Plutarch's Dictionary of Love

[angellous_evangellous]

I wanted to post this for your enjoyment. It represents my work this weekend.

I have here a list of quotes from poets that Plutarch uses in his dialogue on love, found in the Moralia 748f - 771e. It's in Loeb volume 9.

I cite the poets from their works and fragments, followed by the citation from the Moralia.


Example:

Eur. Chrysippus (N. 632) citation from poet = M750a citation from Moralia
[Love at heart, Love in hand] line of context from Plutarch's point of view

Forgetful of learning, forgetful of the fatherland poetry in italics


================================


Quotes from Poets

Eur. Chrysippus (N. 632) = M750a
[Love at heart, Love in hand]
Forgetful of learning, forgetful of the fatherland

Archilochus, Frag 92b Diehl (Edmonds, Elegy 2.142) = M 750b
[his love a landlubber, while yours...]
Circling on swift wings, flits over the sea

Unknown = N. 916 = M 750e
[husband says to his wife in a tragedy]
You hate me? I can lightly bear your hate
And make a windfall of my slighted state

Philippides, Frag 31 (Kock, Com. Att. Frag. 916) = M 750e
[P ridicules orator Stratocles]
She turns away: you barely get her braids to kiss

Unknown, Frag 25 Diehl (Edmonds, Elegy 1.138) = M 751b
[criterion for the lover]
Till he loves a lad in the flower of youth,
Bewitched by limbs and by sweet lips

Aeschylus, Frag 135 (N 44) = M 751c
You had no reverence for the splendor
Of your limbs, ungrateful of our many kisses

Sappho Frag 34 Diehl (Edmonds, Lyra Graeca 1.220) = M 751d
[girl not yet ripe for marriage]
You seemed to me a small child without favor

Heracles (N 916) = M 751d
Did you persuade the girl or did you take her by force?

Unknown Frag 26 Diehl (Edmonds, Elegy 1.140) = M 751e
[of young men with ‘abundant seed’]
Dear to me now are the works of Cyprus-born
Of Dionysus and the Muses, works that make men merry

Unknown Frag (Adestpoton 403)
[criticizing pederasty as selfless]
Sweet is the harvest when the guard is away

Unknown Frag (N 916) = M 752c
[attacking love as exclusively pederastic]
This word now calls the Argive host to arms

Hesiod, Works and Days 696-8 = M 753a
[young men can marry older women]
No marriage before the age of thirty
Nor much after it: this time’s the right ripe one:
Let a wife be matured four years, married the fifth

Unknown (admirer of Eur.) Frag 986 (N) = M 755b
[against marrying older women]
You revel in your wealth, madame:
Keep your thoughts on a moral plane

Eur. Bacc. 203 = M 756a
[for ancient faith]
Whatever subtle twist’s invented by keen wit.

Eur. Frag 480 (N 510) = M 756b
[against ancient faith // caused uproar]
Zeus, whoever it is, for I know him only by report.
[Plut says that he changed it to text]
Zeus, as the voice of truth declares

Empedocles, Frag 17.20f = M 756d
[Plut says that this frag uses philos and it should also apply to eros]
Among them Love is equal, far and wide:
Use the mind’s eye: sit not with staring gaze

Frag 763 (N 310) = M 756d
Do you not see how mighty is the goddess
Aphrodite? She sows and gives that love
From which all we upon this earth are born.

Aeschylus, Choephoroe, 295 = M 756d
[if Eros is not present with Aphrodite]
Unhonoured and without a friend

Parmenides, Cosmogony Frag 13 Diels = M 756f
And first of all the gods she framed was Love

Hesiod, Theogony, 120 (Plato, Sym. 178b; Sextus Empiricus, Adv. Pys. 2.11.18) = M 757a
“... depicted Eros as the first-born of them all, in order to make him indispensible for the generation of all things”

Eur. Frag 332.1 (N 455) = M 757a
Love is idle and born god for idle men

Soph. Frag 855.1-4 (N 329) = M 757a
My children, Cypris is not Cypris alone
But she is called by many names:
Hades she is and everlasting life,
And she can be a raging Fury.

Soph. Frag 754 (N 308) = M 757b
Ladies, Ares is blind and cannot see:
With swinish snout he churns up every evil

Unknown comic poet (Attributed to Callimachus) = M 757d
[hunters depend on gods]
Who first set snares for beasts

Aeschylus, Prometheus Lyomenos Frag 200 (N 67) = M 757d
[gods depend on gods, Heracles says]
May Hunter Apollo guide my shaft aright

Pindar, Frags 184, 171 = M 757f
[tree nymphs]
Allotted a term of life as long as the years of a tree -
Dionysus exultant gives increase to the orchard,
Holy light of the fruit-time

Unknown Frag (N 916) = M 758b
Night did not bear me lord of the lyre
Nor yet seer or physician, but to be a guide
Of souls

Eur. Bacchae 66 = M 758c
A labour sweet, a toil that is no toil

Homer, Od. 2.372 = M 758c
[love is friendship not]
Without a god.

Melanippides, Frag 7 (Diehl 2.154) = M 758c
[Eros mingles what is pleasant with what is good, he]
Sows secretly a delightful harvest
In the desire of a man’s heart

Soph. Frag 778 (N 313) = M 758e
[Bacchic pleasure]
Dance after the Corybantes

Aeschylus, Supplices 681 = M 758f
[mad with Ares]
It calls Ares to arms, the stranger to dance and lyre
The sower of tears: it rouses cries of civil war

Unknown frag (N 917) = M 759a
Which god shakes the thyrsus of fair fruits

Homer, Il. 7.121 = M759a
[soldier returns from war]
And then his joyful servants
Stripped the armour from his shoulders

Soph. Trachiniae 497 = M 759e
[strength of Eros, but Ares is also strong]
Mighty the victory which the Cyprian bears away

Unknown Frag (N 917)
[a girl...]
Kindles at evening the gleam of her lamp

Homer, Il. 17.57 = M 759f
[and bring love...]
But suddenly the wind will rise

Soph. Antigone, 783 = M760d
Spend his nights on the soft cheeks of girls

Unknown Frag (N 229) = M760d
Ready to cross fire and sea, and the air itself

Soph. Frag 410 (N 229) = M760d
[No allay but his lover]
O... place about me...

