Sunday, July 28, 2024
Our Duty
Metrodorus, fragment 41 Koerte, Jahrbuch für classische Philologie, Suppl. 17 (1890) 559, preserved by Plutarch, Against Colotes 16 (Moralia 1098C; tr. Benedict Einarson and Phillip H. De Lacy):
Newer› ‹Older
We are not called to save the nation or get crowned by it for wisdom; what is called for, my dear Timocrates, is to eat and to drink wine, gratifying the belly without harming it.
οὐδὲν δεῖ σῴζειν τοὺς Ἕλληνας οὐδ᾿ ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ στεφάνων παρ᾿ αὐτῶν τυγχάνειν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐσθίειν καὶ πίνειν οἶνον, ὦ Τιμόκρατες, ἀβλαβῶς τῇ γαστρὶ καὶ κεχαρισμένως.
