INTRODUCTION The subject of this essay is not the emotion of anger itself, but the cure best applicable to the passion. In form it is a dialogue, but, apart from the beginning and the end, it is as undramatic as the later works of Plato. The principal speaker, Fundanus, treats the subject in a manner partly general and partly specific, and concludes with a pleasant history of his own cure. Hirzel ( Der Dialog , ii. p. 170) has described the work as a monument ( Ehrendenkmal ) to the memory of Fundanus, dedicated to Sulla. Scholars concerned in the investigation of the sources used by Plutarch for this discourse have arrived at varying results: some Wilamowitz, Hermes , xxix. 152; Schlemm, Hermes , xxxviii. 587 ff. have imagined that Stoic writers were used, others Allers, De Senecae Librorum de Ira Fontibus , p. 9; Pohlenz, Hermes , xxxi. 321 ff.; accepted by Daebritz, RE , i. 8. 1562. In Hermes , xl. 292, note 1, Pohlenz attempts to refute Schlemm’s arguments. that the Peripatetic Hieronymus of Rhodes was Plutarch’s principal authority. The numerous parallels to Seneca’s De Ira have been used by both parties to substantiate their theories, but it is more likely that Plutarch, while borrowing numerous loci communes and examples from earlier writers, Books on Anger were very plentiful in Cicero’s day ( Epp. ad Quint. Frat. , i. 1. 37). constructed for himself the main features of the dialogue. The self-portrayal of Fundanus and his cure, the frame-work of the whole discourse, is clearly Plutarch’s own device. The author’s debt to preceding literature is, as always, immense, yet the creation of such a work as this is by selection and arrangement; and for that Plutarch is alone responsible. The essay was known to Aulus Gellius (i. 26), who relates a pleasant anecdote of Plutarch and a rascally slave who ventured to reprove the philosopher for his anger. Among English writers Jeremy Taylor has made admirable use of the essay by paraphrase and even translation, in his Holy Living , iv. 8. The ms. tradition is good. There is extant also a free Syriac translation (ed. Lagarde, Analecta Syriaca , Leipzig, 1858) which helps occasionally in the constitution of the text. The work is apparently missing in the Lamprias catalogue, since Περὶ ὀργῆς Cf. Patzig, Quaest. Plut. , p. 42. (No. 93) almost certainly refers to a different work from which Stobaeus has preserved a fragment (Bernardakis, vol. vii. p. 138). (Speakers in the Dialogue: Sulla and Fundanus) SULLA. Sextius Sulla, a friend of Plutarch ( Cf. Moralia , 636 a, and Prosopographia Imperii Romani , iii. p. 239). A good plan, as it seems to me, Fundanus, C. Minicius Fundanus, a friend of Pliny ( Epp. , v. 16); cf . Pros. Imp. Rom. , ii. p. 377. is that which painters follow: they scrutinize their productions from time to time before they finish them. They do this because, by withdrawing their gaze and by inspecting their work often, they are able to form a fresh judgement, and one which is more likely to seize upon any slight discrepancy, such as the familiarity of uninterrupted contemplation will conceal. Since, therefore, it is impossible for a man to contemplate himself from time to time by getting apart from himself and interrupting his consciousness of himself by breaking its continuity (and this is what, more than anything else, makes every man a poorer judge of himself than of others), the next best course would be for him to inspect his friends from time to time and likewise to offer himself to them, not to see if he is grown old suddenly or if his body is better or worse, but for them to examine both his behaviour and his character to learn whether time has added some excellence or taken away some vice. As for me, since I have returned to Rome after a year’s absence and this is now the fifth month that I have been with you constantly, I do not find it altogether surprising that, of the virtues which were already yours by gift of Nature, there has been so great an increment and increase; but when I see that that violent and fiery tendency of yours toward anger has become so gentle and submissive to reason, it occurs to me to say with reference to your temper O wonder, how much milder has it grown! Homer, Il. , xxii. 373. Yet this mildness has brought about no inactivity or feebleness in you, but, like the earth when it has been subdued by cultivation, it has received a smoothness and depth conducive to fruitful action in place of that impetuousness of yours and quickness of temper. For that reason it is evident that the spirited part of your soul is not withering away through any abatement of vigour caused by age, nor yet spontaneously, but that it is receiving the skilful treatment of some excellent precepts. And yet - for I shall tell you the plain truth - when our friend Eros This friend of Plutarch is mentioned again in connexion with Fundanus in 464 e, infra . told me all this, I suspected that he was bearing witness, by reason of his goodwill, to qualities that were not actually present in you, yet should be so in men of breeding, although, as you know, he is by no means the sort of man to surrender his own opinion as a favour to anyone. But as things are, Eros stands acquitted of the charge of bearing false witness, and do you, since our journey See Hirzel, Der Dialog , ii. p. 168, note 4. gives us leisure for conversation, tell me, as though you were recounting some medical treatment, what remedy you used that you have made your temper so obedient to the rein and tender-mouthed, so mild and subservient to reason. FUNDANUS. Well, what about you, my generous friend Sulla? Are you careful not to let your goodwill and friendship for me make you overlook some of my real qualities? For since on many occasions not even Eros himself can keep his temper in its place in that Homeric Od. , xx. 23, cited in full 506 b, infra . obedience, but when it becomes too exasperated through hatred of evil, it is reasonable to suppose that I appear more gentle to him, just as in changes of key certain high notes assume the position of low notes in contrast with other high notes. SULLA. Neither of these suppositions is true, Fundanus. Please do as I ask. FUNDANUS. One of those excellent precepts of Musonius Frag. 36 ed. Hense. which I remember, Sulla, is: He that wishes to come through life safe and sound must continue throughout his life to be under treatment. For I do not think that reason should be used in one’s cure as we use hellebore, and be washed out of the body together with the disease, but it must remain in the soul and keep watch and ward over the judgements. For the power of reason is not like drugs, but like wholesome food, engendering an excellent state, together with great vigour, in those who become accustomed to it; but exhortations and admonitions, if applied to the passions when they are at their height and swollen, can scarcely accomplish anything at all, and that with difficulty. They are no better than those aromatic preparations which rouse epileptics when they lie prostrate, but do not rid them of the disease. Yet the other passions, even at their height, do in some sort yield and admit reason, when it comes from without to the rescue, into the soul; but temper does not, as Melanthius Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. 2 , p. 760; quoted again in Moralia , 551 a. The poet is not the Athenian tragic poet, but Melanthius of Rhodes ( circa 150 b.c.), according to Wilamowitz, Hermes , xxix. 150 ff. says, Shunt off the mind, and then do dreadful deeds, but on the contrary, it shuts out sense completely and locks it out, and just like those who burn themselves up in their own homes, it makes everything within full of confusion and smoke and noise, so that the soul can neither see nor hear anything that might help it. For this reason a ship deserted by her crew in the midst of a storm far out at sea Cf. Moralia , 1103 c. will more easily be able to take on a pilot from the outside, than will a man who is being tossed upon the billows of passion and anger admit the reasoning of another, unless he has his own powers of reason prepared to receive it. But just as those who expect a siege collect and store up all that is useful to them if they despair of relief from without, so it is most important that we should acquire far in advance the reinforcements which philosophy provides against temper and convey them into the soul in the knowledge that, when the occasion for using them comes, it will not be possible to introduce them with ease. For the soul hears nothing from the outside because of its tumult unless it has its own reason within, which, like a boatswain who directs the rowers, will promptly catch and understand every order given. Yet if the soul has heard words of advice which have been quietly and mildly spoken, it despises them; and toward any who insist in a rougher fashion, it grows exasperated. In fact, temper is overbearing and stubborn and altogether difficult for anyone other than itself to move, and, like a well-fortified tyranny, must have its destroyer born and bred in the same household. FUNDANUS. To be sure, when anger persists and its outbursts are frequent, there is created in the soul an evil state which is called irascibility, Cf. Plato, Republic , 411 b-c. and this usually results in sudden outbursts of rage, moroseness, and peevishness when the temper becomes ulcerated, easily offended, and liable to find fault for even trivial offences, like a weak, thin piece of iron which is always getting scratched. But if judgement at once opposes the fits of anger and represses them, it not only cures them for the present, but for the future also it renders the soul firm and difficult for passion to attack. In my own case, at any rate, when I