A Chalcidian song. Diehl 2.205 = M 761a
[for pederasty and male homosexuality]
Ye lads of grace and sprung from worthy stock
Grudge not to brave men converse with your beauty
In cities of Chalcis, Love, looser of limbs,
Thrives side by side with courage

Homer, Il. 8.131 = M 761b
[Achaeans did not put lover beside lover in army]
Shield supported shield and helmet helmet.

Attr. to Callimachus = M 761e
[Apollo was Admetus’ lover]
He served Admetus for a mighty year

Soph. Frag 703 (N 298)
He knows no kindness and no favor,
But is content with justice unadorned

Eur. Frag 663 (N 569) = M 762b
Love will be the poet’s teacher.
Though be knew nothing of the Muse before


Attr. to Homer = M 762d
[Love changes the sullen and makes them more agreeable]
When hearth’s ablaze, a house appears more cheerful

Homer, Od. 19.40 = M 762e
[the mean, base, and ignoble are suddenly invaded with high thoughts, liberality, aspiration, kindness, generosity]
Surely some god is within

Phrynichus, Frag 17 (N 724) = M 762e
[when the pederastic lover sees his boy “His confidence is broken to bits and the pride of his soul is overthrown”]
He flinches like a **** that droops his vanquished wing

Philoxenus Frag 7 (Diehl) = Edmonds, Lyra 3.388 = M 762f
With sweet-voiced Muses healing her love

Menander Frag 541.7-8 (Kock 3.163) = M 763b
It’s malady of mind that turns the scale
Right gladly in the wound pricked by love

Aeschylus Frag 351 = M 763b
Since only now has it come to my lips

Pindar Frag 147 (Turyn) = M 763c
Untroubled by illness or age
Free from toil, spared the hoarse passage of Acheron

Alcaeus Frag 37a (Diehl) = Edmonds Lyra 1.418 = M 763e
[the philosophers and poets declare that Love is among the gods]
With one voice of great approval

Eur. Frag 595f = M 763f
Yoked in bonds not forged by metal

Euripides Hippolytus 193-5 = Moralia 764e
It’s clear that we unwisely love
The dazzling gleam we see on earth,
Because we have not known another life

Callimachus, Frag 381 (Schneider) = Moralia 764f
About it are shed sweet but treacherous dreams

Alcaeus, frag 13b (Diehl) = Moralia 765e
Most fearful are the Gods
Whom fair-sandaled Isis bore
To Zephyr of the golden hair

Eur. Hip. 7
[Love] Can be pleased by honors given him by men.

Unknown Fragment = M 766f
To women more than men is he inclined?
Where there is beauty, he is ambidextrous

Aeschylus, Frag 243 (Nauck, p 48) = M 81d = M 767b
An ardent eye betrays the tender girl
Who once has tasted of the joys of love

Sophocles, Frag 785 (N 315) = M 767e
[temperance]
The task of many a bit and many a rudder

Eur. Frag 1084 (N 703) = M 767f
[When Lais loved Hippolochus]
Forsaking Acrocorinth bathed in the grey-green water

Unknown Frag = M 768e
[negative view of male-male love]
This is the work of Hybris (insolence), not of Cypris (love)

Sophocles, Frag 779 = M 768e
[concerning pederasty]
Of friends like them it’s a joy to bereft
And those who have them pray for some escape

Unknown comic poet = M 768b
[pro-pederasty]
Seeing a kindred shape I swooned away

Unknown comic poet = M 768b
[pro-pederasty]
Beardless, soft, a lovely boy


Unknown Frag (Kock 450) = M 769d
[ideal chaste woman]
Wretch that I am to injure such a wife

Homer, Od 6.183-4 = M 769e
[friendship]
When a man and wife keep house in perfect harmony

Eur. Frag 898.7 (N 648) = M 769a
[loving sexual unification]
The earth loves rain

 

[angellous_evangellous]

This is the first step of a lecture that I will give - or a class, journal article, etc... on Plutarch's use of poetry in his dialogue.

I will do another article on his use of philosophy.

This is really light-hearted stuff - a joy to read.

In any case, his usage of poetry can be used to outline and memorize the arguments and major points entire speech.

As you can see, Plutarch was very well read.

I will welcome any questions - I just thought some of you would be interested in the poetry itself, never minding all the technical scholar stuff.

 

[darkendless]

Last year i did a study on the Roman Empire, from the foundation to the first Emperor Octavian/Augustus.
Throughout his works he uses poetry in my opinion to dramatise his point of view, or to highlight what he is trying to say. Is this correct, i mean i've read his complete works on the Gracchi brothers and to my knowledge, the political murder of Tiberius and to a lesser extent the death of Caius was very poetic in describing the events of the day.

An example is this: Tiberius then went down into the marketplace amongst the people, and made his addresses to them humbly and with tears in his eyes; and told them, he had just reason to suspect, that his adversaries would attempt in the night time to break open his house, and murder him (Plutarch: Lives).

I often find it hard to believe such a thing, when it could have been Plutarch's attempt to emphasize Tiberius's cause, and possibly Plutarch's opinion on this subject?

What do you think?