Theophrastus · Fragments §156.1

Why Envious People Are More Miserable Than Others

Passage 161 of 196 · Greek

Summary

Explains why envious people are more unfortunate than others: while ordinary people grieve only for their own misfortunes, envious people continuously grieve for both their own misfortunes and the good fortune of others.

§156.1Fr. 156 Τοσοῦτον δέ εἰσιν οἱ φθονεροὶ δυστυχέστεροι τῶν ἄλλων ὅσον οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ ταῖς αὑτῶν συμφοραῖς ἀλγοῦσιν οἱ δὲ φθονοῦντες πρὸς τοῖς ἑαυτῶν κακοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς τῶν ἄλλων ἀγαθοῖς λυπούμενοι διατελοῦσιν.

Fr. 156 Envious people are so much more unfortunate than others to the extent that, while others grieve over their own misfortunes, those who envy continue to be pained by the good fortune of others in addition to their own misfortunes.

Notes

156.1Τοσοῦτον ... ὅσον — A correlation of adverbs expressing the degree of comparison: "by so much [more]... as...".
156.1πρὸς τοῖς ἑαυτῶν κακοῖς — The preposition πρὸς with the dative case means "in addition to". Here it emphasizes that envious people grieve not only for their own misfortunes but also for the good fortune of others.
156.1λυπούμενοι διατελοῦσιν — The verb διατελέω takes a supplementary participle (here λυπούμενοι) to mean "to continue/constantly do something." Thus, it means "they continuously grieve."

Cite this passage

Theophrastus, Fragments §156.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0093.tlg010x09.humanitext-grc1:156.1

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