had opposed anger two or three times, it came about that I experienced what the Thebans did, who, when they had for the first time At the battle of Leuctra, 371 b.c. repulsed the Spartans, who had the reputation of being invincible, were never thereafter defeated by them in any battle; for I acquired the proud consciousness that it is possible for reason to conquer. Not only did I see that anger ceases when cold water is sprinkled on it, as Aristotle This is apparently from a lost work, though not included in Rose’s collection of fragments. In Problemata , x. 60 (898 a 4), however, Aristotle observes that fear is a process of cooling; cf. also De Partibus Animalium , ii. 4 (651 a 8 ff.). says, but that it is also extinguished when a poultice of fear is applied to it. And, by Heaven, if joy comes on the scene, in the case of many the temper has been quickly warmed, as Homer Il. , xxiii. 598, 600, al. ; for Plutarch’s interpretation of ἰαίνεσθαι see Moralia , 947 d: ἀλέαν τῷ σώματι μεθ’ ἡδονῆς, ὅπερ Ὅμηρος ἰαίνεσθαι κέκληκεω ; see also Moralia , 735 f. says, or dissipated. Consequently I came to the opinion that this passion is not altogether incurable, for those, at least, who wish to cure it. FUNDANUS. For anger does not always have great and powerful beginnings; on the contrary, even a jest, a playful word, a burst of laughter or a nod on the part of somebody, and many things of the kind, rouse many persons to anger; just as Helen, by thus addressing her niece, Electra, virgin for so long a time, provoked her to reply, Too late you’re wise; but once you left your home Disgraced. Euripides, Orestes , 72, 99. And so was Alexander provoked by Callisthenes, Cf. Moralia , 623 f - 624 a; Athenaeus, x. 434 d. who said, when the great bowl was going its rounds, I do not care to have a drink of Alexander and then have to call in Asclepius. A jibe at Alexander’s assumed divinity, Alexander taking the place of Dionysus, the wine god, until the physician god, Asclepius, would have to be called in; on the authenticity of the story see Macurdy, Jour. Hell. Stud. , 1. (1930), 294-297. FUNDANUS. And so, just as it is an easy matter to check a flame which is being kindled in hare’s fur Cf. Moralia , 138 f. or candlewicks or rubbish, but if it ever takes hold of solid bodies having depth, it quickly destroys and consumes With youthful vigour lofty craftsmen’s work, Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. 2 , p. 107, Frag. 357. as Aeschylus has it; so the man who at the beginning gives heed to his temper and observes it while it is still smoking and catching flame little by little from some gossip or rubbishy scurrility need have no great concern about it; on the contrary, he has often succeeded in extinguishing it merely by keeping silent and ignoring it. For he who gives no fuel to fire puts it out, and likewise he who does not in the beginning nurse his wrath and does not puff himself up with anger takes precautions against it and destroys it. I was therefore not satisfied with what Hieronymus Of Rhodes, Peripatetic philosopher of the third century b.c. says - although he contributes other useful remarks and advice - in the passage where he declares that we have no perception of anger when it comes into being, but only when it has already come into being and exists, the reason being the swiftness with which it acts. For the truth is that none of the emotions, at the time when they are gathering and beginning to move, has a birth and increase so easy to perceive. But Cf. Plutarch, De Amore , 4 (Bernardakis, vol. vii. p. 134). Indeed Homer also skilfully teaches us this lesson when he causes Achilles to be suddenly overwhelmed by grief on receiving the report, Of Patroclus’s death, brought by Antilochus: Il. , xviii. 22. in the passage where the poet says: He spoke, and a black cloud of grief closed round Achilles; but Homer portrays Achilles as being slow to lose his temper with Agamemnon Il. , i. 101 ff. and as becoming inflamed only when many words had been spoken. Yet if either one of the men had held back their words at the beginning and prevented their utterance, the quarrel would not have had so great a growth or have reached such magnitude. That is the reason why Socrates, Cf. Seneca, De Ira , iii. 13. 3. as often as he perceived himself being moved to too great harshness against any of his friends, betaking himself to coast Before the storm along some promontory, Author unknown: Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. , iii. p. 721; Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica , ii. p. 163; Edmonds, Lyra Graeca , iii. p. 473; quoted more fully in Moralia , 129 a, 503 a. would lower his voice, cause a smile to spread over his face, and make the expression of his eyes more gentle, preserving himself from fault and defeat by setting up within himself an influence to counteract his passion.