Enchiridion of Epictetus
Greece | |
Language | Koine Greek |
---|---|
Subject | Ethics |
Genre | Philosophy |
Publication date | c. 125 CE |
The Enchiridion or
The Enchiridion was well-known in the ancient world, and in the medieval period, it was specially adapted for use in Greek-speaking monasteries. In the 15th century it was translated into Latin, and then, with the advent of printing, into multiple European languages. It reached the height of popularity in the 17th century, in parallel with the Neostoicism movement.
Title
The word "Enchiridion" (
Writing
The work consists of fifty-three short chapters typically consisting of a paragraph or two. It was compiled some time in the early 2nd century. The 6th-century philosopher Simplicius, in his Commentary on the work, refers to a letter written by Arrian which prefaced the text.[3] In this letter Arrian stated that the Enchiridion was selected from the Discourses of Epictetus according to what he considered to be most useful, most necessary, and most adapted to move people's minds.[4] Around half of the material in the Enchiridion has been shown to have been derived from the surviving four books of Discourses but variously modified.[5] Other parts are presumed to be derived from the lost Discourses.[6] Some chapters appear to be reformulations of ideas which appear throughout the Discourses.[6]
There are some puzzles concerning the inclusion of two chapters. Chapter 29 is practically word for word identical with Discourse iii. 15.[7] Since it was omitted in one of the early Christian editions (Par), and not commented on by Simplicius, it may not have been in the original edition.[7][8] Chapter 33 consists of a list of moral instructions, which are "not obviously related to Epictetus' normal Stoic framework."[6]
The current division of the work into fifty-three chapters was first adopted by
Contents
The Enchiridion appears to be a loosely-structured selection of maxims.[10] In his 6th-century Commentary, Simplicius divided the text into four distinct sections suggesting a graded approach to philosophy:[10]
- Chapters 1–21. What is up to us and not, and how to deal with external things.
- Chs 1–2. What is up to us and not, and the consequences of choosing either.
- Chs 3–14. How to deal with external things (reining the reader in from them).
- Chs 15–21. How to use external things correctly and without disturbance.
- Chapters 22–28. Advice for intermediate students.
- Chs 22–25. The problems faced by intermediate students.
- Chs 26–28. Miscellania: the common conceptions, badness, and shame.
- Chapters 30–47. Technical advice for the discovery of appropriate actions (kathēkonta).
- Chs 30–33. Appropriate actions towards (a) other people, (b) God, (c) divination, (d) one's own self.
- Chs 34–47. Miscellaneous precepts on justice (right actions).
- Chapters 48–53. Conclusions on the practice of precepts.
- Ch 48. Final advice and his division of types of people.
- Chs 49–52. The practice of precepts.
- Ch 53. Quotations for memorisation.
Chapter 29, which was probably absent from the text used by Simplicius, is a one-page Discourse which compares the training needed to become a Stoic with the rigorous approach needed to become an Olympic victor.[11]
Themes
The Enchiridion begins with the statement that "Of things, some depend upon ourselves, others do not depend upon ourselves."[12] So it starts with announcing that the business and concern of the real self is with matters subject to its own control, uninfluenced by external chance or change.[13] Epictetus makes a sharp distinction between our own internal world of mental benefits and harms, and the external world beyond our control.[14] Freedom is to wish for nothing which is not up to ourselves.[15] When we are tried by misfortune we should never let our suffering overwhelm our sense of inward mastery and freedom.[13]
A constant vigilance is required, and one should never relax attention to one's reason, for it is judgements, not things, which disturb people.[16]
What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about the things. For example, "death is nothing dreadful (or else it would have appeared dreadful to Socrates) . . ."
