§3διὸ παῖδες ἰατρῶν βούλονται μὲν μὴ νοσεῖν τὸν ἄνθρωπον, νοσοῦντα δὲ μὴ ἀγνοεῖν ὅτι νοσεῖ· ὃ τοῖς ψυχικοῖς πάθεσι πᾶσι συμβέβηκεν.
Therefore, the disciples of medicine wish, on the one hand, that man should not be sick, and on the other hand, that when he is sick, he should not be ignorant of the fact that he is sick; but this is what happens in all the passions of the soul.
οὔτε γὰρ ἀφραίνοντες οὔτʼ ἀσελγαίνοντες οὔτʼ ἀδικοπραγοῦντες ἁμαρτάνειν δοκοῦσιν, ἀλλʼ ἔνιοι καὶ κατορθοῦν.
For neither those who act foolishly, nor those who act licentiously, nor those who act unjustly, think that they are doing wrong, but some even think they are doing right.
πυρετὸν μὲν γὰρ οὐδεὶς ὑγίειαν ὠνόμασεν οὐδὲ φθίσιν εὐεξίαν οὐδὲ ποδάγραν ποδώκειαν οὐδʼ ὠχρίασιν ἐρύθημα, θυμὸν δὲ πολλοὶ καλοῦσιν ἀνδρείαν καὶ ἔρωτα φιλίαν καὶ φθόνον ἅμιλλαν καὶ δειλίαν ἀσφάλειαν.
For no one has ever called a fever health, nor consumption physical well-being, nor gout swiftness of foot, nor paleness a healthy flush; but many call anger courage, and passionate love friendship, and envy rivalry, and cowardice caution.
εἶθʼ οἱ μὲν καλοῦσι τοὺς ἰατρούς, αἰσθάνονται γὰρ ὧν δέονται πρὸς ἃ νοσοῦσιν οἱ δὲ φεύγουσι τοὺς φιλοσόφους, οἴονται γὰρ ἐπιτυγχάνειν ἐν οἷς διαμαρτάνουσιν.
Then, the former call for doctors, because they perceive what they need for their illnesses; but the latter flee from philosophers, because they think they are succeeding in the very things in which they are failing.
ἐπεὶ τούτῳ γε τῷ λόγῳ χρώμενοι λέγομεν, ὅτι κουφότερόν ἐστιν ὀφθαλμία μανίας καὶ ποδάγρα φρενίτιδος.
Since, indeed, using this very reasoning, we say that ophthalmia is lighter than madness, and gout than phrenitis.
ὁ μὲν γὰρ αἰσθάνεται καὶ καλεῖ τὸν ἰατρὸν κεκραγώς καὶ παρόντι τὴν ὄψιν ἀλεῖψαι παρέχει, τὴν φλέβα τεμεῖν, τὴν κεφαλὴν θεραπεῦσαι παραδίδωσιν τῆς δὲ μαινομένης Ἀγαύης ἀκούεις ὑπὸ τοῦ πάθους τὰ φίλτατʼ ἠγνοηκυίας,
"
ἄγομεν ἐξ ὄρεος
ἕλικα νεότομον ἐπὶ μέλαθρα,
μακάριον θήραμα.
For the former perceives his condition and calls the doctor with a cry, and when he arrives, permits him to anoint his eyes, to open a vein, and delivers his head to be treated; but you hear the mad Agave, who through her passion is ignorant of her dearest ones, singing: "We bring from the mountain a freshly cut branch to the palace, a blessed prey.
"
Καὶ γὰρ ὁ μὲν τῷ σώματι νοσῶν εὐθὺς ἐνδοὺς καὶ καθεὶς εἰς τὸ κλινίδιον ἑαυτὸν ἡσυχίαν ἄγει θεραπευόμενος· ἂν δέ που μικρὸν ἐξᾴξῃ καὶ διασκιρτήσῃ τὸ σῶμα φλεγμονῆς προσπεσούσης, εἰπών τις τῶν παρακαθημένων πράως
"μένʼ, ὦ ταλαίπωρʼ, ἀτρέμα σοῖς ἐν δεμνίοις"
ἐπέστησε καὶ κατέσχεν.
"For indeed, the one who is sick in body immediately gives in and, laying himself down in his little bed, remains quiet while being treated; and if perhaps the body leaps up a little and starts about when a fit of inflammation falls upon it, someone sitting nearby says gently: "Remain, wretched one, quietly in your bed," and thus stays and restrains him.
οἱ δʼ ἐν τοῖς ψυχικοῖς πάθεσιν ὄντες, τότε μάλιστα πράττουσι, τόθʼ ἥκιστα ἡσυχάζουσιν αἱ γὰρ ὁρμαὶ τῶν πράξεων ἀρχή, τὰ δὲ πάθη σφοδρότητες ὁρμῶν.
But those who are in the passions of the soul act most of all at that very time, and then least of all remain quiet; for impulses are the beginning of actions, and passions are the violent intensities of impulses.
