Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §4.44.1

All Events as Natural and Familiar as Seasonal Fruits

Passage 94 of 486 · Greek

Summary

The author argues that all occurrences, including illness, death, and treachery, are as natural and familiar as seasonal roses and fruits.

§4.44.1Πᾶν τὸ συμβαῖνον οὕτως σύνηθες καὶ γνώριμον ὡς τὸ ῥόδον ἐν τῷ ἔαρι καὶ ὀπώρα ἐν τῷ θέρει· τοιοῦτον γὰρ καὶ νόσος καὶ θάνατος καὶ βλασφημία καὶ ἐπιβουλὴ καὶ ὅσα τοὺς μωροὺς εὐφραίνει ἣ λυπεῖ.
Everything that happens is as familiar and well-known as the rose in spring and fruit in summer; for such are disease, death, slander, treachery, and all that gladdens or grieves fools.

Notes

  1. §4.44.1τοιοῦτον — Although the subjects are a series of feminine and masculine nouns (νόσος, θάνατος, βλασφημία, ἐπιβουλὴ) followed by a neuter plural (ὅσα...), the predicative demonstrative τοιοῦτον is in the neuter singular. It treats these diverse subjects collectively or individually as a single class or quality of thing ('a thing of such a kind').
  2. §4.44.1ἣ — A variant reading or spelling for the disjunctive conjunction ἤ ('or'). While orthographically identical to the feminine singular nominative relative pronoun ἥ with a rough breathing, syntactically it functions here to link the two verbs εὐφραίνει and λυπεῖ.

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §4.44.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:4.44.1

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