— Chapter Five[17]
Reason is the decisive principle in everything.[14] Thus we must exercise our power of assent over impressions, and wish for nothing nor avoid anything that is up to other people.[18]
To a large extent the Enchiridion suppresses many of the more amiable aspects of Epictetus which can be found in the Discourses, but this reflects the nature of the compilation.[19] Unlike the Discourses which seeks to encourage the student through argument and logic, the Enchiridion largely consists of a set of rules to follow.[20] The work is built on the conception that the wise person, by the aid of philosophy, may reap benefit from every experience in life.[21] With proper training the student can flourish in adverse situations as well as favourable ones.[22] The human spirit has capacities as yet undeveloped, but which it is for our good to develop.[23] Thus the book is a manual on how to make progress towards what is necessary and sufficient for happiness.[22][24]
Epictetus makes a vivid use of imagery, and analogies include life depicted as: a ship's voyage (Ch. 7), an inn (Ch. 11), a banquet (Chs. 15, 36), and acting in a play (Ch. 17, 37).[25] He takes many examples from everyday life, including: a broken jug (Ch. 3), a trip to the baths (Chs. 4, 43), his own lameness (Ch. 9), the loss of a child (Ch. 11), and the price of lettuce (Ch. 25).[25]
Subsequent history
For many centuries, the Enchiridion maintained its authority both with
The first printed edition (editio princeps) was Poliziano's Latin translation published in 1497.[27] The original Greek was first published (somewhat abbreviated) with Simplicius's Commentary in 1528.[27] The edition published by Johann Schweighäuser in 1798 was the major edition for the next two-hundred years.[27][28] A critical edition was produced by Gerard Boter in 1999.[29]
The separate editions and translations of the Enchiridion are very many.
In the English-speaking world it was particularly well-known in the 17th century: at that time it was the Enchiridion rather than the Discourses which was usually read.
In the 19th century, Walt Whitman discovered the Enchiridion when he was about the age of sixteen. It was a book he would repeatedly return to, and late in life he called the book "sacred, precious to me: I have had it about me so long—lived with it in terms of such familiarity."[42]
The Enchiridion gave its name to a fictional book from the cartoon Adventure Time.[citation needed][43]
The Commentary of Simplicius
In the 6th century the Neoplatonist philosopher Simplicius wrote a huge commentary on the Enchiridion, which is more than ten times the bulk of the original text.[44] Chapter after chapter of the Enchiridion is dissected, discussed, and its lessons drawn out with a certain laboriousness.[45] Simplicius' commentary offers a distinctly Platonist vision of the world,[46] one which is often at odds with the Stoic content of the Enchiridion.[47] Sometimes Simplicius exceeds the scope of a commentary; thus his commentary on Enchiridion 27 (Simplicius ch. 35) becomes a refutation of Manichaeism.[48]
The Commentary enjoyed its own period of popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries. An English translation by
Christian adaptations
The Enchiridion was adapted three different times by Greek Christian writers. The oldest manuscript, Paraphrasis Christiana (Par), dates to the 10th century.[48] Another manuscript, falsely ascribed to Nilus (Nil), dates to the 11th century.[48] A third manuscript, Vaticanus gr. 2231 (Vat), dates to the 14th century.[48] It is not known when the original versions of these manuscripts were first made.[48]
These guides served as a rule and guide for monastic life.[49] The most obvious changes are in the use of proper names: thus the name Socrates is sometimes changed to Paul.[45][49] All three texts follow the Enchiridion quite closely, although the Par manuscript is more heavily modified: adding or omitting words, abridging or expanding passages, and occasionally inventing new passages.[50]
In the 17th century the German monk Matthias Mittner did something similar, compiling a guide on mental tranquillity for the Carthusian Order by taking the first thirty-five of his fifty precepts from the Enchiridion.[51]
Notes
a. ^ Gerard Boter in his 1999 critical edition catalogues 59 extant manuscripts of the Encheiridion proper, and another 27 manuscripts of Simplicius' Commentary which contain the Encheiridion as lemmata (headings). He also lists 37 Christianised manuscripts, (24 Par, 12 Nil, 1 Vat). Cf. Boter 1999, pp. 3ff
Citations
- ^ a b c Matheson 1916, p. 263
- ^ Oldfather 1925, p. xii
- ^ Boter 1999, p. xiii
- ^ Long 1877, p. xiii
- ^ Oldfather 1928, p. 479
- ^ a b c Hard 2014, p. 346
- ^ a b Oldfather 1928, p. 506
- ^ Boter 1999, p. 127
- ^ a b Boter 1999, pp. 146–147
- ^ a b Brittain & Brennan 2002, p. 6
- ^ Hard 2014, p. 331
- ^ Rolleston 1881, p. xvii
- ^ a b Rolleston 1881, p. xviii
- ^ a b Long 2018, p. xxxvi
- ^ Long 2018, p. xlv
- ^ Long 2003, p. 93
- ^ Handbook of Epictetus, trans. Nicholas P. White, Hackett Publishing Company, 1983.
