Discourses and Selected Writings by Epictetus, Robert Dobbin Page A
Authors: Epictetus, Robert Dobbin
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you leave a ship? Do you walk off with the rudder and oars? No; you leave with your own gear, your oil-flask and wallet. So just remember what belongs to you, and you won’t lay claim to what doesn’t.
[12] The emperor says to you, ‘Remove your broad hem.’
‘Very well, I’ll wear the narrow hem.’
‘Remove that too.’
‘All right, I’ll wear the ordinary toga now.’ 37
‘Take your toga off.’
‘Fine, I’ll go naked.’
[13] ‘Now your very composure provokes me.’
‘Take my whole body, then.’
Is there any reason to fear someone to whom I stand ready to surrender my miserable corpse?
[14] But so-and-so will not leave his estate to me. Well? I forgot that none of it was mine. How then do we call it mine? As we call the bed in an inn mine. If the innkeeper dies and leaves you his bed, fine; but if he leaves it to someone else, then he will have it, and you will find a replacement. [15] And if you don’t, then you will have to sleep on the ground. Only rest easy there and snore away, because, remember, tragedies take place among the rich – among kings, and potentates. No poor man swells a tragedy except as a member of the chorus. [16] Kings start off well enough: ‘Deck the palace halls.’ But then around the third or fourth act, we get, ‘O Cithaeron, why did you receive me?’ 38 [17] Fool, where are your crowns, your diadem? Even your guards can’t help you now.
[18] So when you stand before one of those tyrants, just bear in mind that you are in the presence of a tragic figure – and not the actor, either, but Oedipus himself.
[19] ‘But he’s so lucky to be able to walk around with an entourage.’
Well, I too mingle with the masses and so am attended by an entourage. [20] The chief thing to remember is that the door is open. 39 Don’t be a greater coward than children, who are ready to announce, ‘I won’t play any more.’ Say, ‘I won’t play any more,’ when you grow weary of the game, and be done with it. But if you stay, don’t carp.
I 25 More on the same theme
[1] If what we’ve been saying is true and we aren’t being ridiculous, or merely pretending to believe that what is good or bad for us lies in the will and that we are indifferent to everything else – then why do we continue to experience fear and anxiety? [2] No one has power over our principles, and what other peopledo control wedon’t care about. So what is your problem, still?
[3] ‘My problem is that I want specific instructions on how to act in line with these principles.’
What other orders do you need than those Zeus has given you already? He has given you what is your own unrestricted and unrestrained; what is not yours he has made restricted and restrained. [4] What commandment, then, did you arrive withwhen he sent you here? ‘Protect what belongs to you at all costs; don’t desire what belongs to another.’ Trustworthiness is your own, decency and a sense of shame; ∗ no one can take them from you or prevent you from using these qualities except yourself – which you do the moment you begin to care about what isn’t yours, surrendering what is yours in the process.
[5] With such directions and commands from Zeus, what additional ones do you hope to get from me? Am I greater or more to be trusted? [6] Keep his commandments and you won’t need others. And as proof that he has delivered them to you, bring your preconceptions to bear. Bring the arguments of philosophers. Bring what you’ve often heard, and often said yourself; what you’ve read, and what you’ve practised.
[7] Just how long should we apply these precepts that we have from God, before breaking up the game? [8] Just so long as the game remains a pleasure. At the Saturnalia a king of the revels is chosen by chance, because this is the convention. 40 Then our ‘king’ hands out orders: ‘Drink up! You there, mix the wine! You, sir, give us a song! You, join the party; while you there – get lost!’ And we play
[12] The emperor says to you, ‘Remove your broad hem.’
‘Very well, I’ll wear the narrow hem.’
‘Remove that too.’
‘All right, I’ll wear the ordinary toga now.’ 37
‘Take your toga off.’
‘Fine, I’ll go naked.’
[13] ‘Now your very composure provokes me.’
‘Take my whole body, then.’
Is there any reason to fear someone to whom I stand ready to surrender my miserable corpse?
[14] But so-and-so will not leave his estate to me. Well? I forgot that none of it was mine. How then do we call it mine? As we call the bed in an inn mine. If the innkeeper dies and leaves you his bed, fine; but if he leaves it to someone else, then he will have it, and you will find a replacement. [15] And if you don’t, then you will have to sleep on the ground. Only rest easy there and snore away, because, remember, tragedies take place among the rich – among kings, and potentates. No poor man swells a tragedy except as a member of the chorus. [16] Kings start off well enough: ‘Deck the palace halls.’ But then around the third or fourth act, we get, ‘O Cithaeron, why did you receive me?’ 38 [17] Fool, where are your crowns, your diadem? Even your guards can’t help you now.
[18] So when you stand before one of those tyrants, just bear in mind that you are in the presence of a tragic figure – and not the actor, either, but Oedipus himself.
[19] ‘But he’s so lucky to be able to walk around with an entourage.’
Well, I too mingle with the masses and so am attended by an entourage. [20] The chief thing to remember is that the door is open. 39 Don’t be a greater coward than children, who are ready to announce, ‘I won’t play any more.’ Say, ‘I won’t play any more,’ when you grow weary of the game, and be done with it. But if you stay, don’t carp.
I 25 More on the same theme
[1] If what we’ve been saying is true and we aren’t being ridiculous, or merely pretending to believe that what is good or bad for us lies in the will and that we are indifferent to everything else – then why do we continue to experience fear and anxiety? [2] No one has power over our principles, and what other peopledo control wedon’t care about. So what is your problem, still?
[3] ‘My problem is that I want specific instructions on how to act in line with these principles.’
What other orders do you need than those Zeus has given you already? He has given you what is your own unrestricted and unrestrained; what is not yours he has made restricted and restrained. [4] What commandment, then, did you arrive withwhen he sent you here? ‘Protect what belongs to you at all costs; don’t desire what belongs to another.’ Trustworthiness is your own, decency and a sense of shame; ∗ no one can take them from you or prevent you from using these qualities except yourself – which you do the moment you begin to care about what isn’t yours, surrendering what is yours in the process.
[5] With such directions and commands from Zeus, what additional ones do you hope to get from me? Am I greater or more to be trusted? [6] Keep his commandments and you won’t need others. And as proof that he has delivered them to you, bring your preconceptions to bear. Bring the arguments of philosophers. Bring what you’ve often heard, and often said yourself; what you’ve read, and what you’ve practised.
[7] Just how long should we apply these precepts that we have from God, before breaking up the game? [8] Just so long as the game remains a pleasure. At the Saturnalia a king of the revels is chosen by chance, because this is the convention. 40 Then our ‘king’ hands out orders: ‘Drink up! You there, mix the wine! You, sir, give us a song! You, join the party; while you there – get lost!’ And we play
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