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058 - Book III I Of Finery in Dress · Discourses of Epictetus

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  Speaker 1: Section fifty seven of Discourses of Epictetus by Epictetus, translated
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  Speaker 1: by George Long. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Read by Christine Rucker, March nineteenth, twenty twenty two, Westford, Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: Book three, Chapter one of Finery in Dress. A certain
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  Speaker 1: young man, a rhetorician, came to see Epictetus with his
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  Speaker 1: hair dressed more carefully than was usual, and his attire
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  Speaker 1: in an ornamental style. Whereupon Epictetus said, tell me, if
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  Speaker 1: you do not think that some dogs are beautiful, and
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  Speaker 1: some horses, and so of all other animals, I do
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  Speaker 1: think so. The youth replied, are there not then some
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  Speaker 1: men also beautiful and others ugly? Certainly do we, then,
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  Speaker 1: for the same reason call each of them in the
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  Speaker 1: same kind beautiful, or each beautiful for something peculiar, And
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  Speaker 1: you will judge of this matter. Thus, since we see
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  Speaker 1: a dog naturally formed for one thing, and a horse
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  Speaker 1: for another, and for another, still as an example, a nightingale,
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  Speaker 1: we may generally and not improperly, declare each of them
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  Speaker 1: to be beautiful, then when it is most excellent according
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  Speaker 1: to its nature. But since the nature of each is different,
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  Speaker 1: each of them seems to me to be beautiful in
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  Speaker 1: a different way? Is it not so? He admitted that
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  Speaker 1: it was that, then, which makes a dog beautiful makes
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  Speaker 1: a horse ugly, and that which makes a horse beautiful
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  Speaker 1: makes a dog ugly. It is true that their natures
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  Speaker 1: are different. It seems to be so. For I think
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  Speaker 1: that what makes a pancretist beautiful makes a wrestler to
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  Speaker 1: be not good, and a runner to be most ridiculous.
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  Speaker 1: And he who is beautiful for the pentathlon is very
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  Speaker 1: ugly for wrestling. It is so, said he. What then
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  Speaker 1: makes a man beautiful? Is it that which, in its
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  Speaker 1: kind makes both a dog and a horse beautiful? It is,
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  Speaker 1: he said, what then makes a dog beautiful? The possession
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  Speaker 1: of the excellence of a dog. And what makes a
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  Speaker 1: horse beautiful the possession of the excellence of a horse.
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  Speaker 1: What then makes a man beautiful? Is it not the
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  Speaker 1: possession of the excellence of a man. And do you, then,
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  Speaker 1: if you wish to be beautiful, young man, labor at
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  Speaker 1: this the acquisition of human excellence? But what is this
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  Speaker 1: observe whom you yourself praise? When you praise many persons
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  Speaker 1: without partiality, do you praise the just or the unjust
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  Speaker 1: the just. Whether do you praise the moderate or the immoderate,
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  Speaker 1: the moderate and the temperate or the intemperate the temperate.
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  Speaker 1: If then you make yourself such a person, you will
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  Speaker 1: know that you will make yourself beautiful. But so long
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  Speaker 1: as you neglect these things, you must be ugly escron
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  Speaker 1: even though you contrive all you can to appear beautiful. Further,
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  Speaker 1: I do not know what to say to you. For
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  Speaker 1: if I say to you what I think, I shall
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  Speaker 1: offend you, and you will perhaps leave the school and
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  Speaker 1: not return to it. And if I do not say
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  Speaker 1: what I think, see how I shall be acting. If
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  Speaker 1: you come to me to be improved, and I shall
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  Speaker 1: not improve you at all. And if you come to
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  Speaker 1: me as to a philosopher and I shall say nothing
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  Speaker 1: to you as a philosopher, and how cruel it is
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  Speaker 1: to you to leave you uncorrected. If at any time
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  Speaker 1: afterwards you shall acquire sense, you will with good reason
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  Speaker 1: blame me, and say, what did epictitis observe in me? That,
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  Speaker 1: when he saw me in such a plight, coming to
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  Speaker 1: him in such a scandalous condition, he neglected me and
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  Speaker 1: never said a word? Did he so much despair of
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  Speaker 1: me was I not young? Was I not able to
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  Speaker 1: listen to reason? And how many other young men at
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  Speaker 1: this age commit many like errors? I hear that a
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  Speaker 1: certain polem on, from being a most dissolate youth, underwent
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  Speaker 1: such a change. Well, suppose that he did not think
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  Speaker 1: that I should be a polem on. Yet he might
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  Speaker 1: have set my hair right, He might have stripped off
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  Speaker 1: my decorations. He might have stopped me from plucking the
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  Speaker 1: hair out of my body. But when he saw me
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  Speaker 1: dressed like what shall I say? He kept silent. I
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  Speaker 1: do not say, like what? But you will say when
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  Speaker 1: you come to your senses and shall know what it
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  Speaker 1: is and what persons use such a dress. If you
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  Speaker 1: bring this charge against me hereafter, what defense shall I make?
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  Speaker 1: Why shall I say that the man will not be
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  Speaker 1: persuaded by me? Was Lais persuaded by Apollo? Did he
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  Speaker 1: not go away and get drunk and shown no care
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  Speaker 1: for the oracle? Well? Then for this reason did Apollo
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  Speaker 1: refuse to tell him the truth? I indeed do not
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  Speaker 1: know whether you will be persuaded by me or not.
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  Speaker 1: But Apollo knew most certainly that LEAs would not be persuaded,
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  Speaker 1: And yet he spoke. But why did he speak? I
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  Speaker 1: say in reply? But why is he Apollo? And why
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  Speaker 1: does he deliver oracles? And why has he fixed himself
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  Speaker 1: in this place as a prophet and a source of
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  Speaker 1: truth and for the inhabitants of the world to resort
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  Speaker 1: to him? And why are the words know yourself written
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  Speaker 1: in front of the temple, though no person takes any
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  Speaker 1: notice of them? Did Socrates persuade all his hearers to
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  Speaker 1: take care of themselves? Not the thousandth part? But however,
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  Speaker 1: after he had been placed in this position by the deity,
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  Speaker 1: as he himself says, he never left it. But what
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  Speaker 1: does he say even to his judges, if you equip
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  Speaker 1: me on these conditions that I no longer do that
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  Speaker 1: which I do now, I will not consent, and I
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  Speaker 1: will not desist. But I will go up both to
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  Speaker 1: young and too old, and to speak plainly to every
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  Speaker 1: man whom I meet, and I will ask the questions
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  Speaker 1: which I ask now, And most particularly will I do
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  Speaker 1: this to you, my fellow citizens, because you are more
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  Speaker 1: nearly related to me. Are you so curious Socrates and
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  Speaker 1: such a busy body? And how does it concern you
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  Speaker 1: how we act? And what is it that you say
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  Speaker 1: being of the same community and of the same kin,
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  Speaker 1: you neglect yourself and show yourself a bad citizen to
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  Speaker 1: the state, and a bad kinsman to your kinsman, and
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  Speaker 1: a bad neighbor to your neighbors. Who then are you here?
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  Speaker 1: It is a great thing to say, I am he
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  Speaker 1: whose duty it is to take care of men. For
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  Speaker 1: it is not every little heifer which dares to resist
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  Speaker 1: a lion. But if the bull comes up and resists them,
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  Speaker 1: say to the bull, if you choose, and who are you?
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  Speaker 1: And what business have you here? Man? In every kind
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  Speaker 1: there is produce something which excels in oxen, in dogs,
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  Speaker 1: in bees and horses. Do not then say to that
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  Speaker 1: which excels, who then are you? If you do, it
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  Speaker 1: will find a voice in some way, and say, I
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  Speaker 1: am such a thing as the purple in a garment.
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  Speaker 1: Do not expect me to be like the others, or
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  Speaker 1: blame my nature that it has made me different from
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  Speaker 1: the rest of men. What then, am I such a man?
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  Speaker 1: Certainly not? And are you such a man as can
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  Speaker 1: listen to the truth? I wish you were. But however,
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  Speaker 1: since in a manner I have been condemned to wear
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  Speaker 1: a white beard and a cloak, and you come to
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  Speaker 1: me as a philosopher. I will not treat you in
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  Speaker 1: a cruel way, nor yet as if I despaired of you.
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  Speaker 1: But I will say, young man, whom do you wish
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  Speaker 1: to make beautiful? In the first place? Know who you are,
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  Speaker 1: and then adorn yourself appropriately. You are a human being,
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  Speaker 1: and this is a mortal animal, which has power of
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  Speaker 1: using appearances rationally. But what is meant birationally conformably to
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  Speaker 1: nature and completely? What then, do you possess which is peculiar?
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  Speaker 1: Is it the animal part? No? Is it the condition
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  Speaker 1: of mortality? No? Is it the power of using appearances? No,
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  Speaker 1: you possess the rational faculty as a peculiar thing. Adorn
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  Speaker 1: and beautify this, But leave your hair to him who
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  Speaker 1: made it as he chose. Come, what other appellations have you?
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  Speaker 1: Are you man or woman? Man? Adorn yourself then as man,
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  Speaker 1: not as woman. Woman is naturally smooth and delicate. And
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  Speaker 1: if she has much hair on her body, she is
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  Speaker 1: a monster, and is exhibited at rome among monsters. And
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  Speaker 1: in a man it is monstrous not to have hair.
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  Speaker 1: And if he has no hair, he is a monster.
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  Speaker 1: But if he cuts off his hair and plucks them out?
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  Speaker 1: What shall we do with him? Where shall we exhibit him?