- ^ Long 2018, p. xliv
- ^ Oldfather 1925, p. xix
- ^ Wright 2007, p. 333
- ^ Rolleston 1881, pp. xxvi–xxvii
- ^ a b Long 2018, p. xxxv
- ^ Rolleston 1881, p. xx
- ^ Long 2018, p. xxxvii
- ^ a b Brittain & Brennan 2002, p. 7
- ^ a b Schmitz 1870, p. 351
- ^ a b c d e Boter 1999, p. xv
- ^ Oldfather 1925, p. xxii
- ^ Boter 1999, p. xvi
- ^ Oldfather 1925, p. xxx
- ^ a b c Long 2003, p. 261
- ^ Wright 2007, pp. 325–326
- ^ Long 2003, p. 262
- ^ Long 2003, p. 263
- ^ Wright 2007, p. 325
- ^ Long 2003, p. 268
- ^ a b Wright 2007, p. 326
- ISBN 978-0198187653.
- ISBN 978-0300174434.
- ISBN 978-0871692573.
- ISBN 978-1584778240.
- ISBN 978-0415890571.
- ^ Olson, Martin (2013). The Adventure Time Encyclopædia: Inhabitants, Lore, Spells, and Ancient Crypt Warnings of the Land of Ooo Circa 19.56 B.G.E. - 501 A.G.E. Abrams Books. p. 131.
- ^ Oldfather 1928, p. 480
- ^ a b Rolleston 1881, pp. xii–xiii
- ^ a b Brittain & Brennan 2002, p. vii
- ^ Brittain & Brennan 2002, p. 4
- ^ a b c d e Boter 1999, p. xiv
- ^ a b Oldfather 1925, p. xxvii
- ^ Boter 1999, p. 206
- ^ Oldfather 1925, p. xxviii
References
- Boter, Gerard (1999), The Encheiridion of Epictetus and Its Three Christian Adaptations, Brill, ISBN 9004113584
- Brittain, Charles; Brennan, Tad (2002), Simplicius. On Epictetus Handbook 1–26, Gerald Duckworth & Co, ISBN 978-0715630686
- Hard, Robin (2014), Discourses, Fragments, Handbook, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199595181
- Long, A. A. (2003), Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199245567
- Long, A. A. (2018), How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691177717
- Long, George (1877), The Discourses of Epictetus, with the Encheridion and Fragments, George Bell
- Matheson, Percy Ewing (1916), Epictetus: The Discourses and Manual together with Fragments of his Writings, Oxford University Press
- Oldfather, William Abbott (1925), Epictetus, the Discourses as reported by Arrian, the Manual, and Fragments, vol. 1, Loeb Classical Library
- Oldfather, William Abbott (1928), Epictetus, the Discourses as reported by Arrian, the Manual, and Fragments, vol. 2, Loeb Classical Library
- Rolleston, T. W. H. (1881), The Encheiridion of Epictetus, Kegan, Paul, Trench, & Co
- Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Arrianus 4". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1.
- Wright, Gillian (2007-07-24). "Women Reading Epictetus". Women's Writing. 14 (2): 321–337. S2CID 161602668.
External links
- The Enchiridon, translated by George Long at Standard Ebooks
- Text of translation by George Long, 1877, The Enchiridion
- Text of translation by P. E. Matheson, 1916, The Discourses of Epictetus, The Manual Of Epictetus
- Text of translation by William Abbott Oldfather, 1928, The Enchiridion
- The Enchiridion of Epictetus public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- Simplicius of Cilicia, Commentary on the Enchiridion of Epictetus, translated by George Stanhope, 1722.