Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §3.8.1

The Purified Mind and a Life Free from Incompleteness

Passage 42 of 486 · Greek

Summary

The author explains that the mind of a disciplined and purified person contains no defilement or incompleteness, and their life is never cut short like an actor leaving mid-performance, being entirely free from subservience or deceit.

§3.8.1Οὐδὲν ἂν ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ τοῦ κεκολασμένου καὶ ἐκκεκαθαρμένου πυῶδες οὐδὲ μὴν μεμολυσμένον οὐδὲ ὕπουλον εὕροις·
In the mind of one who is disciplined and purified, you would find nothing suppurating, nor indeed defiled, nor festering under a false scar.
οὐδὲ ἀσυντελῆ τὸν βίον αὐτοῦ ἡ πεπρωμένη καταλαμβάνει, ὡς ἄν τις εἴποι τὸν τραγῳδὸν πρὸ τοῦ τελέσαι καὶ διαδραματίσαι ἀπαλλάσσεσθαι·
Nor does fate overtake his life incomplete, as one might say of an actor who departs before completing and playing out the drama.
ἔτι δὲ οὐδὲν δοῦλον οὐδὲ κομψὸν οὐδὲ προσδεδεμένον οὐδὲ ἀπεσχισμένον οὐδὲ ὑπεύθυνον οὐδὲ ἐμφωλεῦον.
Furthermore, there is nothing in it that is slavish, or affected, or bound to others, or severed, or accountable to another, or lurking in hiding.

Notes

  1. 3.8.1εὕροις ἂν — The second-person singular optative with the particle ἄν (potential optative), expressing a general possibility: 'you would find' or 'one might find'.
  2. 3.8.1ὡς ἄν τις εἴποι τὸν τραγῳδὸν πρὸ τοῦ τελέσαι καὶ διαδραματίσαι ἀπαλλάσσεσθαι — The clause ὡς ἄν τις εἴποι ('as one might say') acts as a parenthetical expression. The infinitive ἀπαλλάσσεσθαι ('to depart') forms an accusative-and-infinitive construction as the object of εἴποι, with τὸν τραγῳδὸν as its subject. πρὸ τοῦ τελέσαι uses the preposition πρὸ with an articular infinitive in the genitive to express time.
  3. 3.8.1ἔτι δὲ οὐδὲν δοῦλον... — There is no finite verb in this final clause. It can be understood as continuing the object of εὕροις ἂν ('you would find nothing...') from the opening sentence, or by supplying the copula ἔστιν ('there is'). The translation assumes the former for a smoother connection.

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §3.8.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:3.8.1

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