Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §10.25.1

Resenting Cosmic Law as Being a Runaway Slave

Passage 399 of 486 · Greek

Summary

The author argues that not only those who break the law (which is the master) but also those who feel grief, anger, or fear toward cosmic ordinations are runaway slaves.

§10.25.1Ὁ τὸν κύριον φεύγων δραπέτης· κύριος δὲ ὁ νόμος καὶ ὁ παρανομῶν οὖν δραπέτης.
He who flees his master is a runaway slave; and the law is master, and so he who transgresses the law is a runaway slave.
ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ λυπούμενος ἢ ὀργιζόμενος ἢ φοβούμενος οὐ βούλεταί τι γεγονέναι ἢ γίνεσθαι ἢ γενήσεσθαι τῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ τὰ πάντα διοικοῦντος τεταγμένων, ὅς ἐστι νόμος, νέμων ὅσα ἑκάστῳ ἐπιβάλλει.
But also he who grieves or is angry or fears does not want anything to have happened, to be happening, or to be about to happen of those things which have been ordained by the one who administers all things, who is law, distributing to each what falls to his share.
ὁ ἄρα φοβούμενος ἢ λυπούμενος ἢ ὀργιζόμενος δραπέτης.
Therefore, he who fears or grieves or is angry is a runaway slave.

Notes

  1. 10.25.1δραπέτης — A noun meaning 'runaway slave'. It consistently functions as the predicate in this passage, comparing emotional resistance (grief, anger, fear) against the rational cosmic order to a slave's flight from their master.
  2. 10.25.1τι γεγονέναι ἢ γίνεσθαι ἢ γενήσεσθαι τῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ τὰ πάντα διοικοῦντος τεταγμένων — The perfect (γεγονέναι), present (γίνεσθαι), and future (γενήσεσθαι) infinitives are juxtaposed to cover occurrences across all dimensions of time. The indefinite pronoun τι (subject of the infinitives) is modified by the genitive participle phrase τῶν ... τεταγμένων acting as a partitive genitive ('any of the things ordained...').
  3. 10.25.1ὅς ἐστι νόμος, νέμων — The antecedent of the relative pronoun ὅς is 'the one who administers all things' (τοῦ τὰ πάντα διοικοῦντος). The participle νέμων (distributing) is in the nominative agreeing with ὅς, creating an etymological wordplay with the noun νόμος (law).

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §10.25.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:10.25.1

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