previous next


‘And therefore in sickness, in poverty (and distress), in love, thirst, or any appetite and desire in general, which is unsatisfied’ (in the satisfaction of which they are unsuccessful μὴ κατορθοῦντες ἐν τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ), ‘men are irascible and easily excited to passion (provoked) especially against those who shew a contemptuous indifference to their present condition (who wantonly obstruct them in the efforts they are making to obtain the immediate object of their wishes, or in the gratification of this particular appetite or desire of which they are under the influence at the moment) as a sick man against those who slight and thwart him in his efforts to cure his disease’, οἷον κάμνων ὀργίλος ἔστι τοῖς (ὀλιγωροῦσιν αὐτοῦ) πρὸς τὴν νόσον—(πρός, ‘in respect of’, ‘those who direct their obstruction and annoyance to’ his disease, i.e. to interference with the progress of his cure: and the same explanation may be applied to the remaining cases):— ‘a poor man when his poverty (and efforts to relieve it) is at stake, and a man in a battle against those who interfere with his fighting (or if a general, with his manœuvres and warlike operations), or if in love, with the affairs of his love, and so on for all the rest: for in each case the way is ready prepared beforehand for the anger of the individual by the existing affection (passion, or state of feeling)’.

ὀργίλος, ‘irascible’. ἔστι δὲ καὶ περὶ ὀργὴν ὑπερβολὴ καὶ ἔλλειψις καὶ μεσότης...τῶν δ᾽ ἄκρων μὲν ὑπερβάλλων ὀργίλος ἔστω, δὲ κακία ὀργιλότης, Eth. N. II 7, 1108 a 40, IV 11, 1125 b 29, and 1126 a 13, οἱ μὲν οὖν ὀργίλοι ταχέως μὲν ὀργίζονται καὶ οἷς οὐ δεῖ καὶ ἐφ᾽ οἷς οὐ δεῖ καὶ μᾶλλον δεῖ, παύονται δὲ ταχέως: καὶ βέλτιστον ἔχουσιν κ.τ.λ.

προωδοποίηται] See note on ὁδοποιεῖν, I 1. 2. προκόπτειν, Eur. Hippol. 23 (and elsewhere), ‘to advance’ by clearing away (κόπτειν), before an advancing army, wood and other obstacles to its progress, presents the same metaphor in a somewhat different form.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: