§7.5ἐπεὶ δʼ ἐστὶν ἔνια μὲν ἡδέα φύσει, καὶ τούτων τὰ μὲν ἁπλῶς τὰ δὲ κατὰ γένη καὶ ζῴων καὶ ἀνθρώπων, τὰ δʼ οὐκ ἔστιν, ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν διὰ πηρώσεις τὰ δὲ διʼ ἔθη γίνεται, τὰ δὲ διὰ μοχθηρὰς φύσεις, ἔστι καὶ περὶ τούτων ἕκαστα παραπλησίας ἰδεῖν ἕξεις·
Since some things are pleasant by nature, and of these some are so unqualifiedly and others according to the classes of animals and humans, while other things are not pleasant by nature but some become so through deformities, others through habit, and others through bad natures, one can see in each of these cases states corresponding to them.
λέγω δὲ τὰς θηριώδεις, οἷον τὴν ἄνθρωπον ἣν λέγουσι τὰς κυούσας ἀνασχίζουσαν τὰ παιδία κατεσθίειν, ἢ οἵοις χαίρειν φασὶν ἐνίους τῶν ἀπηγριωμένων περὶ τὸν Πόντον, τοὺς μὲν ὠμοῖς τοὺς δὲ ἀνθρώπων κρέασιν, τοὺς δὲ τὰ παιδία δανείζειν ἀλλήλοις εἰς εὐωχίαν, ἢ τὸ περὶ Φάλαριν λεγόμενον.
I mean the brutish states, such as the woman who they say rips open pregnant women and devours the children, or the things in which some of the wild tribes around the Black Sea are said to delight—some in raw meat, others in human flesh, and others in lending their children to one another for a feast—or what is said about Phalaris.
αὗται μὲν θηριώδεις, αἳ δὲ διὰ νόσους γίνονται (καὶ διὰ μανίαν ἐνίοις, ὥσπερ ὁ τὴν μητέρα καθιερεύσας καὶ φαγών, καὶ ὁ τοῦ συνδούλου τὸ ἧπαρ) αἳ δὲ νοσηματώδεις ἢ ἐξ ἔθους, οἷον τριχῶν τίλσεις καὶ ὀνύχων τρώξεις, ἔτι δʼ ἀνθράκων καὶ γῆς, πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ἡ τῶν ἀφροδισίων τοῖς ἄρρεσιν· τοῖς μὲν γὰρ φύσει τοῖς δʼ ἐξ ἔθους συμβαίνουσιν, οἷον τοῖς ὑβριζομένοις ἐκ παίδων.
These are brutish states, while others arise from disease (and in some from madness, like the man who sacrificed and ate his mother, and the one who ate the liver of his fellow slave), and others are morbid or from habit, such as plucking out hair and biting nails, and further, eating charcoal and earth, and in addition to these, sexual relations among males; for to some these occur by nature, and to others from habit, as with those who have been abused from childhood.
ὅσοις μὲν οὖν φύσις αἰτία, τούτους μὲν οὐδεὶς ἂν εἴπειεν ἀκρατεῖς, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τὰς γυναῖκας, ὅτι οὐκ ὀπύουσιν ἀλλʼ ὀπύονται· ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ ὅσοι νοσηματώδως ἔχουσι διʼ ἔθος.
In those, then, for whom nature is the cause, no one would call them incontinent, just as women are not called so because they do not play the active but the passive role in sexual intercourse; and likewise for those who are in a morbid state because of habit.
τὸ μὲν οὖν ἔχειν ἕκαστα τούτων ἔξω τῶν ὅρων ἐστὶ τῆς κακίας, καθάπερ καὶ ἡ θηριότης· τὸν δʼ ἔχοντα κρατεῖν ἢ κρατεῖσθαι οὐχ ἡ ἁπλῆ ἀκρασία ἀλλʼ ἡ καθʼ ὁμοιότητα, καθάπερ καὶ τὸν περὶ τοὺς θυμοὺς ἔχοντα τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον τοῦ πάθους, ἀκρατῆ δʼ οὐ λεκτέον.