διὸ τὴν ψυχὴν ἠρεμεῖν οὐκ ἐῶσιν, ἀλλʼ ὅτε μάλιστα δεῖται μονῆς καὶ σιωπῆς καὶ ὑποστολῆς ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τότʼ αὐτὸν εἰς ὕπαιθρον ἕλκουσι, τότʼ ἀποκαλύπτουσιν οἱ θυμοὶ αἱ φιλονεικίαι οἱ ἔρωτες αἱ λῦπαι, πολλὰ καὶ δρᾶν ἄνομα καὶ λαλεῖν ἀνάρμοστα τοῖς καιροῖς ἀναγκαζόμενον.
Therefore, they do not allow the soul to be at rest, but at the very time when a man most needs stay and silence and withdrawal, then they drag him into the open, then angers, rivalries, loves, and griefs expose him, forced as he is to do many unlawful things and to speak words unsuited to the occasion.
§4ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐπισφαλέστερος χειμὼν τοῦ πλεῖν οὐκ ἐῶντος ὁ κωλύων καθορμίσασθαι· οὕτως οἱ κατὰ ψυχὴν χειμῶνες βαρύτεροι στείλασθαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἐῶντες οὐδʼ ἐπιστῆσαι τεταραγμένον τὸν λογισμόν· ἀλλʼ ἀκυβέρνητος καὶ ἀνερμάτιστος ἐν ταραχῇ καὶ πλάνῃ δρόμοις ὀλεθρίοις καὶ παραφόροις διατραχηλιζόμενος εἴς τι ναυάγιον φοβερὸν ἐξέπεσε καὶ συνέτριψε τὸν ἑαυτοῦ βίον.
For just as a storm which prevents one from making harbor is more dangerous than one which does not allow one to sail; so the storms of the soul are heavier, since they do not allow a man to furl his sails nor to steady his disturbed reason; but, pilotless and without ballast, in confusion and wandering, hurried headlong on destructive and ruinous courses, he is cast away in some terrible shipwreck and shatters his own life.
ὥστε καὶ διὰ ταῦτα καὶ τούτοις χεῖρον νοσεῖν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἢ τοῖς σώμασιν· τοῖς μὲν γὰρ πάσχειν μόνον τοῖς δὲ καὶ πάσχειν καὶ ποιεῖν κακῶς συμβέβηκε.
So, both for these reasons and in these respects, it is worse to be sick in the soul than in the body; for to the latter it happens only to suffer, but to the former both to suffer and to do evil.
καὶ τί δεῖ τὰ πολλὰ λέγειν τῶν παθῶν, ὧν αὐτὸς ὁ καιρὸς ὑπόμνησίς ἐστιν;
And why is it necessary to speak of the many passions, of which this very occasion is a reminder?
ὁρᾶτε τὸν πολὺν καὶ παμμιγῆ τοῦτον τὸν ἐνταῦθα συνηραγμένον καὶ κυκώμενον ὄχλον περὶ τὸ βῆμα καὶ τὴν ἀγοράν;
Do you see this vast and mixed crowd gathered together here and seething around the rostra and the marketplace?
οὐ θύσοντες οὗτοι συνεληλύθασι πατρίοις θεοῖς οὐδʼ ὁμογνίων μεθέξοντες ἱερῶν ἀλλήλοις, οὐκ Ἀσκραίῳ Διὶ Λυδίων καρπῶν ἀπαρχὰς φέροντες οὐδὲ Διονύσῳ βεβακχευμένον θύσθλον ἱεραῖς νυξὶ καὶ κοινοῖς ὀργιάσοντες κώμοις· ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ἐτησίοις περιόδοις ἀκμὴ νοσήματος ἐκτραχύνασα τὴν Ἀσίαν ἐπὶ δίκας καὶ ἀγῶνας ἐμπροθέσμως ἥκουσαν ἐνταῦθα συμβάλλει· καὶ πλῆθος ὥσπερ ῥευμάτων ἀθρόων εἰς μίαν ἐμπέπτωκεν ἀγορὰν καὶ φλεγμαίνει καὶ· συνέρρωγεν
ὀλλύντων τε καὶ ὀλλυμένων
ποίων ταῦτα πυρετῶν ἔργα ποίων δʼ ἠπιάλων;
They have not assembled to sacrifice to their ancestral gods, nor to share family rites with one another; they are not bringing the first fruits of Lydian crops to Ascraean Zeus, nor are they going to celebrate Dionysus with reveling vessels during holy nights and common processions; but, as if by annual periods, the height of a disease having roughened Asia, has driven them here for lawsuits and contests at the appointed time, and has brought them to clash; and a multitude, like a flood of sudden torrents, has fallen into a single marketplace, and is inflamed and has broken out: "of those destroying and those destroyed." What kind of fevers are these the works of, what kind of agues?
τίνες ἐνστάσεις ἢ παρεμπτώσεις ἢ δυσκρασία θερμῶν ἢ ὑπέρχυσις ὑγρῶν;
What blockages or incursions, or disharmony of heat, or overflow of humours?
ἂν ἑκάστην δίκην ὥσπερ ἄνθρωπον ἀνακρίνῃς πόθεν πέφυκε πόθεν ἥκει, τὴν μὲν θυμὸς αὐθάδης γεγέννηκε τὴν δὲ μανιώδης φιλονεικία τὴν δʼ ἄδικος ἐπιθυμία.
If you examine each lawsuit like a human being, as to where it was born and whence it came, you will find that one was fathered by stubborn anger, another by mad rivalry, and another by unjust desire.