Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §12.8.1

Examining Essential Causes and the Origin of Turmoil

Passage 459 of 486 · Greek

Summary

The author exhorts the reader to behold the essential causes stripped of their husks, to examine the true nature of pain, death, and actions, and to realize that one's own restlessness comes from within and all is merely opinion.

§12.8.1Γυμνὰ τῶν φλοιῶν θεάσασθαι τὰ αἰτιώδη· τὰς ἀναφορὰς τῶν πράξεων· τί πόνος· τί ἡδονή· τί θάνατος· τί δόξα· τίς ὁ ἑαυτῷ ἀσχολίας αἴτιος· πῶς οὐδεὶς ὑπ’ ἄλλου ἐμποδίζεται· ὅτι πάντα ὑπόληψις.
To behold the causal principles stripped of their husks; the references of actions; what pain is, what pleasure is, what death is, what glory is; who is the cause of his own restlessness; how no one is hindered by another; and that all is opinion.

Notes

  1. §12.8.1Γυμνὰ τῶν φλοιῶν — The adjective γυμνός ("stripped of", "naked") governs the genitive τῶν φλοιῶν ("husks", "barks"). It functions here as a secondary predicate to the direct object of θεάσασθαι (namely τὰ αἰτιώδη), meaning "to behold the causal principles in a stripped, naked state."
  2. §12.8.1τὰ αἰτιώδη — Literally "the causal things" or "the causal principles". In Stoic philosophy, this refers to the active, formal principle of things, contrasted with the material cause (ὕλη).
  3. §12.8.1ἑαυῷ — Third-person reflexive pronoun in the masculine singular dative. It functions as a dative of interest (commodi) modifying the entire noun phrase (ὁ ... ἀσχολίας αἴτιος), meaning "who is the cause of restlessness to himself," used here instead of the expected genitive ἑαυτοῦ.

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §12.8.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:12.8.1

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.