Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §12.26.1

Truths of the Cosmos and Man to Recall When Discontented

Passage 476 of 486 · Greek

Summary

The author lists and reminds the reader of the cosmic laws, the kinship of mankind, the divinity of reason, and the fact that we live only in the present, which are easily forgotten when discontented.

§12.26.1Ὅταν δυσφορῇς ἐπί τινι, ἐπελάθου τοῦ, ὅτι πάντα κατὰ τὴν τῶν ὅλων φύσιν γίνεται, καὶ τοῦ, ὅτι τὸ ἁμαρτανόμενον ἀλλότριον, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις τοῦ, ὅτι πᾶν τὸ γινόμενον οὕτως ἀεὶ ἐγίνετο καὶ γενήσεται καὶ νῦν πανταχοῦ γίνεται· τοῦ, ὅση ἡ συγγένεια ἀνθρώπου πρὸς πᾶν τὸ ἀνθρώπειον γένος· οὐ γὰρ αἱματίου ἢ σπερματίου, ἀλλὰ νοῦ κοινωνία.
When you are discontented with anything, you have forgotten this: that everything happens according to the nature of the whole; and this: that the wrong committed belongs to another; and besides these, this: that everything which happens has always happened so, and will happen so, and is now happening everywhere; and this: how great is the kinship of man with all the human race, for it is a community not of a little blood or seed, but of reason.
ἐπελάθου δὲ καὶ τοῦ, ὅτι ὁ ἑκάστου νοῦς θεὸς καὶ ἐκεῖθεν ἐρρύηκεν· τοῦ, ὅτι οὐδὲν ἴδιον οὐδενός, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ τεκνίον καὶ τὸ σωμάτιον καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ ψυχάριον ἐκεῖθεν ἐλήλυθεν· τοῦ, ὅτι πάνθ’ ὑπόληψις· τοῦ, ὅτι τὸ παρὸν μόνον ἕκαστος ζῇ καὶ τοῦτο ἀποβάλλει.
And you have forgotten this also: that each man's reason is a god and has flowed from there; and this: that nothing is any man's own, but even his child, his body, and his very soul have come from there; and this: that everything is opinion; and this: that each man lives only the present, and this is what he loses.

Notes

  1. 12.26.1ἐπελάθου — The second-person singular aorist middle indicative of ἐπιλανθάνομαι (to forget). While homonymous with the imperative form, it is interpreted here as an indicative pointing out a present state of mind ('you have forgotten the fact that...') when one is discontented.
  2. 12.26.1τοῦ, ὅτι — The genitive article τοῦ serves as the direct object of the verb ἐπελάθου (which governs the genitive) and functions proleptically to introduce the following ὅτι clause as an appositive. This construction is repeated throughout the section to introduce successive forgotten truths.
  3. 12.26.1τεκνίον — Diminutives such as τεκνίον (little child), σωμάτιον (little body), and ψυχάριον (little soul) are used in succession. By employing these diminutives, the author stylistically emphasizes the insignificance and transience of the worldly and material things to which humans tend to cling.

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §12.26.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:12.26.1

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