Monday, July 23, 2018
Death in Battle
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 3.6.6-9 (tr. C.C.W. Taylor):
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And death is the most fearful thing; for it is the end, and it seems that for the dead nothing is good or bad any more. But the courageous person would not seem to be concerned with death in every circumstance, e.g. at sea or from illness. In which, then? Surely in the finest circumstances. Death in battle is of that kind; for it occurs amid the greatest and the finest danger.
φοβερώτατον δ᾿ ὁ θάνατος· πέρας γάρ, καὶ οὐδὲν ἔτι τῷ τεθνεῶτι δοκεῖ οὔτ᾿ ἀγαθὸν οὔτε κακὸν εἶναι. δόξειε δ᾿ ἂν οὐδὲ περὶ θάνατον τὸν ἐν παντὶ ὁ ἀνδρεῖος εἶναι, οἷον ἐν θαλάττῃ ἢ ἐν νόσοις. ἐν τίσιν οὖν; ἢ ἐν τοῖς καλλίστοις; τοιοῦτοι δὲ οἱ ἐν πολέμῳ· ἐν μεγίστῳ γὰρ καὶ καλλίστῳ κινδύνῳ.
