Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §7.56.1

Living the Remainder of Life as One Already Dead

Passage 252 of 486 · Greek

Summary

The author exhorts that one should live the remaining time in accordance with nature, viewing oneself as already dead and the rest of life as a surplus.

§7.56.1Ὡς ἀποτεθνηκότα δεῖ καὶ μέχρι νῦν βεβιωκότα τὸ λοιπὸν ἐκ τοῦ περιόντος ζῆσαι κατὰ τὴν φύσιν.
You must live the rest of your life, as if you had already died and had lived only up to the present, from what remains to you in accordance with nature.

Notes

  1. §7.56.1ἀποτεθνηκότα — The perfect participles ἀποτεθνηκότα and the following βεβιωκότα are in the accusative case because they agree with the omitted subject accusative of the infinitive ζῆσαι (the second-person singular pronoun σε, 'you'), governed by the impersonal verb δεῖ. Combined with ὡς, it expresses a hypothetical condition: 'as if you were already dead'.
  2. §7.56.1ἐκ τοῦ περιόντος — The preposition ἐκ with the genitive of the substantivized neuter singular present participle of περίειμι ('to remain', 'to be surplus'). It means 'from what remains' or 'as a surplus', indicating that the rest of one's life should be lived as if it were an unexpected gift or bonus.

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §7.56.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:7.56.1

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