§21Ἐπίκουρος
οὐ μακρά, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐρῶ· δεῖ γὰρ οὐδὲ πολλῶν μοι τῶν λόγων.
Epicurus I shall not speak at length to you, gentlemen of the jury; for indeed I have no need of many words.
ἀλλʼ εἰ μὲν ἐπῳδαῖς τισιν ἢ φαρμάκοις ὅν φησιν ἐραστὴν ἑαυτῆς ἡ Στοὰ τὸν Διονύσιον κατηνάγκασεν ταύτης μὲν ἀπέχεσθαι, πρὸς ἑαυτὴν δὲ ἀποβλέπειν ἡ Ἡδονή, φαρμακὶς ἂν εἰκότως ἔδοξεν καὶ ἀδικεῖν ἐκέκριτο ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους ἐραστὰς μαγγανεύουσα.
But if Pleasure, by some incantations or drugs, had compelled Dionysius, whom the Stoa claims to be her own lover, to keep away from her and to look towards herself, she would naturally have seemed a sorceress and been judged to do wrong, practicing witchcraft against others' lovers.
εἰ δέ τις ἐλεύθερος ἐν ἐλευθέρᾳ τῇ πόλει, μὴ ἀπαγορευόντων τῶν νόμων, τὴν παρὰ ταύτης ἀηδίαν μυσαχθεὶς καὶ ἥν φησι κεφάλαιον τῶν πόνων τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν παραγίγνεσθαι λῆρον οἰηθείς, τοὺς μὲν ἀγκύλους ἐκείνους λόγους καὶ λαβυρίνθοις ὁμοίους ἀπέφυγε, πρὸς δὲ τὴν Ἡδονὴν ἄσμενος ἐδραπέτευσεν ὥσπερ δεσμά τινα διακόψας τὰς τῶν λόγων πλεκτάνας, ἀνθρώπινα καὶ οὐ βλακώδη φρονήσας καὶ τὸν μὲν πόνον, ὅπερ ἐστί, πονηρόν, ἡδεῖαν δὲ τὴν ἡδονὴν οἰηθείς, ἀποκλείειν ἐχρῆν αὐτόν, ὥσπερ ἐκ ναυαγίου λιμένι προσνέοντα καὶ γαλήνης ἐπιθυμοῦντα συνωθοῦντας ἐπὶ κεφαλὴν εἰς τὸν πόνον, καὶ ἔκδοτον τὸν ἄθλιον παρέχειν ταῖς ἀπορίαις, καὶ ταῦτα ὥσπερ ἱκέτην ἐπὶ τὸν τοῦ Ἐλέου βωμὸν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἡδονὴν καταφεύγοντα, ἵνα τὴν πολυθρύλητον ἀρετὴν δηλαδὴ ἐπὶ τὸ ὄρθιον ἱδρῶτι πολλῷ ἀνελθὼν ἴδῃ κᾆτα διʼ ὅλου πονήσας τοῦ βίου εὐδαιμονήσῃ μετὰ τὸν βίον;
But if a free man in a free city, when the laws do not forbid, having felt disgust at the unpleasantness from her, and having deemed a jest her claim that happiness comes as the crown of labors, fled those crooked and labyrinth-like arguments and gladly escaped to Pleasure, having, as it were, cut through the fetters of the webs of words, having minded human and not stupid things, and having thought labor to be evil, which indeed it is, and pleasure to be sweet—should they have shut him out, pushing him headlong into labor when he was swimming from a shipwreck towards a harbor and desiring calm, and should they have delivered up the miserable man to difficulties, and that too when he was fleeing to Pleasure like a suppliant to the Altar of Mercy, so that, forsooth, having ascended to the steep height with much sweat he might see the much-talked-of virtue, and then, having labored through his whole life, be happy after life?
