἑτέρου, καὶ δεινὰ προστάγματα καὶ ἀλλόκοτα λαμβάνουσαν.
"Superstition does not allow one to say this (for it alone makes no truce with sleep, nor does it ever at least grant the soul to take breath and take courage by thrusting away its bitter and heavy opinions about God), but, as though sleep were the place of the impious, raising up dreadful phantoms, monstrous specters, and certain agents of vengeance for the superstitious, and tossing the wretched soul about, it drives it out of sleep by means of dreams, while the soul is scourged and punished by itself as though by another, and receives dread and unnatural commands.
εἶτʼ ἐξαναστάντες οὐ κατεφρόνησαν οὐδὲ κατεγέλασαν, οὐδʼ ᾔσθοντο ὅτι τῶν ταραξάντων οὐδὲν ἦν ἀληθινόν, ἀλλὰ σκιὰν φεύγοντες ἀπάτης οὐδὲν κακὸν ἐχούσης ὕπαρ ἐξαπατῶσιν ἑαυτοὺς καὶ δαπανῶσι καὶ ταράττουσιν, εἰς ἀγύρτας καὶ γόητας ἐμπεσόντες λέγοντας
"
ἀλλʼ εἴτʼ ἔνυπνον φάντασμα φοβεῖ,
χθονίας θʼ Ἑκάτης κῶμον ἐδέξω,
"
τὴν περιμάκτριαν κάλει γραῦν καὶ βάπτισον σεαυτὸν εἰς θάλασσαν καὶ καθίσας ἐν τῇ γῇ διημέρευσον.
Then, when they have arisen, they do not despise or laugh at these things, nor do they perceive that none of the things that disturbed them was real; but, fleeing from the shadow of an illusion which contains no real evil, they deceive, exhaust, and disturb themselves in their waking hours, falling into the hands of begging priests and charlatans who say: "But if you fear a phantom in your sleep, or have received a revel-rout of chthonic Hecate, "call the old woman who purifies by wiping, and plunge yourself into the sea, and sit down on the earth and spend the day.
"ὦ βάρβαρʼ ἐξευρόντες Ἕλληνες κακά"
τῇ δεισιδαιμονίᾳ, πηλώσεις καταβορβορώσεις βαπτισμούς, ῥίψεις ἐπὶ πρόσωπον, αἰσχρὰς προκαθίσεις, ἀλλοκότους προσκυνήσεις.
"O Greeks, who have found out barbarian evils" through superstition, such as smearing with mud, wallowing in filth, plungings in water, prostrations on the face, shameful squatting on the ground, and uncouth gestures of worship!
δικαίῳ τῷ στόματι τοὺς κιθαρῳδοὺς ἐκέλευον ᾄδειν οἱ τὴν νόμιμον μουσικὴν σῴζειν δοκοῦντες· ἡμεῖς δὲ τοῖς θεοῖς ἀξιοῦμεν ὀρθῷ τῷ στόματι καὶ δικαίῳ προσεύχεσθαι, καὶ μὴ τὴν ἐπὶ τῶν σπλάγχνων μὲν γλῶτταν εἰ καθαρὰ καὶ ὀρθὴ σκοπεῖν, τὴν δʼ ἑαυτῶν διαστρέφοντας καὶ μολύνοντας ἀτόποις ὀνόμασι καὶ ῥήμασι βαρβαρικοῖς καταισχύνειν καὶ παρανομεῖν εἰς τὸ θεῖον καὶ πάτριον ἀξίωμα τῆς εὐσεβείας.
Those who aimed to preserve the traditional music used to order the cithara-players to sing with a "correct mouth"; but we demand that we pray to the gods with an upright and correct mouth, and not, while we examine whether the tongue of the sacrificial victim's entrails is clean and straight, to disgrace and violate the divine and ancestral dignity of piety by distorting and defiling our own tongue with strange names and barbarian words.
ἀλλʼ ὅ γε κωμικὸς οὐκ ἀηδῶς εἴρηκέ που πρὸς τοὺς καταχρυσοῦντας τὰ κλινίδια καὶ καταργυροῦντας
"
ὅ τι μόνον ἡμῖν προῖκʼ ἔδωκαν οἱ θεοὶ
τὸν ὕπνον, τί τοῦτο πολυτελὲς σαυτῷ ποιεῖς;
But the comic poet has not unpleasantly said somewhere to those who gild and plate their couches with silver: "Since sleep is the only thing the gods have given us for nothing, why do you make this so costly for yourself?
"
ἔστι δὲ καὶ πρὸς τὸν δεισιδαίμονα εἰπεῖν ὅ τι τὸν ὕπνον οἱ θεοὶ λήθην κακῶν ἔδοσαν ἡμῖν καὶ ἀνάπαυσιν, τί τοῦτο κολαστήριον σαυτῷ ποιεῖς ἐπίμονον καὶ ὀδυνηρόν, τῆς ἀθλίας ψυχῆς εἰς ἄλλον ὕπνον ἀποδρᾶναι μὴ δυναμένης; ὁ Ἡράκλειτός φησι τοῖς ἐγρηγορόσιν ἕνα καὶ κοινὸν κόσμον εἶναι, τῶν δὲ κοιμωμένων ἕκαστον εἰς ἴδιον ἀναστρέφεσθαι.
"And one may also say to the superstitious person: "Since the gods have given us sleep as a forgetfulness of evils and a respite, why do you make this a lasting and painful torture-chamber for yourself, when your wretched soul is unable to escape to another sleep?" Heraclitus says that for those who are awake there is one common world, but of those who are asleep each turns aside into a world of his own.
τῷ δὲ δεισιδαίμονι κοινὸς οὐδεὶς οὐδʼ ἴδιός ἐστι κόσμος· οὔτε γὰρ ἐγρηγορὼς τῷ φρονοῦντι χρῆται οὔτε κοιμώμενος ἀπαλλάττεται τοῦ ταράττοντος, ἀλλʼ ὀνειρώττει μὲν ὁ λογισμός, ἐγρήγορε δʼ ὁ φόβος ἀεί, φυγὴ δʼ οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδὲ μετάστασις.
But for the superstitious person, there is no world, neither common nor private; for neither when awake does he make use of his intelligence, nor when asleep is he rid of that which disturbs him, but his reason is dreaming, and his fear is ever awake, and there is no escape or change of place.