Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

6038

Gellius, Attic Nights, 17.19

nan

What Epictetus the philosophers used to say to worthless and vile men, who zealously followed the pursuit of philosophy; and the two words whose remembrance he enjoyed as by far the most salutary in all respects. I HEARD Favorinus say that the philosopher Epictetus declared that very many of those who professed to be philosophers were of the kind ἄνευ τοῦ πράττειν, μέχρι τοῦ λέγειν, which means "without deeds, limited to words"; that is, they preached but did not practise. But that is still more severe which Arrian, in his work On the Dissertations of Epictetus, has written that this philosopher used to say. "For," says Arrian, "when he perceived that a man without shame, persistent in wickedness, of abandoned character, reckless, boastful, and cultivating everything else except his soul — when he saw such a man taking up also the study and pursuit of philosophy, attacking natural history, practising logic and balancing and investigating many problems of that kind, he used to invoke the help of gods and men, and usually amid his exclamations chided the man in these terms: 'O man, where are you storing these things? Consider whether the vessel be clean. For if you take them into your self-conceit, they are lost; if they are spoiled, they become urine or vinegar or something worse, if possible.'" Nothing surely could be weightier, nothing truer than these words, in which the greatest of philosophers declared that the learning and precepts of philosophy, flowing into a base and degenerate man, as if into a soiled and filthy vessel, are turned, altered, spoiled, and as he himself more cynically expresses it, become urine or, if possible, something worse than urine. Moreover, that same Epictetus, as we also heard from Favorinus, used to say that there were two faults which were by far the worst and most disgusting of all, lack of endurance and lack of self-restraint, when we cannot put up with or bear the wrongs which we ought to endure, or cannot restrain ourselves from actions or pleasures from which we ought to refrain. "Therefore," said he, "if anyone would take these two words to heart and use them for his own guidance and regulation, he will be almost without sin and will lead a very peaceful life. These two words," he said, "are ἀνέχου (bear) and ἀπέχου (forbear).

Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

8 results

1. Euripides, Bacchae, 641 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

641. πρὸς σοφοῦ γὰρ ἀνδρὸς ἀσκεῖν σώφρονʼ εὐοργησίαν. Πενθεύς

2. Anon., Sibylline Oracles, 3.1-3.3, 3.11, 3.278, 3.704 (1st cent. BCE - 5th cent. CE)

3.1. O THOU high-thundering blessed heavenly One 3.2. Who hast set in their place the cherubim 3.3. I, who have uttered what is all too true 3.11. O men, that in your image have a form 3.278. Neither do they astrologize with skill 3.704. But when the anger of the mighty God

3. Epictetus, Discourses, 3.23.16 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

4. New Testament, Hebrews, 6.4 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

6.4. For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit

5. New Testament, Luke, 2.30, 3.6, 17.31-17.32 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

2.30. For my eyes have seen your salvation 3.6. All flesh will see God's salvation.' 17.31. In that day, he who will be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away. Let him who is in the field likewise not turn back. 17.32. Remember Lot's wife!

6. New Testament, Matthew, 7.14 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

7.14. How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.

7. Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, 8.1.1.3 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

8. Sextus, Against The Mathematicians, 7.151 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
becoming like god, begetter of gods	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
cities	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
clement of alexandria, on interpretation of scripture	Boulluec, The Notion of Heresy in Greek Literature in the Second and Third Centuries (2022) 413
cosmos	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
diogenes laertius	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
divine	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
divinity, of homer	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
epictetus	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
exegesis, in clement of alexandria	Boulluec, The Notion of Heresy in Greek Literature in the Second and Third Centuries (2022) 413
god	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
gods	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
homer	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
isocrates	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
jewish, orphic material	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
orphic, fragments	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
pagan / pagans / pagan religion	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
philo of alexandria	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
philosophical, schools	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
scripture, as weapon/criterion against heresy	Boulluec, The Notion of Heresy in Greek Literature in the Second and Third Centuries (2022) 413
sibyl	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
sibylline oracles	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
stoic / stoicism	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
stoicism, orthodox borrowing from	Boulluec, The Notion of Heresy in Greek Literature in the Second and Third Centuries (2022) 413
theophilus	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
universe'	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
xenophanes	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
xenophon	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
zeus	Petersen and van Kooten, Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World: From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity (2017) 106
δοξοσοφία	Boulluec, The Notion of Heresy in Greek Literature in the Second and Third Centuries (2022) 413
κατάληψις	Boulluec, The Notion of Heresy in Greek Literature in the Second and Third Centuries (2022) 413
οἴησις	Boulluec, The Notion of Heresy in Greek Literature in the Second and Third Centuries (2022) 413