Therefore, having each of these is outside the limits of vice, just as brutishness is; but for one who has them to master them or be mastered by them is not unqualified incontinence, but that by resemblance, just as the person who is in this state in relation to anger is not to be called incontinent.
πᾶσα γὰρ ὑπερβάλλουσα καὶ ἀφροσύνη καὶ δειλία καὶ ἀκολασία καὶ χαλεπότης αἳ μὲν θηριώδεις αἳ δὲ νοσηματώδεις εἰσίν·
For every excessive state of folly, cowardice, licentiousness, and cruelty is either brutish or morbid.
ὁ μὲν γὰρ φύσει τοιοῦτος οἷος δεδιέναι πάντα, κἂν ψοφήσῃ μῦς, θηριώδη δειλίαν δειλός, ὃ δὲ τὴν γαλῆν ἐδεδίει διὰ νόσον· καὶ τῶν ἀφρόνων οἱ μὲν ἐκ φύσεως ἀλόγιστοι καὶ μόνον τῇ αἰσθήσει ζῶντες θηριώδεις, ὥσπερ ἔνια γένη τῶν πόρρω βαρβάρων, οἱ δὲ διὰ νόσους, οἷον τὰς ἐπιληπτικάς, ἢ μανίας νοσηματώδεις.
For he who is by nature such as to fear everything, even if a mouse makes a sound, is cowardly with a brutish cowardice, while the man who feared the weasel did so because of disease; and of the foolish, those who are by nature irrational and live by sense alone are brutish, like some tribes of distant barbarians, while others are so because of disease, such as epilepsy, or morbid madness.
τούτων δʼ ἔστι μὲν ἔχειν τινὰ ἐνίοτε μὲν μόνον, μὴ κρατεῖσθαι δέ, λέγω δὲ οἷον εἰ Φάλαρις κατεῖχεν ἐπιθυμῶν παιδίου φαγεῖν ἢ πρὸς ἀφροδισίων ἄτοπον ἡδονήν· ἔστι δὲ καὶ κρατεῖσθαι, μὴ μόνον ἔχειν·
Of these states, it is possible sometimes merely to have them but not to be mastered by them—I mean, for example, if Phalaris held back when desiring to eat a child or desiring some absurd sexual pleasure—and it is also possible to be mastered, and not merely to have them.
ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ μοχθηρίας ἡ μὲν κατʼ ἄνθρωπον ἁπλῶς λέγεται μοχθηρία, ἣ δὲ κατὰ πρόσθεσιν, ὅτι θηριώδης ἢ νοσηματώδης, ἁπλῶς δʼ οὔ, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον δῆλον ὅτι καὶ ἀκρασία ἐστὶν ἣ μὲν θηριώδης ἣ δὲ νοσηματώδης, ἁπλῶς δὲ ἡ κατὰ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ἀκολασίαν μόνη.
Just as, then, in the case of vice, that which is in accordance with human nature is called vice unqualifiedly, while the other is called so with an addition, as 'brutish' or 'morbid', but not unqualifiedly, in the same way it is clear that there is one incontinence which is brutish and another which is morbid, but unqualified incontinence is only that which corresponds to human licentiousness.
ὅτι μὲν οὖν ἀκρασία καὶ ἐγκράτειά ἐστι μόνον περὶ ἅπερ ἀκολασία καὶ σωφροσύνη, καὶ ὅτι περὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἐστὶν ἄλλο εἶδος ἀκρασίας, λεγόμενον κατὰ μεταφορὰν καὶ οὐχ ἁπλῶς, δῆλον.
That incontinence and continence, then, are only concerned with the same things as licentiousness and temperance, and that in relation to other things there is another kind of incontinence, so called metaphorically and not unqualifiedly, is clear.