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  Speaker 1: And under what name shall we show him? I will
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  Speaker 1: exhibit to you a man who chooses to be a
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  Speaker 1: woman rather than a man. What a terrible sight. There
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  Speaker 1: is no man who will not wonder at such a notice. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: I think that the men who pluck out their hairs
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  Speaker 1: do what they do without knowing what they do? Man,
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  Speaker 1: what fault have you to find with your nature that
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  Speaker 1: it made you a man? What, then, was it fit
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  Speaker 1: that nature should make all human creatures women? And what
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  Speaker 1: advantage in that case would you have had in being adorned?
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  Speaker 1: For whom would you have adorned yourself if all human
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  Speaker 1: creatures were women? But you are not pleased with the matter,
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  Speaker 1: set to work, then upon the whole business, take away
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  Speaker 1: what is its name, that which is the cause of
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  Speaker 1: the hairs? Make yourself a woman in all respects that
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  Speaker 1: we may not be mistaken. Do not make one half
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  Speaker 1: man and the other half woman. Whom do you wish
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  Speaker 1: to please the woman? Please them as a man, well,
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  Speaker 1: but they like smooth men. Will you not hang yourself?
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  Speaker 1: And if women took delights in catamites, would you become one?
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  Speaker 1: Is this your business. Were you born for this purpose
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  Speaker 1: that dissolute women should delight in you? Shall we make
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  Speaker 1: such a one as you a citizen of Corinth, and
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  Speaker 1: perchance a prefect of the city, or chief of the youth,
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  Speaker 1: or general or superintendent of the games. Well, And when
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  Speaker 1: you have taken a wife, do you intend to have
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  Speaker 1: your hairs plucked out to please whom and for what purpose?
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  Speaker 1: And when you have becotton children, will you introduce them
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  Speaker 1: also into the state with the habit of plucking their hairs.
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  Speaker 1: A beautiful citizen and senator and rhetorician, we ought to
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  Speaker 1: pray that such young men be born among us and
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  Speaker 1: brought up. Do not so you, by the God's young man.
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  Speaker 1: But when you have once heard these words, go away
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  Speaker 1: and say to yourself. Epictetus has not said this to me,
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  Speaker 1: for how could he but some propitious God through him,
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  Speaker 1: For it would never have come into his thoughts to
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  Speaker 1: say this, since he is not accustomed to talk thus
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  Speaker 1: with any person. Come, then let us obey God that
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  Speaker 1: we may not be subject to his anger. You say no,
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  Speaker 1: But I say, if a crow by his croaking signifies
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  Speaker 1: anything to you, it is not the crow which signifies,
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  Speaker 1: but God through the crow. And if he signifies anything
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  Speaker 1: through a human voice, will he not cause the man
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  Speaker 1: to say this to you, that you may know the
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  Speaker 1: power of the divinity that he signifies to some in
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  Speaker 1: this way, and to others in that way, and concerning
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  Speaker 1: the greatest things and the chief he signifies through the
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  Speaker 1: noblest messenger. What else is it which the poet says,
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  Speaker 1: For we ourselves have worn him and have sent Hermes,
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  Speaker 1: the careful watcher, Argus's slayer, the husband not to kill
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  Speaker 1: nor wed the wife was hermeis going to descend from
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  Speaker 1: heaven to say this to him. He just this, And
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  Speaker 1: now the gods say this to you, and send the messenger,
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  Speaker 1: the slayer of Argus, to warn you not to pervert
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  Speaker 1: that which is well arranged, nor to busy yourself about it,
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  Speaker 1: but to allow a man to be a man, and
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  Speaker 1: a woman to be a woman, a beautiful man to
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  Speaker 1: be as a beautiful man, and an ugly man as
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  Speaker 1: an ugly man. For you are not flesh and hair,
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  Speaker 1: but you are will rioisis. And if your will is beautiful,
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  Speaker 1: then you will be beautiful. But up to the present time,
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  Speaker 1: I dare not tell you that you are ugly, for
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  Speaker 1: I think that you are readier to hear anything than this.
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  Speaker 1: But see what Socrates says to the most beautiful and
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  Speaker 1: blooming of men alcibieties. Try then, to be beautiful. What
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  Speaker 1: does he say to him? Dress your hair, and pluck
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  Speaker 1: the hairs from your legs, nothing of that kind, but
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  Speaker 1: adorn your will, take away bad opinions. How with the body,
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  Speaker 1: leave it as it is by nature? Another has looked
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  Speaker 1: after these things and trust them to him. What then,
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  Speaker 1: must a man be uncleaned? Certainly not, but what you
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  Speaker 1: are and are made by nature? Cleanse this a man
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  Speaker 1: should be cleanly as a man, a woman as a woman,
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  Speaker 1: a child as a child. You say no, But let
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  Speaker 1: us also pluck out the lion's mane that he may
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  Speaker 1: not be uncleaned, and the cock's comb, for he ought
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  Speaker 1: to be cleaned, granted, but as a cock, and the
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  Speaker 1: lion as a lion, and the hunting dog as a
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  Speaker 1: hunting dog. And of Book three, Chapter one,