καίτοι τίς ἂν κριτὴς δικαιότερος δόξειεν αὐτοῦ ἐκείνου, ὃς τὰ παρὰ τῆς Στοᾶς εἰδώς, εἰ καί τις ἄλλος, καὶ μόνον τέως τὸ καλὸν ἀγαθὸν οἰόμενος εἶναι, μεταμαθὼν ὡς κακὸν ὁ πόνος ἦν, τὸ βέλτιον ἐξ ἀμφοῖν δοκιμάσας εἵλετο;
And yet, what judge would seem more just than he himself, who, knowing the doctrines of the Stoa as well as anyone else, and having previously thought only the noble to be good, having learned instead that labor was evil, chose after testing the better of the two?
ἑώρα γάρ, οἶμαι, τούτους περὶ τοῦ καρτερεῖν καὶ ἀνέχεσθαι τοὺς πόνους πολλὰ διεξιόντας, ἰδίᾳ δὲ τὴν Ἡδονὴν θεραπεύοντας, καὶ μέχρι τοῦ λόγου νεανιευομένους, οἴκοι δὲ κατὰ τοὺς τῆς Ἡδονῆς νόμους βιοῦντας, αἰσχυνομένους μὲν εἰ φανοῦνται χαλῶντες τοῦ τόνου καὶ προδιδόντες τὸ δόγμα, πεπονθότας δὲ ἀθλίους τὸ τοῦ Ταντάλου, καὶ ἔνθα ἂν λήσειν καὶ ἀσφαλῶς παρανομήσειν ἐλπίσωσιν, χανδὸν ἐμπιμπλαμένους τοῦ ἡδέος.
For he saw, I think, these people discoursing much about enduring and bearing labors, but in private serving Pleasure, and playing the youth only as far as words go, but at home living according to the laws of Pleasure, being ashamed indeed if they should appear relaxing their tension and betraying their dogma, but suffering miserably the fate of Tantalus, and wherever they hope to escape notice and break the law safely, filling themselves greedily with sweetness.
εἰ γοῦν τις αὐτοῖς τὸν τοῦ Γύγου δακτύλιον ἔδωκεν, ὡς περιθεμένους μὴ ὁρᾶσθαι, ἢ τὴν τοῦ Ἄϊδος κυνῆν, εὖ οἶδʼ ὅτι μακρὰ χαίρειν τοῖς πόνοις φράσαντες ἐπὶ τὴν Ἡδονὴν ὠθοῦντο ἂν καὶ ἐμιμοῦντο ἅπαντες τὸν Διονύσιον, ὃς μέχρι μὲν τῆς νόσου ἤλπιζεν ὠφελήσειν τι αὐτὸν τοὺς περὶ τῆς καρτερίας λόγους· ἐπεὶ δὲ ἤλγησεν καὶ ἐνόσησεν καὶ ὁ πόνος ἀληθέστερος αὐτοῦ καθίκετο, ἰδὼν τὸ σῶμα τὸ ἑαυτοῦ ἀντιφιλοσοφοῦν τῇ Στοᾷ καὶ τἀναντία δογματίζον, αὐτῷ μᾶλλον ἢ τούτοις ἐπίστευσεν καὶ ἔγνω ἄνθρωπος ὢν καὶ ἀνθρώπου σῶμα ἔχων, καὶ διετέλεσεν οὐχ ὡς ἀνδριάντι αὐτῷ χρώμενος, εἰδὼς ὅτι ὃς ἂν ἄλλως λέγῃ καὶ Ἡδονῆς κατηγορῇ,
"λόγοισι χαίρει, τὸν δὲ νοῦν ἐκεῖς’ ἔχει. "
εἴρηκα· ὑμεῖς δʼ ἐπὶ τούτοις ψηφοφορήσατε.
At any rate, if someone had given them Gyges' ring, so that they would not be seen when they put it on, or the helmet of Hades, I know well that, having bidden a long farewell to labors, they would have rushed towards Pleasure and all would have imitated Dionysius, who until his illness hoped that the arguments about endurance would benefit him somewhat; but when he felt pain and fell ill, and labor came upon him more truly, seeing his own body philosophizing against the Stoa and dogmatizing the opposite, he believed it rather than them, and recognized that he was a human being and had a human body, and continued not treating himself as a statue, knowing that whoever says otherwise and accuses Pleasure, "rejoices in words, but has his mind over there." I have spoken; and you, cast your votes upon these things.